Glee, God and Grilled Cheesus.

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted. To be honest, I have wanted to blog for a while now, just didn't know what to blog about. I've had a bunch of ideas bouncing around in my brain for a while; a discussion about the Bible and whether the Bible is Truth or just contains Truth, a sort of funny blog from the popular website and book Fmylife (which I still do plan on doing one day...just give it some time), and a look at the Psalms, and whether Christians sometimes take them too seriously. But then I watched Glee. Yes, that's right. I watch Glee. Usually I watch it just for the music, get a few laughs, and then download the songs the next day to put on my ipod. But Tuesday's episode was different. It stirred emotions. It asked questions, and it begged to be discussed. I realize that my blog demographic doesn't include very many Glee lovers (that I know of), so I will try to discuss the episode in a way that will allow those that have not seen the show to appreciate and get involved in the discussion as well. To start with, here is an episode summary:

Finn, the main character of the show, makes a grilled cheese sandwich, and ends up creating the face of Jesus in the burn marks on the bread. He immediately turns religious, and wants to dedicate the week of Glee to singing spiritual songs. Of course, the school (or more specifically Sue Sylvester the arch-nemesis to the Glee club) takes a firm stance against seperationg of Church and State. Then Kurt's dad (Kurt is a fellow Glee member) has a heart attack, and the Glee club tries to comfort Kurt with prayers and spiritual songs. Kurt then professes that he is an atheist...much to the shock and awe of the Glee club.

That is a very quick synopsis of the episode. Yes, there is much more that happened, but I will save those for the discussion part. So let's start with my opinions and discussions.

Grilled Cheesus!
As silly as turning religious after seeing the face of Christ in a grilled cheese sounds, it happens. People turn religious over the silliest, and seemingly stupidest things. A dream, a near-death experience, a relationship...whatever. There is a tendency to try to "find the face of Christ" in everything. We want God to speak to us in every imaginable way, and even when he isn't, we still imagine that he is. It's a major problem. Yes, there are worse problems in life than trying to find God in the ordinary, and I don't want to say that he is not found in the ordinary and everyday life...but it's dangerous to go around and put God's face, or God's voice to things that don't have God's face or voice in them. When we do that, we tend to idolize those things, or that event. We pray to the Grilled Cheese, read The Purpose Driven Life like it is Bible (or even worse, like it is better than the Bible), and learn all we need to know about faith from Facing The Giants (yes...I went there). I am not saying that God can't be found in strange places...he was the "whisper in the wind", but when we go and look for him in those places, and CREATE him in those places, that is when we get ourselves into trouble.
Seperation of Church and State
This can lead to a heated debate here I'm sure. I personally am all for, to some extent, the seperation of church and state. I find it offensive that Christians beg, plead and cry when we aren't alowed to pray/worship publically, but then get angry when they see someone of another religion worship in public. We don't like seperation of church and state for us, but we want it for everyone else. It has to be either no one, or everyone. Christians can be the most arrogant, and selfish people ever. When we don't have it, we demand it, and when others have it we beg for it to be stripped from them. I remember at Bethany, we had a survery in class (I believe it was Issues and Ethics class) in which we were asked if the Lords Prayer should be reinstated into public schools...and a majority, if not unanimously, of the class said no, because once you open the door to the Lords prayer, then you have to open the door to every other religion. It's true..we can't expect to be the only religion given rights. Seperation of Church and State is a good thing, or at least it can be...in my opinion anyway (feel free to disagree and voice your comments).
"I have a hard time believing in a loving God when his followers don't look to highly on gays, or science, or women".
As hurtful and perhaps humorous this comment is, spoken by the gay atheist Kurt, it has a harsh truth to it. I have blogged about this before, but the church treats gays like crap. And there are many churches and Christians who feel that Science is opposed to the Bible, and that all Scientists are out to disprove the existence of God. And as sad as it is, there are churches who don't look highly on women, and are racist as well. It's horrible. As DC Talk says at the start of the song "What if I stumble", 'the biggest cause of atheism in the world today, is Christians'. We claim to serve a loving God, we claim to be a loving and accepting group, and yet we are the most secluded, and often hardest to penetrate (insert innapropriate Office joke here). We are loving and accepting to those who have the same beliefs, same opinions as us...but once we meet someone who believes something different, we close up, segregate and hate. And then, after we push people away (often they are the most needing people as well), we are suprised to find out that they don't believe in God. They calim it's because there is no proof, but deep down it's because of us. We caused them to stop believing in God. So much for being disciples.

...ok I realize that this is getting kind of long so I will do one more, a follow up to the previous discussion point.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
The episode ends with Kurt going to church, after an invite from Glee member Mercedes (yes, she is black). Despite Kurt being gay, and an atheist, the church is inviting and accepts him. And when the choir, led by Mercedes, sings "Bridge over Troubled Waters", an elderly woman next to Kurt, grabs hold of his hand, which is very significant to the episode as that is the main memory of Kurt and his comatose Father. The show never shows whether Kurt changes his theological beliefs...but the church definately warmed his heart. THAT is how church should be. Could you imagine what would have happened if, as he was expecting, the church closed its doors to him. Pushed him aside. Ignored him, and looked at him condescendigly? His faith in there being no God would have been all but proven. Church should be a place of comfort, healing and faith building. It should be where the spirit of God is most felt. It's too bad that we have turned it into a place of judgement and hate (I'm looking at you Florida pastor who wanted ot publically burn Korans!".
For those of you who watched the episode, there are many more things that can be discussed...please feel free to comment on those things and discuss them. Let me know what you think, do you disagree, agree? Let the discussion, comments and opinions flow!