Pam Fleming, a police officer in Glasgow, UK, is a Jedi. She's one of eight Jedi officers on the force, and she claims that she uses her supernatural abilities while at work:
Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Photo: Daily Mail
She even admits to using Jedi mind tricks during interviews with suspects in 'an effort to achieve the truth', although she tells industry magazine Police Review that she does not use 'The Force' to influence what suspects say or do.
Jedi mind tricks are used in the Star Wars movies by characters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to 'influence the minds of weak-minded sentient beings' to get them to do what you want them to do.
PC Fleming, who is one of ten police workers - eight of them officers - at Strathclyde Police who have listed their religion as Jedi, said her faith helped her 'fight crime and disorder on Glasgow's streets'.
Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Photo: Daily Mail
This appears to me to be delusional, because Jedi mind tricks are a fictional construct (and feel free to point out that the bible is a fictional construct, if that makes you happy). If she believes she can really do that then she's delusional.
Furthermore she doesn't seem to believe in what the films tell us. Obi Wan uses a Jedi mind trick to convince the stromtroopers that those are not the droids they are looking for. If that's what Jedi mind tricks can do then surely she can make the suspects say and indeed believe anything she wants them to. So she could make a completely innocent suspect confess to a crime they hadn't committed and even make them believe they had committed the crime. Not what I'd call good policing.
Even if she does believe she can use a mind trick to make suspects tell the truth then that goes beyond what is allowed in interviews and as such would make any evidence gathered in this way invalid. So *if* she does believe all of that then she would also believe herself to be guilty of misconduct in public office at the very least, possibly even perverting the course of justice.
I have heard of more than one officer being told that their religious beliefs must not in anyway impact upon their conduct at work. They were told that the only thing they could rely upon was the law. Why should believing in all this Jedi stuff be any different.
And what if she turns out to be a Sith?
This sounds like a poorly-thought-out PR stunt, to mkae officers appear more accessible to the public.
Yes, yes, agree to disagree.
Well, actualy claiming "that she uses her supernatural abilities while at work" is a very stupid thing to say with her particular job, even if it is just a joke. As an officer of the law, they really have to watch what they say to keep stuff being used against them if they have to defend themself over an issue or a case that goes wrong.
It would be a fraud if you claim to have powers which you know you do not. I wouldn't call this woman's belief a fraud unless she reveals at some point that she was "just kidding". Even then, it would be just a lie, unless she was trying to make money off of her supposed powers.
That's as far as I'll go in the religious debate. I'm more "believe what you will, because you will no mwatter what I say".
As for new religions, I think Klingon worship is going to be an official religion someday, once they come up with a word to describe it that newscasters can pronounce.