What is Authenticity?

This week we have wrestled with notions of authenticity in religion. Authenticity is being worthy of acceptance or belief based on, or conforming to fact. In every facet of human life we are forced to perceive authenticity, from music to movies. Religion poses a far more difficult application of authenticity because it is chiefly based in the subjective. More importantly, it’s chiefly based in a belief system that reaffirms the authenticity of the religion.

In Kumare and Seinfeld, we have seen the power of seemingly unauthentic religions. In Kumare, fourteen people followed the every teaching of a faux guru. His fabricated backstory and rituals provided legitimacy to his teachings. In many cases he was saying exactly what his followers had said to him but his authenticity brought their belief. In Seinfeld, George’s father creates the holiday of Festivus, equipped with a giant ceremonial pole and rituals like “The Airing of Grievances.” Both Kumare and Festivus have their own objects, teachings, events like many religions, however, we still would question considering these religious aspects as authentic.

As Chidester argues, “what counts as religion is the focus of the problem of authenticity” (9). Religion and American Pop Culture share many properties but that does not equate them. What is it that distinctly separates what is religious and what is not?

A Festivus for the Rest of Us: Do Fake Religions Count?

"Faith begins as an experiment and ends as an experience." 

-William Ralph Inge

A staff, a pole, blue light yoga, and an airing of grievances. Combine these together and you get a fake guru, Kumaré, who created his own spiritual following as an experiment to disprove the importance of religious figures, and a father, Frank, who created his own "Festivus" because had had enough of Christmas. Two very inauthentic movements that took fake traditions and symbols and gave them real meaning for real people.  



At what point do these made-up belief systems move from the realm of cultish groups and quirky family traditions to the ranks of mainline religions? In order to achieve true religious authenticity and authority, do they simply need to gain more followers, create more symbols and traditions, and worship a higher power, or does any of that matter at all? 
 

The purpose of a religion isn’t simply to put faith in a higher power and feel something move within, even though that is important and happens within most religions, it is to give a community of people something to believe in and experience together. Even a fake religion can do that. 

What does it take to follow a fake?

There are many religious “fakes” out there: Festivus from Seinfeld, the Church of Elvis, and Kumaré, a pretend guru. 

I would never participate in a fake religious tradition, you may think, how disgraceful!

Yet many of fakes catch on, and are celebrated by the thousands and come up in everyday conversation.

Many others do not. The Church of the Almighty Dollar –  what is that? According to David Chidester, it among the many obscure, cult followings that pervade American culture.

How do some fakes like Seinfeld’s Festivus gain thousands of followers?

Perhaps it’s because they adapted from a previously established religion, Christmas.

Originally made up by a Seinfeld writer’s father, Festivus combatted the commercialism of Christmas, and proclaimed itself a holiday “For the Rest of Us.” Atheists now celebrate it across the country on December 23^rd. In 2013, a Festivus Pole was displayed in the Wisconsin State Capitol alongside other religious displays.

Festivus was made to criticize Christmas, and involves traditions mirroring Christmas ones; the aluminum pole and the Christmas tree are a prime example. And it has caught on, you may say.

The Christmas traditions were similarly copied and adapted from the pagan Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. Christmas was nonexistent until 300 AD. Christians disagreed with the pagan rituals, so they took pagans’ celebrations and made their own, using the darkest day to symbolize Jesus’s light coming into the world. And Christmas is certainly not a fake today, even though it started that way.

Adapting from what is already around you, transforming symbols from the established, certainly help make a fake religion became believable and even authentic.

Authentic v. Fake: If the connection is real, does it matter?

David Chidester's Authentic Fakes considers that "even fake religions can be doing a kind of symbolic, cultural, and religious work that is real." (9) The key word in this idea being real. Religion ultimately involves real connections, real advice, and real experiences woven into an identity larger than oneself. 

As demonstrated through Vikram Gandhi's documentary Kumaré, a completely fabricated religion filled with seemingly meaningless rituals, like the yoga movements, was able to very intimately connect with different people. Sure Kumaré's fake costume and props could have facilitated his supporters' trust initially, but ultimately people stick by him at the end of the film because he was a real companion. His kind of teaching encouraged peoples' beliefs in themselves, and as such they could trust him in the end because he did not claim to be a prophet or other godly-figure; he merely acts as an enabler for individuals faith in their own powers and abilities.

Similarly, the celebration of the fabricated holiday, Festivus in Seinfeld, encompasses very real and honest dialogue. Through the "feats of strength" and "airing of grievances", very truthful communication can take place. Although the holiday observance evokes humor on the show, its purpose is to acknowledge real experiences, good or bad, and to celebrate life in its entirety.
Although these are two fabricated religious experiences, they honor real experiences and interactions and allow people to connect and grow. If someone benefits from these religions, does it matter if they were fake originally?

What Makes a Religion "Legitimate?"

             While discussing the film Kumaré, our class explored the ways in which a religion becomes “legitimate.” We designated religious symbols, the leader’s physical appearance, a sizable following, and several other elements as legitimizing factors. Similarly, after our viewing of Seinfeld’s “Festivus” episode, we discussed how the aluminum pole and the airing of grievances seem to “make the festival real.” While all of these elements exist within legitimate, authentic religious institutions, they do not directly designate “legitimacy” or “authenticity.” I find that legitimacy has two sides: the ability to be recognized and the ability to perform. The elements we designated as “legitimizing” are all visual stimuli through which a religion can be recognized; they imply a religion’s successful performance, but do not, themselves, perform religious work. Authenticity does not pertain to a religion’s symbols or rituals or number of followers, but instead refers to the system’s ability to provide an individual with what mankind searches for in religion; a sense of community, identity, and purpose. Kumaré’s staff and the airing of grievances do not inspire a sense of community or belonging, but rather represent the values and beliefs that satisfy an individual’s religious cravings. Thus, legitimacy lies in the combination of the tangible and sensational elements of religion and the successful impact on an individual that these elements represent.

Finding Authenticity in the Inauthentic

David Chidester claims that popular culture has “authentic inauthenticity” and that “religious fakes still do authentic religious work in and through the play of American popular culture.” Festivus is the ultimate example of that because at the while doing authentic religious work it acknowledges the inauthentic pop cultural origins of the holiday. It uses rituals (The Airing of the Grievances and Feats of Strength) and symbols (the aluminum pole) to create a sense of identity and community. These symbols and rituals provide a way for participants to react against the crass materialism of more traditional winter holidays.

Festivus is clearly inauthentic. It’s a holiday based around telling your friends and family how they’ve let you down in the past year and then wrestling. These traditions and rituals are codified in an episode of Seinfeld, a pop cultural product. Festivus makes no claims at religious authenticity or spiritual truth. But nonetheless, it does authentic religious work by creating a sense of purpose and belonging for people. The knowing inauthenticity and meaninglessness of Festivus’ religious claim is a way to do authentic religious work for people who are let down by more traditional, ‘authentic’ religious holidays.