Is this the face of the new religion?

(From Irish Independent)

What IS it with those Star Wars fans? Last year they staged mass camp-outs at cinemas screeningAttack of the Clones, menacing other movie-goers with their papermache Darth Vader costumes and baco-foil light sabres. Now they are demanding recognition asa fully-fledged religion.

Hardcore devotees of George Lucas's sci-fi franchise recently hijacked the British census to plead their case. Almost 400,000 aficionados identified themselves as practising members of the 'Jedi' faith, surpassing the UK's population of Sikhs, Buddhists or Jews.With the authorities predictably taking a dim view, believers found themselves rudely lumped with the 7.7 million Britons claiming no religion, a ruling that inflamed diehards.

"People should be allowed to classify themselves how they want," says Andy New, president of a prominent UK Star Wars fan club. "This is tantamount to religiouspersecution."

Asked what role 'Jedi' played in his spiritual life, New replied that, like Yoda, the saga'sgnarled father-confessor figure, he "acted with immense consultation and remarkable concentration".

Star Wars junkies are not unique in muddling fandom and religion. Elvis cults proliferate across the US. One of the most prominent is The First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine, which preaches that Presley still walks among us and hails sightings of the Kingas incontrovertible proof of his resurrection. The church was established in 1988 by Anna Farndu, an Australian-born fan haunted by an encounter with Elvis at the height of hisfame and allure in the mid-1950s.

'Reverend' Farndu's somewhat tongue-in-cheek website urges true Elvis fans to visitGraceland, the King's home, resting place and shrine, at least once in a lifetime and tolisten to Presley recordings every day. Unbelievers may sneer - but ridicule is the price of true faith, claims Farndu.