Mormon Church Uses Christlike Image of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Sunday Flyer

(TMU) — Congregants at a Mormon church in Minnesota were thrust into the national spotlight after an image of Obi-Wan Kenobi was discretely placed on the cover of their church program on Sunday.

Based on the cover of the Latter-Day Saint Sunday program, which featured an image of Ewan McGregor as the young Jedi master, some church-goers may have expected a screening of George Lucas’ lackluster Star Wars prequels.

But alas, the placement of Kenobi on the cover wasn’t actually the result of the fact that the fictional Star Wars hero looks similar to the usual depictions of white Jesus.

Instead, it was a prank by Mandy McConnell Wright, who shared the image to her Instagram and admitted that she had hatched the plot to slip the veteran Jedi warrior onto the flyer, according to Fox 13 Salt Lake City.

Wright wrote:

“I have seen a lot out there where people think this is fake or was an accident from googling Jesus pics not knowing it was Obi Wan.

I was fully aware of what I was doing.” 

This wouldn’t be the first time that McGregor’s portrayal of the Jedi master is confused, deliberately or not, with the “Prince of Peace.”

In 2017, a Mormon prankster in Utah admitted on Reddit that he switched a framed picture of Jesus in his parents’ living with a photo of the Star Wars character.

The man, who only chose to be identified as “Ryan,” told Insider that he had hoped to dupe his pious parents with the image. The trick worked so well that his parents hung the image of the enrobed Jedi warrior on their living room wall.

Ryan explained:

“It stuck out to me as looking like a picture we had growing up of Jesus … I kind of chased that thought to, how funny would it be if my parents didn’t recognize who it was and actually hung it up on the wall. I have always tried to get away with things or pull some pranks on my family members and this seemed perfect.”

By Elias Marat | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com