But what does being authentic actually mean? Disney tells us that you have to be true to yourself and follow your heart, rather than conforming to modern expectations, the idea that the inner wisdom of your heart knows what you really need and will guide you true.
Is this message of Disney’s about following your heart all that it is cracked up to be? The Bible puts forward a character who epitomises this kind of authenticity. His name was Samson.
He is most famous for his great strength, but he is also famous for being tricked and deceived as he pursued his desires and appetites.
He is celebrated as a hero when he used his strength to save his people. However, he is also a symbol of the moral decline in his culture.
His character is summed up by the words that he did what was ‘right in his own eyes’. It sounds nice to say ‘follow your heart’, yet it amounts to the same thing as doing what is right in your own eyes, and often just means doing what I want to do, which just puts the focus on yourself.
We are different from animals in that we are able to be more than our desires, we are able to have self-control and choose what we know is right and good over something that would make us feel pleasure.
We are able to wait for something bigger and better over some immediate pleasure.
It is an ugly authenticity when we behave no better than animals and seek only to pleasure ourselves.
As for not being fake, nobody likes a hypocrite. In the lead up to the 2020 US election, the different political parties had to choose their nominee.
At the time Kamala Harris was one of the Democrat favourites until another contender noted how Ms Harris had prosecuted and jailed 1500 people for marijuana violations, and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.
After that Ms Harris dropped out of contention and Joe Biden was eventually selected.
She treated others in a way she did not expect to be treated herself. At this time when we despise fakeness or hypocrisy more than ever, social media has unmasked more and more people as hypocrites.
The authenticity that rejects hypocrisy is good.
This is why people are drawn to Jesus.
Jesus spent time with people from all levels of society, he taught with authority yet he never tried to grasp power for himself.
He was gentle with those who needed compassion without excusing their failings, but harsh with those in power who abused their positions.
He is famed for his stance on hypocrisy while not being hypocrite himself. If you want genuine authenticity, instead of looking inwards, look to Jesus.
Cameron Davey,
Echuca Community Church
3°C