Elsewhere on social media, some people doubted the authenticity of Britney’s reported denominational switch. Rebecca L. Davis, author of a new book about high-profile religious conversions, writes in the Washington Post that “fascination with Spears’s religion highlights an ongoing conversation within American culture about authentic identity—something religious affiliation has long been used to determine.” She adds that it also “reveals deep-seated biases about religious credibility. Whose choices are authentic, and whose are ‘gratuitous’?”
Davis notes that “doubts about whether…a hyper-sexualized female pop star can ‘really’ be a Catholic get at the heart of long-standing debates over the politics of authenticity. Ultimately, if Spears tells us she is a Catholic, who are we to judge?”
