Once again the Census refuses to accept out religion
The census seems happy to compile that our society has approximately 1000 satanists, 2000 witches, 192 druids, and has decided that Jedi, should be "outside scope".
We are not the only church of the Jedi. There are several Jedi religious orders throughout the world.
Our church alone has been running for several years.
We have calls from our ordained members to become marriage cellebrants.
We like all other churches in NZ need to provision for the future. Do we need to build more or less churces for our congregations? Should Jedi principles be tought in our schools along side other religious teachings?
Churches like all other institutions need access to these statistics in a seemless, non censored manor.
There should not be an "response outside of scope" category. If the answer is understood, then the result must be categorised. Otherwise, we have to ask the question, why is our government interested in collecting these statistics? Is it for the benefit of churches in the community like ours? Or do they have alterior motives? Faiths all over the world have been persecuted regarding their religions by their own governments many times in recent history.
The definition of "response outside of scope" provided by the census is "This category is used for responses that are positively identified (that is, the meaning and intent are clear) but which clearly fall outside the scope of the classification/topic as defined in the standard."
If 20000 odd people indicate that their religion is "jedi" and that a Jedi church exists, then how could this answer fall outside the scope of the topic? Who defines the standard?
The census data for religions as below, see how many strange and odd religions are counted by the census beaureu, yet Jedis are lumped in with the "response outside of scope" answer, even though it has been hinted that 20000 people answered Jedi.
No Religion 1,297,104
Buddhist nfd 52,158
Zen Buddhist 78
Buddhist nec 156
Christian nfd 186,234
Adventist nfd 288
Christadelphian 1,785
Seventh Day Adventist 13,815
Worldwide Church of God 255
Adventist nec 51
Anglican 554,925
Chinese Christian 135
Korean Christian 60
Baptist nfd 56,175
Bible Baptist 129
Independent Baptist 291
Reformed Baptist 255
Baptist nec 69
Brethren nfd 6,666
Exclusive Brethren 2,316
Open Brethren 10,134
Plymouth Brethren 324
Brethren nec 189
Catholic nfd 507,771
Roman Catholic 858
Catholic nec 183
Church of Christ nfd 2,154
Associated Churches of Christ 624
Other Church of Christ and Churches of Christ nec 213
Evangelical 4,197
Born Again 8,217
Fundamentalist 306
Independent Evangelical Churches 1,158
Jehovah's Witnesses 17,910
Latter-day Saints 43,536
Lutheran 4,476
Methodist nfd 116,622
Tongan Methodist 4,272
Methodist nec 1,182
Orthodox nfd 8,121
Assyrian Orthodox 258
Coptic Orthodox 381
Greek Orthodox 2,586
Russian Orthodox 1,110
Serbian Orthodox 228
Orthodox nec 573
Pentecostal nfd 36,372
Apostolic Church of New Zealand 8,328
Assemblies of God 15,300
Christian Fellowship -
Christian Outreach 123
Christian Revival Crusade 99
Elim 2,214
Full Gospel 1,092
Independent Pentecostal 237
New Life Centres 7,941
Revival Centres 243
United Pentecostal 369
Vineyard Christian Fellowship 1,605
Pentecostal nec 5,694
Presbyterian 385,350
Congregational 6,192
Cook Island Congregational 1,443
Samoan Congregational 3,777
Reformed 4,686
Protestant nfd 3,954
Salvation Army 11,490
Uniting/Union Church 1,308
Ecumenical 111
Christian and Missionary Alliance 300
Christian Science 234
Church of God 384
Commonwealth Covenant Church 18
Liberal Catholic 111
Metropolitan 54
Nazarene 501
Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) 1,146
Unitarian 396
Christian nec 648
Hindu nfd 63,540
Hare Krishna 372
Yoga 297
Hindu nec 351
Islam/Muslim nfd 35,856
Sufi 177
Islam/Muslim nec 120
Judaism/Jewish 6,858
Mäori Christian nfd 219
Ratana 50,565
Ringatü 16,419
Mäori Christian nec 360
New Age nfd 666
Church of Scientology 357
Nature and Earth Based Religions nfd 774
Animist 207
Druid 192
Pantheist 366
Wiccan 2,082
Nature and Earth Based Religions nec 3,756
Satanism 1,167
Spiritualist 7,743
Rastafarianism 1,383
Other New Age Religions nec 1,491
Other Religion nfd 4,830
Baha'i 2,772
Chinese Religions nfd 99
Confucianism 48
Taoism 756
Chinese Religions nec 12
Jainism 111
Japanese Religion nfd 30
Mahikari 135
Shinto 195
Tenrikyo 12
Japanese Religion nec 12
Mäori Religion nfd 1,689
Hauhau 609
Mäori Religion nec 129
Sikh 9,507
Theism 2,202
Zoroastrian 1,071
Unification Church (Moonist) 105
Other Religions nec 153
Don't Know 1,743
Object to answering 242,610
Religion Unidentifiable 10,653
Response Outside Scope 30,945
Not Stated 249,711
Posted: Tue 23 Jan 2007