Glee Does God

[sistermagpie]

I was a bit annoyed by Glee. Before clicking on the link, if you're going to click, I have total respect for religious people. I don't think it's a mark of stupidity or feeble mindedness or insanity. But this ep was

Comments

[static_pixie]

I agree that everyone in this episode was pretty horrible to Kurt. But I wonder if that wasn't Ryan Murphy's way of really driving home how much Kurt needs his father's quiet acceptance and understanding and how rare and important those qualities really are. The ep started off with a moment where Burt lets Kurt know that he doesn't agree with his choice to miss Friday dinner but that he's going to respect it. And all of Kurt's memories are about moments where his father could have judged him or pushed some comforting BS on him but didn't. When you put that up against the Glee club members' constantly pushing religion on him, the contrast is pretty startling and I think Murphy may have wanted it to be. JMO.

Also, I sorta loved that Brittany turned out to be the most compassionate. Obviously, everything she did was pretty jarring, but she was the only one who didn't demand anything from Kurt while tying to comfort him. :)

[sistermagpie]

That's an awesome point. I hadn't even thought of it, but yes. Kurt's relationship with his dad is so characterized by Burt not understanding him but accepting and respecting him because he loves him. This is a guy who grew up being as casually homophobic as your average guy on the show, but changed through Kurt. And you're so right, all of his scenes with Burt were about that kind of acceptance and not being demanding.

The kid even sang a song about what he wanted--his father there to hold his hand, yes, but also just the hand holding.

I did love Brittany. And her book report.

[seven31]

As I watched this ep, I was immediately reminded of Bill Maher's interview with Pat Tillman's brother, Richard, a couple of Fridays ago. Richard and his family are atheists. There was a clip from Pat's funeral where Richard comes up to speak about his brother after John McCain and Maria Shriver both of whom spoke of Pat, and I'm paraphrasing, 'being home' and 'being with Pat again when God reunites us' or something like that. Richard thanks everyone for coming to his brother's funeral and states without apology that Pat 'is not with God. He's fucking dead. He didn't believe in God, so thanks for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead.' Or he said something close to that

[sistermagpie]

LOL! That's awesome.

I'm amazed sometimes at different things people say at funerals about religion that they assume are comforting to everyone. Like, if someone is comforted by the idea that someone was killed because God wanted to be with him or because it was part of God's plan I'm not going to argue with them. But just saying to somebody whose lost someone that it's better this way because it's God plan is pretty ballsy.

[montavilla]

If you get a chance, you should see "The Pat Tillman Story." (I think that's what it's called. It's a new documentary about Pat Tillman's life and death. He was very different as a person than the way he was portrayed by the media at the time of his death.

[sistermagpie]

It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was frustrating!

[sistermagpie]

I'm sorry to hear about your miscarriage--but I think I would have felt the same way about it had it been me. It's like I mentioned above about the people who, without knowing how a person is processing a loss, will announce that it's a good thing because the person's with God or it's part of God's plan. If that's comforting to the person then great but personally, I would not find that comforting at all! I would much rather think that someone died because X disease happens than because it was a plan.

The other thing that's interesting about the default view some have that you need religion in times of stress is that statistically atheists often handle things better, only because people are more often to have inherited their religious views and so not have really thought about things before. I will say that's something I think you saw in the episode. Religion was, imo, sort of there as a default with the atheists seeming to have given more thought to things than many (but not all) of the deists.

[borg_princess]

Wow, I love this whole post. You've so brilliantly articulated a lot of my frustration on the way people deal with those who don't believe in God, and however well-meaning they may be, their actions in certain situations come of presumptuous and even inappropriate, when it conflicts with someone's wishes.

Also, your analogy at the end is made of win. *hugs*

(not really related, but I hate it when people get pissy about me saying 'oh my god'- it's become a common phrase, it doesn't signify religious belief, nor is it meant to put down anyone's faith, chill already)

[sistermagpie]

ITA about OMG.

And thanks! jlh made a good point on dreamwidth that the show was probably trying to conflate two different things. It was perhaps really saying that Kurt needed to open up and accept comfort from his friends. But unfortunately by making it about religion it created a false connection, as if you couldn't have comfort without hearing about religion, which in Kurt's case were two totally different things.