Glee

Ever heard of the show Glee? I first heard of it a few years ago but didn't watch any of it until last year when I was spending a lot of time at another persons house. All I knew about it before seeing it was that it was a show about high school kids in a group where they sang and danced. What's wrong with that, right? Sounds like a cute little show, right? But by the second time I had watched it I could not stand the show. The episodes that I watched bothered me and I couldn't let it go for a long time. I wanted to grab each of the characters by the lapels and slap them silly. It's not just a cute show about singing and dancing, folks. The writers of the show have a lot to say. To write this blog entry I sat down and watched one more episode, and I was actually impressed at how much they managed to offend me in only the first five minutes of the show.

I chose Glee's Valentine's Day episode for this year, mostly because it was the most recent one I could find online for free. It's called Heart. After a short introduction it shows Rachel and Finn (Who apparently got engaged in a previous episode (Btb, the Captain and I are engaged now, I might talk about that more later on in this blog ;) )) and are surprised by Rachel's “Dads”. It took me most of the episode to figure out who these two were. I thought one was Rachel's dad and the other was a step father who somehow got along really well with her dad. It wasn't until they made a sex joke later on in the episode that I understood that Finn called them “Mr. and Mr. Berry” for a reason.

Rachel and her Dads

Also in the first five minutes, and probably most offensive to me is the “God-Squad.” This group is made up of three kids from the Glee Club including a girl named Quinn who says after her introduction “I'm not even sure who I was praying to really, but it seemed to lead me on the right track.” And I'm going to pause right there. It's pretty clear the rest of the episode that this is indeed supposed to be a Christian group. And prayer does not make you a Christian, acknowledging that Jesus died to take away our sins and agreeing to follow Him makes you a Christian. On the other hand, they did just introduce her, maybe she's a new member and isn't a Christian yet. The problem then becomes that no one gives her any direction, or discipling. Their response is “Amen.” “Praise.” My response is facepalm. Also, on the white board in the background you can read their to do list “Proselytizing” “Pray about Artie's legs” (Artie is a Glee Club member in a wheel chair.) and “Secretly Baptize people” Is that really what people think Christians do? That we all hang out and try to think of sneaky ways to convert people and force them to get baptized? That we walk around going “Amen!” whenever anyone says anything at all?

That's just where I began to get offended, and we're still in the first five minutes. Next they introduce the newest member of the God-Squad, Joe. He says “Uh, I guess I'm a sophomore. I've been homeschooled my whole life, but this past year I realized that my best friend was my mom so I decided I wanted to get out and experience the world.”

Joe Heart

Everybody already knows how I feel about homeschooling (it's the best and public school is inherently evil) but lots of television that supports public school feels the need to bash homeschooling every chance they get. There was no reason at all to add Joe into this episode, except to make fun of homeschooling, and Christians. And I'm only a Christian who wants to homeschool so of course I'm not offended in the least. Or sarcastic in the least.

Joe proceeds to tell the group that he has Bible quote tattoos, his dredlocks are named after books of the Bible, that he only knows Christian songs, his dad only listens to talk radio, and they don't have tv. Oh, and can he take off his shoes? Most of this stuff is pretty stereotypical homeschool family stuff, except the tattoos, it's stuff that I've heard homeschoolers joke about. Only it's not funny when a non-homeschooler makes the joke. They don't let this joke get away either, but that happens outside of the first five minutes.

The rest of the first five minutes is filled with more “Praise” from the God-Squad. They decide to do singing telegrams for Valentines Day to raise money for adopting a highway and starting a shoe drive, ya know, Christian stuff. (Not that that's bad, but that it's presented as only things that religious wackos do, not normal human beings who want to be good stewards of the earth and give poor children shoes.) Or friend Joe agrees to do singing telegrams because Valentines Day is a “Religious holiday” because of “Saint Valentine.” Again, I pause. Christians don't celebrate Valentines Day because there's a Saint related to it, only Catholics, and not many Catholics are the weird homeschooly type. And then we end the first five minutes with this quote from Joe “I'd love to show the school that it's cool to be Christian. That we're not all door to door Bible salesmen like my dad.” I'd like to know exactly how they plan on showing the school that it's “cool to be Christian” what the show is actually saying is they see Christians as losers who really want to be cool, but they're too dumb to get real lives outside of God and saying “Amen!” all the time. From the episodes I watched before I can say that their school is filled with problems. There's bullies, promiscuity, homosexuality, and evil teachers (and I mean evil). It may be cool to have all those things (except the evil teacher) but if Joe, or someone like him, wasn't getting pregnant left and right, dropping boyfriends or girlfriends left and right, having their heart broken, living in regret, or giving extra fodder to bullies, who's the one really missing out?

So then we switch to Puck telling everyone at lunch how he went through the sorority like a “Sex tornado” and Kurt, their gay friend, tells them that he's missing out on true love. Kurt gets a valentine card from his boyfriend, Blaine, and says “See, true love.” They can really say anything with cards nowadays can't they? I would love to go on a rant here about true love, but I was only planning on writing one blog entry today.

The other homosexual relationship in the episode is between the students Brittany and Santana. They exchange valentines in the hallway and just as they are about to kiss the principal stops them. He tells them to stop their public displays of affection because some other student complained for religious reasons, to which Santana replies “Oh, great, so it was some Bible thumper that complained.”

Later in the episode, after the God-Squad does a sing-a-gram for Rachel, Santana approaches the group, asks them if they're a Christian group, and pays them to sing for her girlfriend. Making it very clear that she is in a homosexual relationship. The God-Squad has an “Is Gay Ok?” meeting to figure out this dilemma. Time to be offensive again! When it comes down to it the three members of the God-Squad who are also in Glee Club don't mind gay people, but they can't just say that, they have to come up with reasons why they're ok with it. This conversation follows:

    Mercedes: I know we're ok with it, but Joe might not be.
    Joe: I try my best not to judge anyone, but honestly I've never met anyone who was gay.
    Quinn: Oh I guarantee you have.
    Mercedes: They say one out of every ten people are gay, and if that's true then that means that one of the twelve apostles might have been gay. And my guess is Simon because that name is the gayest.
    Sam: The Bible says it's an abomination for a man to lie down with another man, but we shared tents in Cub Scouts and slept next to each other all the time. So that would make Cub Scouts an abomination.
    Quinn: You know what else the Bible says is an abomination, eating lobster, planting different crops in the same field, giving somebody a proud look? Not an abomination? Slavery. Jesus never said anything about gay people, that's fact.

This whole scene is intentionally malicious toward Christianity and though they never say God's name, it's malicious toward Him and His law. It's clear that when the Bible talks about a man laying with or sleeping with another man it's talking about sex, and the Bible says in Leviticus 20:13 - "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." and in Romans 1:26-27 - "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." The punishment for eating lobster was that you were ceremonially unclean for a short time. The punishment for homosexuality was death. When Jesus died it was to cleanse us sinful humans so that we wouldn't have to continue worrying about being ceremonially unclean all the time. That's why we can eat milk and meat and we're not still terrified of walking over an unmarked grave, we are clean now. Homosexuality is not just something that makes you ceremonially unclean though, it's a sin, and sin didn't go away when Jesus died. Humans still have a sinful nature that we all will struggle with until the day we die.

As for Jesus saying anything about gay people, Jesus said Luke 16:17 “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.” So when it says in Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” Jesus agrees with it. There's also this thing about God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. They make up the Trinity, and it's hard for us to understand but somehow all three are one being, and have always existed together, so when God wrote the law Jesus was also writing the law. Ergo, Jesus had a lot to say about gay people.

And the conversation continues:

Mercedes: So where do you stand Joe?
Joe: I guess I'll have to think about it.
Quinn: You know what, that's totally fair. You have to look at the hard topics and dilemmas and be honest and truthful. If you ask me, that's what being Christian is really about.

Being truthful doesn't make you Christian, looking at facts doesn't make you a Christian, it can help you be a better Christian but will never be the thing that makes you a Christian. At this point I think they're just spouting words that sound good.

Then we go back to Rachel and Finn's dinner with their parents. Rachel and her dads are shown as a good, stable, tightly knit family. Before dinner they're singing together with Rachel and Finn comments to his parents “How come we never do this?” But, in the middle of dinner the parents suggest that Rachel and Finn sleep together, since they're going to be getting married shortly anyway. Finn's mom even packed him an overnight bag.

The reason, it turns out, is that they hope living together will show the two that they don't actually want to get married so young, they were only pretending to be supportive and instead were being manipulative. They even admit (to each other, not Rachel) that they were lying. Then, when Rachel and Finn stop arguing about who uses the bathroom and snuggle up in bed, one of Rachel's dads says “Is he
defiling our baby?” Uh.. yeah maybe cuz you told them to have sex! At this point though, I don't know what they're trying to say. But most of this episode they've been trying to say so much that they weren't able to say any of it well. Which is how you end up with arguments like Simon Peter being gay because his name sounds gay somehow.

Just before they end the episode with one more song our friend Joe confronts Santana. He says “After thinking and praying about it I knew there was only one right answer.”

Pause to build more tension!

“Absolutely! Love is love man.”

Feel free to facepalm. This is another time that they put words together because they thought they sounded good. If Joe prayed about this decision and got the answer “love is love” then I don't believe he was listening to the same God I pray to, the one who completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for practicing homosexuality. The only reason I don't believe God would do the same thing again is that since Jesus died for our sins we can be forgiven of sins that we deserve to die for committing.

Thankfully, that's the end of the episode. At least, that I'm going to cover. The conclusion that I've come to about this show is that it's written by a very specific group who all feel about the same way on several issues, and like music (because there was singing and dancing mixed in there.) But the real point of the show is for that group of people to make them feel good about themselves at the expense of the people they're making fun of. Like me.

I was offended, and I suppose I still am, by this show, but I'm glad now to know that it isn't innocent and cute at all. At first it looks like flashy lights, pretty singing, cool songs, but if you stop and think about what they're saying, and how they're saying it, they are not there to entertain you. The purpose of the show is to perpetuate the beliefs of an immoral, self praising group of people, and to validate their sins. They can have their t.v. show now, but I guarantee they'll regret it when faced with the consequences in eternity. I say, don't join them, shut the t.v. off.

Just a Dream

I had a dream a few years ago that I can still vividly remember and I've been turning it over and over in my head ever since.

The dream started out from the point of view of a young man running through an ancient, dark, forest. The trees were thick with low, twisting branches and knotted roots. The young man was being chased by a wolf, who was quickly gaining on him. It pounced on him from the top of a creek bank but then was shot with an arrow. The young man was unarmed and there was no one else in the woods around him when he looked.

The young man continued on and came across a ruined castle deep in the forest. He explored the crumbling walls until he happened upon a door, still standing in its frame. He opened it and was transported back to a time before the castle had fallen to ruins. The room was decorated and painted as a lavish bedroom. The young man was standing in front of a woman's vanity with a round mirror and combs and brushes set out around a jewelry box. He opened the box and peered in at the delicate arrays of stones and metal.

He turned at a voice behind him. A young woman came in through another door that led back out into the ruins. She held a bow in her hand and wore a mask to hide her face.
    “You should take something,” she said to the young man. “Those were your mother's.”
He turned back to the box and searched through it carefully, deciding after a moment on a necklace on a thin gold chain.
    “Are you ready?” she asked him.
    He stayed silent, unsure.
    “Come on, this way.” She opened the door again and waited for him to follow.

The Mermaid

    I have this thing with mermaids. It comes from this other thing I have with water. Mermaids have always fascinated me for many different reasons. To me they seem to be everything that I once wanted to be, much of what I am, and who I know I might have become.

    When I was very young a friend and I used to pretend that we turned into mermaids in the bathtub or in the pool. We would only speak of it in whispers as if it was a great secret that we shared. Thinking back on it now I liked the idea of being a mermaid for two main reasons. The first was the adventure of having a really big, important secret. The second, because mermaids are beautiful. Mermaids are always shown as incredibly beautiful women. They spend their time swimming in underwater palaces made of pearls and living coral, or sitting on the rocks combing out their long hair as they sing. Their singing and their physical beauty can sink ships and drive sailors mad.
    I used to spend a lot of time in pools when I was younger (I don't now because I have less access to them, not because I've lost interest). I still love going to a quiet corner, sinking to the bottom, watching my hair drift around me like long strands of soft seaweed, and turning graceful little twists, as much like a mermaid as I think I can.

    During High School, when my friends and I were playing games online with our different characters (where the Captain became a Fox), I was often known as the Mermaid. The Mermaid didn't really do much as I recall. We had one little plot line where she was kidnapped by merfolk and the others had to come rescue her. Occasionally she would splash people or rescue them from drowning. Most of the time she was in a human form so that I could go with my friends into towns and up mountains and other places mermaids can't go. But it was around that time that I bought myself some blue swimsuit material and a pair of fins and made my own, real mermaid tail. One of the most magical things I have ever felt was when I went to a huge olympic sized pool with a deep end made for diving, and slid into the water with my mermaid tail. You move differently with a fin, there's more power in every kick. The water was cold and clear, I was moving fast and freely, and the tail looked incredible as it pushed and turned, even though it was just some blue material sewn into a tube.
    There were other swimmers there too. I remember them watching me take my tail on and off, pointing and exclaiming to others. In the water no one really notices though. I swam for over an hour once before swimming by an elderly woman and surfacing to hear her comment “You're a mermaid!”

    As much as I like them, and identify with them, I'm still keenly aware of the real nature of mermaids. In Irish myths mermaids are almost always mentioned as luring sailors into the depths “having their way with them” and then leaving the men to die. They are known for causing ships to crash and sailors to die for no reason other than for their own whims. Mermaids are also well known in old tales for their tempers. Selkies in particular are known for causing much harm and even killing fishermen who killed seals or fished in seal territory. They're a terrible threat because on the outside they appear so innocent, just the little mermaid sitting on the rocks. They hide their real nature. In some stories, such as the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie, they appear at first quietly and are believed to be good, but when they are confronted in the water they show their fangs.
    Part of my personality is a mermaid. I call her the Mermaid. On the outside I know I appear innocent, I'm a good girl. I do want to be a good girl, but that's never enough to make the Mermaid go away. She hides behind my timidity, my desire to be good and polite and loved. The Mermaid craves more. A coworker recently commented that nothing phases me. He was seriously wrong. Everything phases me, because of the Mermaid's passion. She is always reacting in extremes. Boiling, freezing, screaming, laughing, singing, crying.
    The Mermaid loves trying to get out.

    She gets out here sometimes, I allow her to speak through my writing because she wants to be heard. I'll lay awake in bed some nights and think about all the ways I could tell people what I really think of them. Often it isn't bad things at all. I'll think about writing a love letter to the Captain, or of how I can tell Aisling how much she means to me. Or I'll remember bullies, old and new, and all the things I'll never say to them.
    But the Mermaid doesn't rule me, thanks to God and to a few close and dear friends. These close and dear friends know the Mermaid better than anyone. Most of them call me Mermy. I love mermaids and the ocean and though I have to keep an eye on it, I love the passionate Mermaid part of my heart. Without it I could not say thank you to my closest and dearest friends. A very grateful thank you to those of you who know me best, and who constantly encourage me and keep me in check. My life would be very lonely and dark without each of you, and I hope I return the favors just as often.