Thousands Foregoing Jesus Christ to Become One With the Force; People Flock to Jedi Church
New waves of religious followers are coming to adhere to Jedi teachings in droves as the Church of Jediism sees unprecedented growth.
But while many are unsure of exactly the beliefs of those who adhere to Jediism followers would have you believe that energy or the force is what connects any and all things in the universe.
"No we don't worship Yoda. And telekinesis is not something that we necessarily do - at least not like in the movies," Ally Thompson, 28, an Iraqi-war veteran from Tennessee, told Details Magazine in an interview.
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"But I won't deny that the Force is very present in our teachings. Some people call it magic. Some call it Ashe. The scientific community calls it energy. But it's everywhere. You can find it in the Bible. When Moses parted the Red Sea - how did he do that? With energy. With the Force," she claims.
While some chapters only have a hand full of followers, other places around the globe are attracting new members in large numbers.
The Jedi church has been growing around the world. In England it's the seventh-largest religion with 175,000 members. There are 15,000 Jedi in the Czech Republic, 9,000 in Canada and 65,000 in Australia.
Figures taken from a nationwide census in England and Wales showed the most popular alternative religion were people who identified themselves as "Jedi Knights," according to the U.K's Daily Telegraph.
The census figures revealed that 176,632 people in England and Wales thought of themselves as Jedi Knights, which made it the seventh most popular faith overall and the highest followed faith encompassed by the option of "Other Religions."
The figures do mirror a larger social trend that has seen a decline in membership from longstanding religions and an increase in secularism and alternative faiths.
The Jedi Church is an online organization and has orders in several U.S. states and countries abroad.
According to its website, "The Jedi church has no official doctrine of scripture. The Jedi church recognizes that all living things share a living force and that all people have an innate knowledge of what is right and wrong, and the Jedi church celebrates this like no other religion."
