But then Christians were once thought to be atheists by the Romans ...

Scottish police say their religion is Jedi

Thursday Apr 16, 2009   [Damien's note: This is old news!]

A police force appears to have some Star Wars fans in its midst, after eight of its officers recorded their religion as “Jedi”, it was revealed today. Strathclyde Police said the officers and two civilian staff had listed themselves as “Jedi” in voluntary diversity forms.

May the police force be with you

The details were obtained from the force in a Freedom of Information request. Jane’s Police Review asked 55 forces across the UK how many employees had officially declared their religion as Jedi. It said Strathclyde Police was the only force to confirm that some of its staff had entered “Jedi”.

Jedi Knights such as Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda are fictional characters in the Star Wars movies.Said to live “in a galaxy far, far away”, they use “the Force” to battle arch-enemy Darth Vadar and try to help characters who have strayed to the “dark side”.

Jane’s Police Review editor Chris Herbert, who requested the information, said: “The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde Police with their Jedi police officers and staff. Far from living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, some members of the noble Jedi order have now chosen Glasgow and its surrounding streets as their home.”

A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman said: “At the time of the request, 10 (eight police officers and two police staff) had recorded their religion as Jedi.”

She added that the force monitored “six strands of diversity” – age, disability, gender, race religion and belief, and sexual orientation. The force said the information was provided voluntarily and securely stored.

In the 2001 Census for England and Wales around 390,000 people stated religion as “Jedi”. The Office for National Statistics did not recognize it as a separate category, and incorporated them with the atheists. [Damien's note: See title to post.]

In Scotland the figure was a reported 14,000. Strathclyde is the largest police force in Scotland. It employees around 8,200 police officers and 2,800 police staff.

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Damien's note: This past academic year, I have been teaching a course on unusual religions and beliefs. Mostly I focused on neopaganism, Wicca, Druidism and such. Fascinating stuff! I realize, as I told Daniel, that many people consider all religions to be unusual. So I suppose the distinction is between those that have managed to become mainstream in the western world and those that have not yet arrived at that status. One thing I discovered, or at least ran across as a claim, is that Wicca is the largest non-Christian tradition followed by members of the United States Air Force.