It's wild to me when people compare the Jedi specifically to Catholics, because one of the foundational tenets of Catholicism is that through suffering, you can become holy. Like evangelicals have the prosperity gospel, Catholics have suffering. You can grow closer to God through suffering, and if you ARE suffering? It was his plan. You have to figure out what to make of it. This is why Catholics are obsessed with martyrs and saints. The martyrs die HORRIBLY in most cases, and you know what that is? Holy. That's how you become a saint, babey! Anyway, this is in extreme juxtaposition to the Jedi. The Jedi try to prevent suffering as much as possible! They accept that suffering exists because there will always be darkness like there is always light, and you may learn from the suffering, you will live with it and live on, but it is not GOOD that you suffered. And when things are thrown out of balance? When there is far more darkness than light? Then that causes MORE SUFFERING, which the Jedi want to fix! "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to SUFFERING" Yoda says, sadly, for everyone watching The Phantom Menace to hear but apparently not process.
Arguably, it is the galaxy and their impossible expectations of the Jedi inflicting Catholic thought ON the Jedi. You hear Obi-Wan say during TCW that if worlds would help defend themselves, then the Jedi wouldn't be so overburdened. Palpatine drafts them, and they HAVE to help, and he literally sets them up martyr themselves because they don't have any other choice. They can't do nothing. The galaxy wants them to be the saviors of everything while doing nothing themselves. And then, of course, as it can often go with saints and saviors, when they aren't good enough? Well, we all know what happens there. The galaxy swallows the Jedi genocide wholesale because they are tired from the war and the Jedi? Well, they didn't do enough.
Also, I really think people get "institution" and "institutional power" mixed up. Sure, the Jedi have power in that they are Force-sensitive and they have power in that they are working with the senate. They have contacts in the highest halls of power, but THEY are not the power. They can have influence, but this influence gets more and more limited after the Nihil Crisis during the high republic (during which the Jedi are burdened with more and more and pushed into the unforgiving world of public opinion) and by the prequel era? As we know, they are working for the senate more than with it, but that's not easy to untangle. Being part of the Republic is how they help the most people. They believe in the Republic's ability to recover. The Jedi have WAY less political power than people in fandom seem to understand. They aren't writing policy because they aren't allowed to, even if Jedi like Obi-Wan may influence say, Bail and Padme's work, that's not the same as having HUGE political influence. You see the council push back against things in the senate multiple times, and the number of times the senate listens is uh. Minimal. The Catholic Church? Huge political influence. During the AIDS Crisis, they scared people off of using condoms. Today, one influential Catholic man named Leonard Leo is essentially responsible for the US Supreme Court and the state it's in.
The Jedi aren't Catholic. And they never will be.
jbbartram-illu
2087
origamiaround
dededos
germansingergirl
turnnoffyourmind
