Glee: We just hate atheists and agnostics, okay?

[shaebay]

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

Comments

[charming_goats]

I honestly don't feel like the religious side learned anything at all from it.

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.

[shaebay]

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.

This x1000000000000000000000

[jolfolfille]

Agreed. =/

[jolfolfille]

I agree with most of this, actually - I guess I just wasn't paying as much attention to this part of the plot, so I didn't take it as seriously as you guys did. But I do agree, and now that I'm thinking about it seriously, I definitely see how offensive it is to anyone of non-Christian faith, or no faith, as the case may be.

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