They think they’re ‘doing agile’

In my discussions and reading, I hear a lot of people declare that so-and-so group thinks they’re agile, but they aren’t really. I don’t think this type of either/or judgments are very useful–there isn’t really a checklist of criteria for judging whether a group is truly ‘doing agile’ or not.
I think there’s a more useful question to ask: has a group understood and embraced the principles of agile or have they viewed it as just a set of practices to be adopted (e.g., short iterations, daily stand-ups, etc.)?
It doesn’t do any good to tell a group, for instance ‘To be agile, you need to do X’ without explaining the principle behind the practice.
Unfortunately, this sounds like a group that doesn’t grasp the principles of agile. I really feel for the tester who posted the frustrated message to the forum. He seems to be trying to embrace the principles with team members who don’t see them too clearly.