Glee: We just hate atheists and agnostics, okay?
I think that a small portion of my f-listers are fans of Glee, and I know that a large portion of my f-listers have the same religious beliefs as I do. If you'll excuse me, I'd like to ( RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE about Glee last night )
I feel like it was a very well-done episode to be dealing with something so controversial. I mean, yes, most of the characters were all up in the praying and loving God stuff, but several of them were against it or of different faiths, and it was one of those everyone-learns-something things, where the God people learned to be respectful of others' choices, the atheists learned to have a little faith (not necessarily in God, but to not be as negative as Kurt was in the beginning), etc. I thought it did okay.
And honestly, a lot of the people in this country are Christian, so that is probably a fair representation of how it would have happened irl. People are always going on about how Glee is unrealistic, but I felt that this episode was probably the most true to life they've had yet. And it wasn't like it was making a statement about what you should believe - I really thought it was more about character development in Kurt and Finn than anything else.
I don't know. This is just what I think. I love Glee, and it makes me sad for people to hate on it. :D
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I keep going back to TLo's recap of the episode, because it was able to say so many things I cannot find words for. This bit is especially perfect - "Look, you want to do a pro-religion episode? Do that. Own it. But don't start off as if you're showing all points of view, only to have one point depicted as flawed at the end. They didn't have the balls to have Sue and Kurt happily embrace their atheism. Very disappointing."
Because honestly, they could not have picked two worst characters to talk about atheism: the villain and the gay kid that some Christians don't take seriously because of his sexual preference. My friend Heather and I were trying to figure out why they didn't chose another character to portray as atheist or agnostic. We both agreed that it was weird that Tina wasn't on the atheist side.
I'm not hating on Glee itself, it's just that I do not agree with how they decided to portray atheism and those against it, it was disgusting to me to feel like I should be "fixed" from my crazy ideas.
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But I do still think it was supposed to be more about character development than making a statement on what is "right" in terms of faith. And I still think they were trying to do it well, but in terms of reviews and viewers and popularity, portraying atheism as an acceptable choice in religion is not something a TV show really wants to do. In that case, though, I don't think they should have touched the subject at all. =/
I don't know. I guess I just didn't take it as seriously as you did (wow, that sounds like a jab or something, but it's totally not O_o), because I really did enjoy the episode. =/
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1. They tried to say they're accepting of his beliefs (or rather, lack of them) yet dragged Kurt to church anyways and tried to equate a belief in an invisible god with the invisible bond of friendship.
2. They still had him singing a religious song at the very end contrary to his beliefs.
I don't feel like it was an accurate representation of real life, because if "friends" turned on Kurt based on his religious beliefs like that, chances are that he wouldn't even want to be friends with them anymore. I mean, they went behind his back to his dying father's bedside to pray for him, knowing that Kurt wouldn't approve, yet they expect the audience to be like "Oh, that's okay, he needs to have a little faith and know his friends are just trying to help him." No, I'm sorry, but no. It's a selfish act; they're doing it to make themselves feel better and more empowered over the situation. If they really felt they needed to do it, they could have done it in private instead of disrespecting Kurt like that. Can you imagine if Kurt was Christian and they came to pray in a non-traditional manner (such as a Wiccan ritual)? People would have been freaking out on Kurt's behalf, but because Kurt was an atheist, his opinions on religion are somehow less valid.
There also wasn't really a diverse representation of religions in there. All Christian with 2 Jews (one practicing, on non-practicing, both likely Reform Jews) and 2 atheists is NOT diverse. No Muslims, no Hindus, no Buddhists, no Wiccans, no generalized Pagans at all, no humanistic religions (such as Unitarians)... They had ONE Sikh, but there was no mention at all of her beliefs (expected though; she was just the accupuncturist and was in there for 2 seconds.) Of the Christians, they kept it pretty nonspecific, so we have no idea if they're all general Protestants or if there are some Catholics, Mormons, Greek Orthodox or what have you in there.
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This x1000000000000000000000
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And I really hated the part with Mercedes at the end, where she was basically like "it's totally okay for you to not believe in God, but you should believe in God anyway." I also didn't like the praying-at-the-beside bit, but I honestly thought it made more of a statement about how pushy and ridiculous Christians are than anything else.
I don't know. I liked the episode, but like I said, I didn't take the religion debate seriously. I was paying more attention to the characters and the drama. :D
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