Saturday, September 19, 2009

We Need a Jedi Ruling

(Via Althouse) Religious accommodation struggles take a new twist:

Tesco [a supermarket chain] has been accused of religious discrimination after the company ordered the founder of a Jedi religion to remove his hood or leave a branch of the supermarket in north Wales.

The 23-year-old, who founded the International Church of Jediism, which has 500,000 followers worldwide, was told the hood flouted store rules.

But the grocery empire struck back, claiming that the three best known Jedi Knights in the Star Wars movies – Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker – all appeared in public without their hoods. Jones, from Holyhead, who is known by the Jedi name Morda Hehol, said his religion dictated that he should wear the hood in public places and is considering legal action against the chain.

I'd hate to be the manager of that shift. I wonder if Sears has this problem with Cylons in the toaster section? Best line of the article?

Tesco said: "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."

No word on if they'll allow spiders or Visigoths.

6 comments:

Meigan said...

LMAO! The Brits have such a great sense of humor.

MamaD4 said...

My question is this: is Jedi ACTUALLY an officially recognized religion?

Seriously, I want to know. I'm too lazy to Google.

Peder said...

Rach, I think it is.

Hans said...

Someone brought up a good point - if they don't let hooded Jedi in the store, do they allow hajib'd muslim women? How about burkas?

Hans said...

http://politicalhumor.about.com/b/2009/09/18/obamas-lightsaber-episode.htm

He would not be allowed to be hooded.

Beware: some of these are offensive to some people.

Meigan said...

BTW - this story has gone far for me today at work. I do some stuff with Tesco & it was a hoot to pass this along. Thanks!