Glee and Spirituality

For those of you who are diehard Gleeks and haven’t seen this week’s episode, I have two things to say.  First, this post is filled with spoilers, so stop reading at the end of this paragraph.  Second, if you haven’t seen it yet, I get to take away your Glee card and your gay card. 

I spent a previous post examining the development of Kurt and would like to return to that for a moment.  Arguably, he’s one of the most three-dimensional characters on the show.  Despite accusations that he remains a gay teen caricature, Ryan Murphy’s genius lies in the fact that he’s managed to do the opposite, getting at some phenomenally ground-breaking observations on homosexual subjectivity.

For Gay Mormon Gleeks, this latest episode (titled “Grilled Cheesus”) chiseled a new and prominent dimension of Kurt’s character into understanding.  In examining this aspect of spirituality, the episode takes an effective strategy of balancing Kurt’s serious assertion of non-believe with Finn’s silly grilled cheese-worshiping foray into belief.  The result is equally balanced. 

Early in the episode, Kurt explains his distaste for religion: “The reason I don't go to church is that most churches don't think very much of gay people.  Or women.  Or science.”  In the wake of Boyd K. Packer’s General Conference talk, we can viscerally identify with Kurt’s statement; however, as we’ve been conditioned to walk the line and find a compromise between sexuality and religious authority’s hostility towards us (as well as principles such as polygamy and race), the connection with Kurt is not a complete one.

This is where the episode gets deeply philosophical.  While some might see Kurt’s disbelief as an affront to his religious classmates, Murphy draws a very even-handed picture playing out in school politics, Kurt’s father’s mortality, and attempts at reconciliation of diversity among friends. 

Kurt’s storyline has two foils: Sue’s mysterious childhood experiences and the aforementioned Finn plot.  Frustrated with Sue’s ambiguous motives and successful ban on spiritual songs after Kurt’s father collapses and is taken to the hospital, Emma  marches into Sue’s office demanding, “Please tell me Sue what horrible, horrible thing happened to you that made you such a miserable tyrant.”

Sue’s response as she closes the door for a moment of sincerity echoes Kurt’s sentiments of concern over spirituality being foisted upon him:

Since I was a little girl I've had exactly one hero.  My big sister.  You know how much I worshipped her?  She was the sun and the moon to me. 
And while I was still very young, I noticed that other people didn't feel the way I did.  People were rude to her.  They were cruel.  They laughed at her. 
And so I began to pray.  I prayed every night for her to get better.  And nothing changed.  So I prayed harder.  And after a while I realized that it wasn't that I wasn't praying hard enough. 
It was that nobody was listening. Asking someone to believe in a fantasy however comforting isn't a moral thing to do.  It's cruel. 

Just as the show demonstrates range in emotion, tone, and musical genre, this scene establishes a range of motivations for disbelief which a lot of us struggle with.  How many gay men and women have you known who have attempted to “pray away the gay” or faced ridicule in Sunday School for effeminate gestures?  Sue’s revelation shines light on Sue’s even more complex character as well as her paradoxically sympathetic motives for her supposedly cruel actions:

Emma: (interjecting) Don't you think that's just a bit arrogant?
Sue: It's as arrogant as telling someone how to believe in God, and if they don't accept it, no matter how openhearted and honest their dissent they're going to hell.  Well, that doesn't sound very Christian, does it?
Emma: Well, if that's what you believe, that's fine.  But please keep it to yourself.
Sue (sternly):  So long as you do the same.

Simultaneously, belief and non-belief are put in balance with each other as the show’s attempt to reflect true diversity comes to light.  As these two ideas are placed in opposition with one another, they are also placed on equal footing.  This is evident in the warm  conversation between Sue and her sister later in the episode:

Sue: Do you believe in God, Jeannie?
Jeannie: Do you?
Sue: No, I don't.
Jeannie: Why not?
Sue: Because when we were little girls you were perfect in my eyes and and I watched the world be cruel to you.
Jeannie: God never makes mistakes.  That's what I believe.Do you want me to pray for you, Sue?
Sue: Yeah.  That would be nice.

While Sue might not agree with her sister, she loves, respects, and even values her beliefs.  Interestingly, that’s the utopian vision of the show in a nutshell as presented via its primary villain: you might be a certain type of person, believe a certain way, or prefer a certain style of music, but despite any differences we might hold, you are loved, respected and valued because of who you are and who we are. 

Kurt realizes this very lesson as he learns the value of his father’s love and his friends’ beliefs at his ailing father’s hospital bedside:

“I should have let those guys pray for you.  It wasn't about me.  It was about you and... it was nice.
“I don't believe in God, dad.
“But I believe in you.
“And I believe in us.
“You and me—that's what's sacred to me. 
“And I am... I'm so sorry I never got to tell you that.”

In the wake of all of the pain and misery caused by differences in beliefs and understandings of homosexuality, I hope everyone might take to heart the message of valuing others for their differences not only in character but also in faith.  The lives of many would be enriched and saved from the tragedies to which we’re slowly growing accustomed.

 

(NOTE: This is an timely message as today marks the 12th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard). 

A Response to Kurt

The following is a response to Lee Wind’s question on the subject:

In the context of stereotyping, the show definitely started out with some broad brush strokes. “Gay kid, Aretha, Wheels, Asian…” Sue labels a set of characters in an earlier episode. That said, I believe the emphasis here is on growth and development. On a weekly basis, the students are reminded of the binary typologies they’re supposed to fit into—popular/unpopular, smart/dumb, attractive/frumpy, lead/backup singer, etc.

As the show has progressed, though, I tend to view these divisions being chipped away through character development first, by pointing out the stereotypes as Sue did, assembling a diverse group of students for her musical number; and second, as the kids begin to question the places they’ve been consigned as Mercedes did when she pointed out to Mr. Schu, “You only trot me out at the end of every number so I can wail on the last note.”

Musically, she’d in many ways fit the stereotype of black backup singer just as Kurt fit his respective stereotype in his feminine falsetto. In the Madonna episode, that came into question as they busted out a new sound together. She took an empowered lead, and his vocals (and look) were arguably more masculine.

Now, these challenges to their stereotypical identities did propel the show a bit, but did not change the fact that their characters are largely dictated by said stereotypes. I’d say the “frustrating mix of stereotype and not-stereotype” is more relatable to men and women going through struggles with identity. A gay teen may not fit the stereotypes portrayed in Kurt, but he still faces them in others’ expectations.

I see this trend of complicating stereotypes continuing in the next season as Kurt’s love interest (closeted and masculine, perhaps) will certainly provide some contrast to the issues Kurt faces.