Jedism also follows this example. There are many websites dedicated to informing the reader about the different religious sacraments which are inherent to the religion itself, and also to the ways in which the believers practice their religion. This could be down to a simple piece of clothing that the Jedi's wear or actually down to an initiation process or other such like rituals. These can be seen throughout the Internet resources on the Internet and below there is a video which has been taken from an Anglia News article on a person who lives his life as a Jedi.
As this video shows, Jedi's believe that they should wear hoods in public to protect themselves from the negative energies which are apparent within our world, and also as can be seen this is highly problematic. This is because of the modern day gang culture which seems to dominate contemporary society. People fear youths who wear hoods, and nowadays the 'hoodie' is seen to have negative connotations with the yob culture. Therefore this practicing of this part of the religion could prove highly problematic, as is exemplified through this video, for the person within modern day culture.
However, are there other forms of sacraments within the Jedism religion? The answer can be found on a website which has been aptly named as Wookiepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_Trials), this website contains all the information about Jedism as can be seen within the films, therefore this begs the question, how relevant is it to the religion itself?
It seems as though, as I'm sure you will agree, the website contains information which would be useful for the person attempting to become a part of the religion of Jedism, due to the fact that although the website gives information about the fictional version of Jedi Knights, there is a large part of it which could be relevant as it discusses the morals and belief systems that the Jedi Knights uphold, which for the large part, are upheld by the Jedis within the world today. For Example, on the Jedi Trials section of the website (found here: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_Trials) we see how the trials consist of 5 separate functions, to test the persons Skill, Courage, Spirit, Flesh and Insight, to which they must perform this in front of the Jedi Council. Although this would not be possible nor even attempted within modern day society and is therefore not applicable, we would still be able to draw certain aspects from this. That is to say that the five sections of the trials themselves have been adopted into the Jedism way of thought, and therefore a practitioner would be able to view what is meant by this and put them into perspective. Therefore it seems conclusive that even though Jedism is still viewed with much speculation and misunderstanding, in the terminology of the sacramental side of a religion, Jedism does indeed follow suit. The sacraments and rituals which are adhered to by Jedi's would probably differ depending on which site they use as their home base, mainly due to the fact that the religion does not have a single 'Jedi Council' with whom to create a sense of an orthodoxy of sacraments.
However, a question still remains to be answered, if the rituals and sacraments of a religion, whether this be Jedism or any other religion; Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc, have to be performed in a physical nature, does this bode a problem for cyber religion? Can a persons avatar on the Internet act as a form of identity for which they are able to act on behalf of them? Can a sacrament be participated in the virtual without losing the key spiritual meaning? Do you think this would mean that there is a loss in the sense of meaning and understanding which is trying to be conveyed? Something there for you to mull over until next time is this article I found in the Metro which might give an example of how this could be answered, what do you think?May the Force be with you
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