Official Jedi Church of NZ - Response to Libertarianz Party

PRESS RELEASE

The International Jedi Church, based in New Zealand, are terminating discussions with the Libertarianz Party due to significant differences in opinion.

The Jedi Church believes that the forthcoming census is extremely important so that we can manage our church resources effectively to our Jedi parishioners across New Zealand. In contrast, the Libertarianz Party is advising civil disobedience by encouraging people to burn their census papers.

It is noted that a recent response by Master Yoda, claiming to be of the Jedi High Council, was not an official response of Jedi Church NZ. However, we concur with his thoughts. The Jedi Church believes in universal compassion. We advise that the leader of the Libertarianz Party, Richard McGrath, should "beware of the dark side". Some freedoms create suffering for others. The Jedi Church believes we should live in a harmonious society, and that may necessitate some taxation and regulation.

The Jedi Church encourages all who believe their spirituality is innate, those who "feel the force", should consider answering Jedi to the religion question in the forthcoming census. We note that the only issue the Jedi Church has with Statistics NZ, is that they require we pay for the data when other religions have the data published free of charge.

The Jedi Church was started by Reuben Jackson, in February 2003, in response to Statistics NZ claiming that Jedi was not an valid religion. Jackson took offence that Statistics NZ should make any such judgement of the validity of any religion, noting that Satanists, Witches and Scientologists were all treated as valid religions by the government department. Thus a website, www.jedichurch.org, was established to be the home of the Jedi religion, where the Jedi followers could meet and discuss their faith. The Jedi Church now has over 10000 registered members internationally, and over 1600 Facebook friends. There are new ministries of the Jedi faith starting all over the world continuously. The Jedi Church website ranks #1 on google searches for phrases like "Jedi Religion" and "Jedi Faith". In the 2006 census over twenty thousand people answered Jedi to the religion question in the census. The census is important to monitoring the growth of this popular religion. The Jedi faith is serious and is not a one time census anomaly.

The Jedi Church looks forward to entering into discussions with other political parties who do share our values. Winston Peters and Rodney Hyde should not apply.

Official Website of the Jedi Church NZ www.jedichurch.org

2006 Census Jedi Breakdown in NZ http://www.jedichurch.org/webapps/i/4448/5930/204814

ENDS

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