Get Ordained In The First United Church Of Cthulhu
A decade ago, I became ordained in the Church of Latter-Day Dudes so I could officiate a wedding in Texas it is, apparently, legal for the Dude to abide over the institution of marriage in that state.
But that was a different time, before an apathetic cosmic horror who craves nothing but worshipful death from his followers became an appealing alternative to the current leadership of several powerful nations. Which is why I’ve renounced by Dudeist vows, and am now ordained in the First United Church of Cthulhu.
In order to perform weddings, some states do require a letter of good standing from the local governing authority of your church I learned this the hard way when I officiated a wedding in Massachusetts, and the governing authority for the Church of Latter-Day Dudes was characteristically lazy and unresponsive. Luckily, the website for the First United Church of Cthulhu offers clear instructions for this:
That’s fair.
The church also offers several sample marriage vows to aid in your ceremonial sacrifice blessing.
Anyway, if you want to join the church, you can. Or I can legally officiate your wedding, if you ask me nicely.
Get Ordained Free As A Dudeist Minister
Printed Certificate
take it easy
Preside over a wedding, funeral, or any kind of celebration with pride and authority. Or just kick back and enjoy the knowledge that youre an ordained minister at one of the most easygoing religions in the world.
There are currently around 600,000 Dudeist Priests worldwide. Help spread the Dude word! Ordaining is totally free and there are no obligations.
Dudeism Is A Religion And Philosophy Founded In 2005 By Journalist Oliver Benjamin Its Belief System Is Inspired By The 1998 Movie The Big Lebowski
The cult classic film stars Jeff Bridges as “The Dude,” an easygoing, carefree Los Angelino fond of weed and White Russian drinks.
The iconic character also enjoys having a bath to the recorded sounds of whale calls and bowling with friends.
However, after thugs flush his head and pee on his carpet, “The Dude” starts losing his mind while still keeping his Zen aura.
Although many people see Dudeism as a mock religion, a prank, parody, or even a suspicious scheme, the organization has a very clear purpose – to promote a better way of living.
Oliver Benjamin is proud of leading “the slowest-growing religion” on the planet that preaches a laid-back lifestyle.
“To a lot of people, the idea of making a religion based on a movie seems silly, but I’m very serious about this,” Benjamin once told.
“And all the people who are involved and in the religion, and who are followers of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, even though they have a sense of humor about it and they don’t take it so seriously the way a lot of established religions do, a lot of people get a great deal of meaning out of being part of The Church of the Latter-Day Dude.”
“So, even though it’s kind of silly, and they joke about it, when it comes down to it, they feel very strongly about it, and so do I.”
In a way, Dudeism also sometimes reminds us of Jeff Spicoli in the movie “Fast Times in Ridgemont High.”
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Date In The Current Year: March 6 2022
Day of the Dude
The Big Lebowski is a crime comedy about Jeffrey The Dude Lebowski , a middle-aged unemployed slacker whose hobbies include drinking White Russians, smoking pot, listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and bowling with friends. When he is mistaken for a millionaire whose name is also Jeffrey Lebowski, shenanigans ensue.
At the time of its release, the film received mixed reviews and wasnt a particular box-office success . Over time, however, critics have warmed up to it, and The Big Lebowski has acquired a cult following. Jeff The Dude Lebowski even inspired a whole religion/philosophy based on his lifestyle which was aptly named Dudeism.
Dudeism was founded in 2005 by Oliver Benjamin, an American journalist based in Thailand. Its official name is The Church of the Latter-Day Dude . Despite its name, comedic origin and occasional criticism of traditional religion, Dudeism isnt regarded as a parody religion by its founder and most adherents.
Although Dudeism was originally inspired by The Big Lebowski, its adherents believe that their worldview is as old as civilization itself. They refer to Lao Tzu, Heraclitus, the Buddha, Jesus Christ, David Grayson, Jerry Garcia, Mahatma Gandhi, Walt Whitman, Kurt Vonnegut, and other notable individuals as Great Dudes in History. And women can be dudes, too, because dude is a gender-neutral word! The list of Dudeist prophets includes, for example, Joni Mitchell, Julia Child, and Jennifer Lawrence.
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Did You Know That Dudism The Church Of The Latter
2009-11-26T16:51:04+07:00
BOOK I
1. Longtime residents of Chiang Mai might recall an article I wrote here a few years back about a religion I started called The Temple of Earth. I have to confess now that it was rather a failure. Turns out its easy to start a religion, but not so easy to get people to believe in it. Perhaps I should have arranged a few phony miracles, or at least taken out some ads in Citylife.
2. In retrospect, the problem was obvious: It was a religion for Atheists. As it turns out, Atheists are a smug bunch who dont need a cool logo to help them identify their worldview. Nevertheless, down deep I still really wanted to be a religious prophet. I dont know what it was exactly. Perhaps because I was losing my hair I wanted an excuse to shave my head. Or maybe its just that I like to wear mens clothes which actually feel like a womans dress.
3. In any event, it wasnt long before I had a revelation that would install me as the leader of a significant religious movement: Dudeism. The Church of the Latter-Day Dude.
BOOK II
1. It all started in 2005 while watching a DVD in a café in the small tourist hamlet of Pai. Even though Id seen the film before, I realised right then that it was without a doubt the greatest movie Id ever seen in my entire life.
BOOK III
9. The yin/yang bowling ball, by the way, is Dudeisms super-cool logo. Despite the failure of the Temple of Earth, a good religion still depends partly upon a suitably awesome symbol.
BOOK IV
The Dudeist Bible: Just Take It Easy Man
What would the Dude do?
That is the central spiritual, if not theological, concern of the Church of the Latter-day Dude, the totally not-fake religion based on the ethos of Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, the slacker savior of Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1998 cult masterpiece “The Big Lebowski.”
Organized in 2005, the Church of the Latter-day Dude, aka “Dudeism,” which prides itself for being “the slowest growing religion in the world,” has ordained more than 120,000 Dudeist priests worldwide — including yours truly.Dudeism has evolved over the last six years from its birth as the brainchild of founder Oliver Benjamin, a journalist and native Californian who splits his time between Los Angeles and Chiang Mai, Thailand. But the transmission of Dudeist beliefs and practices have been largely an informal affair that has escaped formal codification.
Well, Dude, that is about to change with the publication of “The Abide Guide: Living Like Lebowski,” the official Dudeist Bible, if you will, assembled by Benjamin and Dwayne Eutsey, who is better known in Dudeist circles as “The Arch Dudeship” and founder of the Dudest monastic order known as The Brotherhood Shamus.
“We, the Dudeists, in order to form a more perfect groovin’, establish just taking it easy, and promote inner tranquility, do ordain and establish this guide on abiding,” the Dudeist “survival guide” begins. “For in this world there are two paths you can go by. … There’s the uptight way and there’s the Dude way.”
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Dudeism The Religion Based On The Big Lebowski
When Jeff Bridges starred as The Dude in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, I bet he didnt know that his character would one day inspire a whole new religion. Seven years after the films release, Oliver Benjamin was watching it with a large group of people in Thailand, when he says he was transformed. Soon, the Church of the Latter-Day Dude was born in the hip resort town of Pai a modern-day hippie-style religion, where its okay to do pretty much as you please. Today, Dudeism has over 100,000 ordained Dudeist priests all over the world, and Benjamin is the Dudely Lama. Its interesting to note that over 75 percent of the followers are male.
One look at the religions official website, and youre bound to think its a joke. But it isnt, the Dudeists are actually pretty serious about being cool. Dudeism also borrows some of its philosophy from Chinese Taoism, and their idea is pretty simple: Just take it easy, man. Life is short and complicated, they say, and nobody knows what to do about it. So, dont. Sounds pretty good, but I do wonder if its really that easy to be chilled out all the time. I suppose its for people like me that they even have a Take it Easy Manifesto written by Arch Dudeship Rev. Dwayne Eutsey.
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The Church Of The Latter
The Church of the Latter-Day Dude, or Dudeism for short, is a religion based on the film The Big Lebowski. The name is styled after The Church of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormonism for short, while the philosophy is quite similar to Taoism. Dudeism is a non-theistic religion and while using humour and satire, they claim to be sincere in their beliefs. Their motto is “Just take it easy, man!”
What Is Dudeism
While Dudeism in its official form has been organized as a religion only recently, it has existed down through the ages in one form or another. Probably the earliest form of Dudeism was the original form of Chinese Taoism, before it went all weird with magic tricks and body fluids. The originator of Taoism, Lao Tzu, basically said smoke em if you got em and mellow out, man although he said this in ancient Chinese so something may have been lost in the translation.
Down through the ages, this rebel shrug has fortified many successful creeds Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, John Lennonism and Fo-Shizzle-my-Nizzlism. The idea is this: Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So dont do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether youll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others that is to say, abide.
Incidentally, the term dude is commonly agreed to refer to all genders. Most linguists contend that the diminutive dudette is not in keeping with the parlance of our times.
Learn more about Dudeism:
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