Atticus wrote:
The fiction was designed in part to illustrate the spiritual questions posed by Campbell, Watts, at al; throwing it out and expecting everyone to relate to the source material without the intermediary metaphor is a waste of what could be valuable and relatable teaching tools.
I agree with Arisaig's point - without the fiction, it's just another NRM mish-mash trying to do what traditional religions aren't satisfactorily accomplishing. As long as it is using the name "Jedi", there is going to be a relationship to what that stands for in 99% of the world, which is the Star Wars franchise. I don't see a problem with that, because quite obviously (based on the number of people I've seen sincerely coming here for spiritual purposes in the past month), there's a lot of us who find something unique and meaningful in it. Separating it out from role-playing IS important, as there's also a good chunk who - despite the FAQ and the big statements in large bold type on the home page - want to play out characters from the fiction rather than doing the work.
To me, the only real difference in this and most of the esoteric-oriented orders out there (including those who've been around for centuries) is that we don't claim a historical base for our philosophy/spirituality, as do Rosicrucians, Neo-Templars, Gnostics, etc. All of them draw some sort of initial model from something they've found in the historical story (and that story itself becomes fictitious from age to age, depending on what is known of the history at the time), and then build their techniques and philosophies, their rule of life, from it. Even traditional religions with a historical founder work on shreds of lore/scriptures, the interpretation of it, and patch in cultural mores for the rest. So...some people are never going to understand that this is as legitimate as anything else, and that's to be expected. One can always just go be a scientist and explore life that way if one wants to strip all but the quantifiable from it.
As for the lightsabers and robes - well, most of the martial arts schools out there practice with weapons that would not be used in real-life scenarios and many of them wear "pajamas" (or more respectfully, uniforms which recall the cultural/historical setting in which their arts were born). As long as you know what you're getting from the training, I do see any reason not to have a little fun. Personally, I find the power that the myth has to inspire and delight - especially for the future generations - to be part of the appeal that keeps me intrigued.
