It seems that large numbers of Australians are listing their official religion as ‘Jediism‘ in honor of George Lucas’s fictional Jedi Order from Star Wars, on their national census paperwork.
The issue is apparently becoming significant enough to the degree that a movement to address this has begun which is called the ‘Don’t Mark Yourself As Jedi‘ movement. The effort to get Australians to no longer refer to themselves as following ‘Jediism‘ has begun focusing its message on Twitter and social media in an attempt to stop this mass joke in time for the upcoming 2016 Census due to take place down under.
While the joke may have started out harmless enough, the 2011 census had a whopping 65,486 Australian citizens who claimed to follow ‘Jediism‘ or the ‘Force‘ as their official religion. Interestingly, this number of individuals is not much less than the country’s official number within the Sikh community, but it does however count more followers than most Orthodox churches, Seven Day Adventists, and even the Salvation Army.
The problem actually seems to be that those who list the Force as their official religion are greatly affecting the ways in which certain calculations and government decisions based on religious issues are needing to be made. Officials seem to actually be worried about the continued viral joke and are seriously attempting to reach out to the Australian population in an attempt to get this issue under control in time for the upcoming census set to take place later this year.
