Poor Jedi

[LoneMateria]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1214367/Jedi-church-founder-thrown-Tesco-refusing-remove-hood-left-emotionally-humiliated.html

Basically Daniel Jones got thrown out of a store because he refused to remove his hood which is against his religion to remove.  Yes the Jedi leader is angry (i'd say whining) because the employees of the store asked him to go to the front and remove his hood and they were rude to him.  He supposedly violated the store rules (article didn't say what rules) and they kicked him out but didn't bar him from the chain.

I'm going to play both sides here a little.

On the stores side this may have something to do with security.  Also the store is a private business and can discriminate if they want to (not that its right, but they can).

On the Jedi side you wouldn't ask a Jew to remove his cap or a Muslim to remove his turban it shouldn't be different with the Jedi.  If it is discrimination they have the right to protest and picket the stores (who would walk through a crowd of Jedi to go shopping?) and they might have some legal grounds for a civil suit.  

What do you guys think?

Oh btw the best comment i've heard about this so far is why didn't the guy walk up to the manager and say, "You don't need me to remove my hood."

[AlP]

Tesco wins on account of being sarcastic:

'He hasn't been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.

'Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.

'If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they'll miss lots of special offers.'

This is probably a joke religion I think and I'm all for that. But Tesco used better rhetoric.

[Ninteen45]

This is like Spock ear surgery.

[Tanker]

Wow Is he serious about being a Jedi or just trying to make a point.

[Ultima22689]

I hope he is just a really passionate person trying to make a point otherwise there may be more stupid people in the world than I thought.

[LoneMateria]

No this isn't a joke.  There are followers of the Jedi religion spawned off by the star wars movies.  Its big in Australia but its everywhere.  They are classified as a religion and if the 500,000 followers are accurate then I think its bigger then Scientology :-/

[AlP]

History of Our Religion

The force has always existed and always will.

Our faith in the force existed well before the fictional Star Wars movies brought popular recognition to the terminology and concepts that our members always innately held, but had difficultly describing in a shared forum.

When the movement to answer Jedi to the religion question in the NZ census began, it was incredible to see how quickly word spread, and just how many people embraced the new popular name of their shared innate religion. With such immediacy, people from all around the world followed suit, now having an obvious and common name for their deeply held religious and moral convictions. It is the speed and numbers of people involved in the census movement, that show just how powerful the concepts of the Jedi Faith are.

The terminology used by the Jedi Church were introduced by the fictional Star Wars movies, and often references are made to the movies by our members, as a conceptual demonstration of how some might ascribe to the higher levels of a Jedi faith, in a far away land, a long time ago. The fact remains, that these concepts merely reflect a deep held innate morality, that we all have inside us, and now we have some common terminology and place to share our thoughts with each other. This morality existed prior to the movies. The movies do not in any way legitimise nor negate the legitimacy of the Jedi Church. They are merely a discussion point.

The Jedi Church neither confirm nor deny that George Lucas is a member of the Jedi Church. We do not mind if our members deny their involvement in our church should they seek to avoid persecution.

The Jedi Church movement is now progressing to gain legal status as a separate legal entity just like any other corner Church congregation. We have already received confirmation that Jedi themed marriages may be conducted by registered celebrants (registered cellebrants with the Department of Internal Affairs in NZ), in a manor no different, nor less recognised in law than any Christian marriage or marriage of any other religion or denomination.

Link

Love how they officially neither confirm not deny whether George Lucas is a member.

[LoneMateria]

Yeah its funny when it gets to that detail.  I don't see the point in adding it.  I doubt its a selling point.  "Hey Marvin i'm only going to join if George Lucas is a member".  Who knows maybe they put that in there so it feels less cult like :-/

[Guest]

On the stores side this may have something to do with security.  Also the store is a private business and can discriminate if they want to (not that its right, but they can).

Is this really so? Can a store really put up a sign that says no jews, for example? Or no blacks? And that's legal, there's no repercussions?

[LoneMateria]

On the stores side this may have something to do with security.  Also the store is a private business and can discriminate if they want to (not that its right, but they can).

Is this really so? Can a store really put up a sign that says no jews, for example? Or no blacks? And that's legal, there's no repercussions?

Yes, any privately owned business can discriminate against who they want.  Look at the boy scouts.  Its usually in a businesses best interest not to discriminate against people because they 1. lose money and 2. can be boycotted.  As far as I know there is no legal action that can be taken against a business but the repercussions usually result in a loss of money, bad media, and then the usually personal threats against the owners of the business.  I think there might be an exception with the hiring process but i'm not sure.