Jedis & Juggalos: Your Census Guide

The once-every-five-years Australian census is upon us (August 9). Which means the vexed 'What is your religion?' question will raise its head. This, in turn means thousands of pranksters will write down Jedi, Matrixist or Metal Head. Over the years John Safran has heard academics claim that far from being a joke, young people were combining spirituality with popular culture. Safran wants to hunt down these spiritual innovators. "I thought I'd potter off around the world and try to find people who sincerely and unsarcastically synchronise spirituality with popular culture. Is it good, is it trivialising, is it even spiritually dangerous?" Safran meets a number of protagonists who use popular culture to make sense of their world. All of them totally believe in the religious theories they have created or interpreted from the films, books or music they have centred their religion around.