I’m never quite sure when it’s OK for one to profess their love of Glee. But seeing as Mockingbird has a thing for being simultaneously uncool and popular at the same time, I figured this might be the place to discuss this past week’s religion themed episode of everybody’s favorite high school drama/musical/satire/dark comedy.
This week on the show, religion became the theme- all the music and story lines coalesce around questions of prayer, the problem of evil, the meaning of suffering, God’s existence, and the role God plays in all of these big questions.
-Kurt, already dealing with his mother’s death from earlier in his childhood, finds himself in a moment of crisis when his father has a heart attack and ends up in a coma. Kurt’s big musical number is a tear-jerking rendition of the Beatle’s I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
-Finn, the ex-high school quarterback, makes a grilled cheese sandwich which, after cooked, displays the visage of Christ in the burnt marks. After prayers to his “Grilled Cheesus” are answered, Finn finds faith and has a religious conversion (much to the chagrin of his Jewish girlfriend). After his prayers lead to another football player ending up in the hospital, he has a deconversion and sings REM’s Losing My Religion.
-Mercedes, the Aretha-Franklin-channeling African American character, tries repeatedly to comfort Kurt by bringing him to church. She eventually convinces him to come, and she and her church’s gospel choir sing an inspirational cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters.
-Sue, the villainous cheerleading coach, angrily opposes the religious antics of the Glee club. She cannot understand how a loving God would allow her sister to be born with Down syndrome. She steps in to shut the whole thing down.
But what’s fascinating is how the show eventually finds its conclusion. The Glee Club ends the show by singing a very mockingbird song: Joan Osborne’s What if God was One of Us? The question being, of course, “What if God actually got down here? Could he handle it? Does God know what we’re going through? Does God deal with loneliness, death, dying, rejection, or abandonment?”
And of course, we at Mockingbird resoundingly answer yes–God was one of us. God himself did deal with loneliness, death, dying, rejection and abandonment. Jesus experienced all these things and more as a human being. Our God is the God of sufferers, the God of the suffering. And knowing this, we can take comfort that our God is one who not only empathizes with us, but is preparing for us a place without any suffering, without tears, without hunger, and without shame.
15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ~Hebrews 4:15-16
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COMMENTS
10 responses to “God, Suffering, and Glee”
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hey Bryan,
I must admit a love of Glee. This weeks episode really did a fair job of describing and illustrating what we at Mockingbird talk about. We are seeing that grace happens through the friendship of the community and crisis is what brings about questions of faith.
I loved it.
Bryan, thanks for this. There's no shame in loving good TV. I haven't yet gotten to this season, but I'm totally hooked. Glad to hear they gave a sympathetic hearing for Mercedes' church.
I absolutely loved this episode of Glee. (And I almost didn't watch it, after semi-swearing it off following that horrible Britney Spears episode last week.) All those lost souls, longing and agonizing and looking for love in all the wrong places. I've just written a column about it for my paper, but it's not posted yet. Wish it were, so I could link it!
Margaret,
No kidding, that Britney Spears episode was the worst. Glad to know I wasn't alone in seeing the need for grace in this close to home (albeit absurdly fictional) high school experience.
I'm certainly in the minority opinion here, but I've thought that this season is quickly deterioriating into a glorified after-school special.
Disregarding the fact that they have all but abandoned any connection to actual a'capella groups and/or show choirs, their club is, evidently, the 21st century sociological version of Captain Planet. It used to have an edge, now I feel like I'm being indoctrinated.
I'm just sayin. . . 🙂
I must say that I tend to side with JDK. I could not help but become offended because of this episode… As a Christian, I cannot promote this episode as simply "good TV." I was slightly embarrassed that I actually sat through the whole show. I may not be doing that again.
Jady, as far as I'm concerned, Glee has ALWAYS been a glorified after-school special! I've always felt it trying to indoctrinate me. Fortunately for me, such tactics never work! I'm one of those folks who tends to watch it "for the music," though, I confess, I do get involved in the characters and their lives from time to time. I was primed to HATE this religion episode. (I mean, come ON. It was GLEE doing RELIGION!) And certainly, they managed to cram in all the PC bromides on the checklist. But for some reason, I just found the episode very moving and involving. I thought it was a pretty good reflection – writ large, of course – of what it's really like "out there." People hurting and searching, but not knowing where to turn. People calling themselves "Christians" or "Jews" or "atheists," but having no idea what those words really mean. People rejecting God, out of hand, based on ignorance, misinformation, or media stereotypes (like the ones promoted on shows like Glee!). It all just seemed heartbreakingly REAL to me… It was almost like Glee set out to teach a lesson ("Tolerance!" of course), but accidentally illuminated a truth the creators probably don't even recognize: They showed us what happens to a society that replaces God with other idols… like "tolerance," for instance.
Plus, I love "Papa, Can You Hear Me" from Yentl 🙂
margaret, I think you're on to something… Glee has always tried to convey a message yet I often find they undermine their message as they try to make an honest portrayal of life. I remember a while back Rachel was sad about something and began to sing the song "smile though inside your heart is aching…" yet this put-on-a-happy-face message fell flat given her overwhelming depression.
Well Margaret (and Todd) you've convinced me to give it another try!
I finally saw the episode in question and I must recant calling it "good television." Kurt's anger was too abrupt, his Dad background story was cheesy, and the discussion about faith and school was too cliche.
That said, I think that the suggested message "just believe in anything" felt hollow, especially in the climactic moment when Kurt tells his father "I believe in us." His father was on the brink of death and "I believe in us" in that moment seems almost as ridiculous as Finn and his Grilled Cheesus.
Either we're meant to feel ridiculous over Kurt's confession of faith OR the show doesn't realize its own absurdity.