The Televangelist: Glee's Enabling Song<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""The message of the show is a more calculated take on the old standby: 'If it feels good, do it.' "\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/11\/the-televangelist-glees-enabling-song\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Televangelist: Glee's Enabling Song\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""The message of the show is a more calculated take on the old standby: 'If it feels good, do it.' 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Clark is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Christ and Pop Culture. He has a Master of Arts in Theology and the Arts from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Louisville, Ky. He is also the managing editor of Gamechurch and a freelance writer for Unwinnable, Paste, and other outlets. E-mail: clarkrichardh [at] gmail [dot] com. 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{"id":15470,"date":"2011-11-11T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=15470"},"modified":"2011-11-11T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T14:00:52","slug":"the-televangelist-glees-enabling-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2011\/11\/the-televangelist-glees-enabling-song\/","title":{"rendered":"The Televangelist: Glee's Enabling Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One could never accuse Glee<\/em> of holding its cards too close to its chest: From the very beginning, Glee<\/em> was clear about its various controversial stances. Its most\u00a0prominently displayed principle is tolerance, something Glee<\/em> presents primarily as a sort of stand-in for \u201clove\u201d and a be-all end-all for life philosophy and direction. They\u2019ve spent a lot of time encouraging empathy for and acceptance of a number of relative minorities and\u00a0underprivileged. I have previously, without blanket endorsement, suggested Christians view Glee<\/em> as one of the few places on television we can be encouraged to empathize with gay teenagers and the struggles they face, whether or not we accept their lifestyle choice.<\/p>\n

But we all know by now that Glee<\/em> is a monumentally\u00a0schizophrenic\u00a0show. It has all sorts of different priorities, every one brutally shoved under the \u201ctolerance\u201d umbrella. Like Christians who often misuse the call to \u201clove one another\u201d or \u201cspeak truth\u201d to one another, Glee<\/em> has taken its keystone and warped it. The key: They put no limits on the term, leaving \u201ctolerance\u201d to stand on its own and against anything that may seek to provide balance.<\/p>\n

This past week\u2019s tell-tale episode highlights the show\u2019s fate: a world where every moral question is left not up to any outside authority but to inward emotions and feelings. This is all humdrum typical worldly stuff until we consider the primary audience for the show: middle school to high school kids.<\/p>\n

It made sense to me (though I disagreed) to portray the kids in Glee<\/em> doing things we might disapprove of for the sake of general realism. They didn\u2019t have to glorify the sin in order to portray it, after all. When I heard that the most recent episode, \u201cThe First Time<\/a>,\u201d would portray Rachel losing her virginity, I approached the episode with an open mind. I anticipated a cautionary tale at best, a more clinical and neutral approach at worst.<\/p>\n

Instead, Glee<\/em> pandered unthinkingly to their underage audience. When faced with the question of whether it was alright to have premarital sex (a conviction Rachel had maintained until challenged by the student-director of her high school music in the name of artistic integrity . . . what???), adults are written off as even more screwed up than the kids, completely devoid of actual wisdom. When her friends are consulted, the opinions come out of personal, traumatic experience. The one girl who had sex with the one she truly loved? She says to go for it.<\/p>\n

But what happens when these students leave high school? According to the voice of wisdom in Glee,<\/em> if Rachel has sex with her \u201cfirst love,\u201d there will be \u201cno regrets.\u201d But will her future husband agree? Will she look back on that moment with fondness once she\u2019s married? I mean . . . who does?<\/p>\n

So the message of the show is a more calculated take on the old standby: \u201cIf it feels good, do it.\u201d The really frustrating thing about this is that the show is delivering that message to a national audience that doesn\u2019t need to be converted to such a lifestyle. They\u2019re dying for some outside authority to tell them it\u2019s alright to do what they wanted to do in the first place. Glee\u2019s<\/em> message of tolerance extends way too far, encouraging teenagers to be tolerant of their own base impulses and urges\u2014and to expect those who care for them to do the same.<\/p>\n

Glee<\/em> is preaching to its reluctant choir: \u201cSing! Sing whatever you want! Sing with whomever you feel! Just mean it from the bottom of your heart!\u201d\u00a0But in this case, the song is all wrong.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"