AUDIO
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Archbishop Peter Jensen's Christmas Message 2011 on the centrality of Jesus to human history
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It's the prerogative of any elder to criticise the 'music of youth today'. I'm sure it was as popular a pastime in Plato's day as it is today. Parents who have been subjected to episodes of the new hit series Glee probably wonder how such threadbare plots and one-dimensional characters manage to hold their teen's attention. But they would be conveniently forgetting the effect shows like Fame had on their own teenage years. Music does more than sooth the savage breast. It can awaken desires we didn't even know we had.
Glee traces teacher Will Schuester's efforts to restore the singing fame of a nowhere school called William McKinley High. Once home to a nationally successful glee club, William McKinley is now almost single-mindedly devoted to its popular cheerleading squad. Consequently, Schuester has to begin rebuilding the glee club with students rejected by the rest of the school body. The result is a prolonged triumph of the underdogs, as the socially unacceptable learn to value themselves and others through song.
Sound cheesy? Well it probably should. However Glee's producers manage to avoid a modern-day Sound of Music by following a few simple rules. Firstly, the characters don't just burst into song whenever they please. Their mixture of highly produced chart toppers and show tunes ($3.6 million an episode!) is presented as part of the glee club's preparations for regional finals. Secondly, the scripts place equal emphasis on adult and teenage characters, ensuring the series' broad appeal. Thirdly, the storylines centre on two spiritual themes that are guaranteed to gain traction in an image-conscious world.
Glee puts a great deal of emphasis on discovering the beauty beneath crumbled exteriors. Sadistic football stars, proud divas, prickly gays "” everyone requires renovation, and their reworking begins with learning to accept rather than distance themselves from each other. I know there are some characters the Christian faith would deal with differently but I can't help being reminded of the mixed bag that makes up the church. We have much in common with McKinley's weak and foolish and it's also trust in our Teacher's vision that will lead us on to greater heights.
What prevents Glee's storylines from sliding into a slough of sentimentality, though, is the way the personalities progress. Each week, without fail, the script includes a second chance for someone who deserves much less. However their salvation doesn't depend on their quick thinking or a twist of luck but their readiness to repent. Key characters are constantly dropping their defences and asking for forgiveness. I think it's a positive relief for viewers. Admitting the weaknesses we all hide are seldom rewarded with relationship and hope. However this counter-cultural philosophy certainly hasn't offended the series' 1.4 million Australian viewers.
Ultimately Glee succeeds because music speaks to the soul. A few bars can contain profound truths that will circle our ears for years to come and connect us with longings we barely understand.
Music is admittedly a language that can be used to say many incorrect and correct things. However, ignoring its potential closes off an avenue for the gospel. Because it is a universal tongue, it stands a good chance of expressing just how we feel about our Saviour to people we would struggle to communicate with in any other way. Likewise, exposure to a service that is more dirge than celebration can create an impression that is hard to erase. Celebrating the good news with glee would be one way of showing a world what a thankful heart looks like.
A cheerleader at school becomes pregnant and deceives her boyfriend at school into believing that he is the father. This cheerleader is portrayed as a Christian which is an attempt to portray Christians as hypocrites. A teacher's wife pretends that she is pregnant in order to (I forget) get her husband (who teaches at the school) to pay more attention to her. She goes so far as to wear a pad under her garments in order to appear pregnant.
This wife makes a deal with the pregnant cheerleader to adopt her baby when it is born because she intends to carry the deception all the way through and pretend to her teacher husband that she has given birth.
Although some of the music in this programme is great (largely as a result of the people who originally wrote the old hit tunes sung), this programme has no soul or moral compass to offer it any substance. It is shallow, morally bankrupt and like sickly sweet straight cordial which has no nutritional value whatsoever. The singers in the Glee club get a buzz at times out of singing but their high has no solid basis and is empty and fleeting like shooting up on drugs.
This is a programme which is initially very engrossing but quickly takes aim at the sanctity of marriage and sex within marriage.
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Congratulations on maintaining a well-established and ingrained Anglican tradition of contradicting for the sake of contradicting.
I think the singers in the show bellow rather than sing. And their voices are digitally enhanced - and you can hear it.
On this Glee thing, why is it that everything these days seems to be turned into a competition - who can be the best singer - who can be the best dancer - who can be the best... There are many examples: Australian Idol, UK star-search or whatever its called, MasterChef - who can be the best cook, Dancing with the Stars - who can be the best dancer.
I contend that it doesn't matter a whit who wins a singing competition or a dancing competition. There are more than 6 billion people on the planet and there is always going to be somebody who is better than the winner.
The Bible says in James 1:17 that, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." So singing, dancing and cooking all come from God as gifts. But man in his pride turns these gifts into matters of contention and sets up competitions to see who is the best singer, dancer or cook. So the source of the gifts who is God is ignored and man turns his attention in on himself to measure himself against others to see where he ranks.
A primary reason why there have been so many competitions in the last ten years such as singing, dancing et cetera is that it gets people contending with each other. It's obviously an extension of sport. People are pitted against each other and the reality is that when people are focussing all of their
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I see it (the stuff portrayed by the show) pretty regularly.
We must move in different circles.
What's the answer...both probably. It doesn't change the fact that at least some of the show's characters/plotlines/issues mirror what's happening in real life (as well as a 1hr show can do so anyway).
Congratulations on maintaining a well-established and ingrained Anglican tradition of wanting to score points over trivial issues.
Glee is satire. It is hammed-up comedy. If you don't understand that, I can't help you. Glee does not mirror what is happening in real life. I haven't got the faintest idea what point you're trying to make.