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‘Star Wars’ A Religion In Czech Republic, According To New Census
The Jedi Temple may have been destroyed in the Great Jedi Purge, but that hasn’t deterred some people from worshipping The Force.
According to CzechPosition.com, the results of the Czech Republic’s new census that were unveiled this month reveal that 15,070 citizens of the country listed their religion as Knights of the Jedi. While that may pale in comparison to the 1.08 million people who self-identified as Catholics and over four million who declined to list their faith, it’s still a sizable portion of people who believe — or jokingly claim to — in the intangible energy made famous by the “Star Wars” films.
Though the Czech Knights of the Jedi wrote in their choice, other nations, such as New Zealand and Great Britain, already list the Jedi Church amongst the formal religion options. According to Time Magazine, over 390,000 Britons said that they practiced the religion in 2001.
The Church of the Jedi’s website pitches their faith as less bizarre than it may seem. The Force, they say, is “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together,” and “is a concept that most religions of the world concur with. Some refer to it as their deity, some refer to it as a life force, but the one thing nearly all religions agree with, is that there exists a single unifying force.”
“Star Wars,” the Church says, helped create the religion’s terminology, but it did not create the faith itself.
May the Force be with you
On the religious front, the overall picture after a 10-year delay does not seem to have radically changed. The Catholic Church still commands the biggest following with 1.08 million believers, followed by the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren (at just under 52,000), and the Hussites (at 39,276). Around 700,000 people said they believed in something spiritual but could not identify it.
While almost half the population, 4.8 million, shied away from answering the voluntary religious question, a surprising strong showing was given by those Czechs who described themselves as Knights of the Jedi and believers in “the Force” as depicted in the Star Wars films.
Overall, 15,070 Czechs identified themselves as Knights of the Jedi with the biggest proportion of adherents in the capital, Prague, with 3,977 followers or 0.31 percent of the population. The fewest “knights” were found in the central region of Vysočina, just 0.08 percent of the population. It is probably off most Star Wars intergalactic radars or galactic positioning systems.
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