As soon as Finn came into glee and said he wanted to sing songs celebrating Jesus, I had a flashback to Millie singing "Jesus is just alright with me" in "Beers and Weirs" ("Friday night - always a good night for some Sabbath" I will take any excuse to quote that joke). And I will say that the song selection was spotty. "Only The Good Die Young"? Pretty sweet. Whatever Mercedes sang next? Preachy and bleh. That song from Yentl? Meh, although obviously Lea Michelle killed it. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" cover that sounded exactly like the version from Across The Universe? Fucking What The Fuck. Why would you waste your money on a Beatles song that is weirdly inappropriate and totally sucks all of the authentic emotion you've been building out of the room? It's like they just wanted an excuse to sing that song (and yes, I get all of the hand holding references in the plot, but it all just felt forced). I will say, though, that the kid they got to play Kurt in his flashbacks looked exactly like him. Chris Colfer's little brother? Anyway, that REM song ("Losing My Religion"? I'm too lazy to look it up right now.) was perfect for Finn's voice, I totally dug it. Ditto "Bridge Over Troubled Water", but what's up with the covers of covers? Mercedes eventually found her own way to separate from Aretha's version, but the song clearly borrowed heavily from it. I definitely started to cry when that lady took Kurt's hand, and then the Sue scene really broke me down. Thanks for listening to my plea for More Sue, Less Schue, writers.
No one will ever make me like that "what if god was one of us" song. EVER. So I can't weigh in on its relevance to the episode, I'm too blinded by hatred. Readers, your thoughts?
Anyway, separation of church and state has been my thing since grade school, when I learned that it was illegal to bring religion into my educational experience. When I was in 5th grade I led a walkout of our mandatory choir class when the teacher tried to make us sing "All God's Children Have A Place In The Choir". I happen to actually like the song, but I knew that I didn't believe in god and I knew that I shouldn't be made to sing a song about it. So man, I was pretty stoked when Kurt spoke up his sweet atheistic little heart and held fast through people telling him that they were just trying to help by singing to him about god. Word of advice - telling people what to believe doesn't help. What does help is showing people that you're there for them, no matter what, and that people can have different beliefs and still love each other...like Mercedes and Kurt and Sue all eventually figure out. I think "Grilled Cheesus" did a pretty excellent job of addressing this issue from multiple nuanced angles, and as someone who, for once, feels really seriously about this issue it gets my stamp of approval.
The other week I was having a conversation with my roommate, a black man in his early twenties with a gay sister. We've had some interesting conversations about sexuality before, but this time we got into spirituality. He comes from a religious background, I obviously do not, but we both agreed that faith is as diverse as personality. Even within religions and sects, individuals carry different aspects of their faith with them. It's so ridiculous that we can't just all accept that people believe widely varying things because people are widely varied, and it doesn't mean that we can't be chill with each other. The problem comes when people try to propagate hate through religion, but that's a whole other post. And if you really want a TV show that handles religious differences well, you should check out the episode of Community called "Comparative Religion".
I've gotten off-topic, and it's late, and I'm tired. So to sum up, I'll say this:
- Duh, Bert doesn't die. A-duh.
- Sue's diatribe about church/state warmed my heart like a sweaty ass warms a chair; there is an 83% chance it will show up on my Facebook page tomorrow. Seriously, Motherfucking Sue Sylvester is the shit, and no one can (or will even try to) convince me otherwise.
- Rachel doesn't want to have sex until she's 25? I was totally on Team Finchel, but fuck that shit. Frankenteen needs to unload his balls into somebody that's not a hot tub or the poor boy may just implode like the hatch on Lost.
Ok, now my brain is just making random associations. This recap has been brought to you by sleep deprivation, sour diesel, and The Constitution of the United States of America.
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