Saturday, July 3, 2010

'Glee' in the Land of the Lawless

You would think that having cast off the burdensome weight of Judeo-Christian social ethics would be enough. However, no sooner has this newly 'liberated' culture rejected rules and laws of the old world than they realized the inefficiency of living a 'ruleless' existence.

I present for your consideration the new modern sexual mores. I caught it in its most recent manifestation while watching the TV show 'Glee'. Episode 15 is titled 'The Power of Madonna' and features all songs by - you guessed it - Madonna. In the episode, Rachel decides that she wants to lose her virginity to her new boyfriend, Jesse. (All of this virginity talk is really just a ruse so they have an excuse to sing "Like a Virgin" later in the episode, like we didn't see that coming!) When the big night arrives, she decides that loyalty is the highest virtue and that sleeping with her boyfriend when she isn't ready would be disloyal to herself.

So... loyalty... to yourself... is important? Who says? Where did this impulse come from? Is there Someone behind that belief which gives it validity?

Consider this from another angle; secularized society has taken upon itself the mantle of 'law giver' and in doing so is free to live as it wants. So here we have Rachel; she can do as she pleases. She certainly isn't bound by any old-fashioned, intolerant moral system. She puts herself into a compromising sexual position and yet her sense of morality is pricked to the point that she calls the encounter off. Why? Because of her own loyalty to herself. She has found a way to worship herself while outwardly obeying her conscience. Whereas Joseph, when confronted with temptation by Potiphar's wife, asked the question, "How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" Rachel asks Jesse the rhetorical question, "How could I sin against me?"

When man becomes his own moral point of reference, he becomes the arbiter of good and evil, yet in so doing winds up imitating the Christian God in a demonically twisted way. Rachel knows she shouldn't sleep with her boyfriend, but finds an excuse to not do it which makes her the hero of her own narrative. She does what is right for the wrong reasons, thinking she has done something moral, and yet there is no virtue in this vain act of self-promotion.

Man is incurably religious. He has found the old story of the dying God fulfilling the law on our behalf to be boring and irrelevant to modern society. In so doing, however, he has really just resurrected an old Pharisaic religion and dressed it up in a self-righteous miniskirt.

2 comments:

  1. Kudos, Adam. I am a public school music teacher, and so I am keenly aware of this TV show. I now teach music in an elementary school, but for several years I taught high school choir and directed a show choir something like the "Glee" group.

    Part of me really wants to like this show. The production values, and the performances, are really super, and fun to watch and hear. But I can't get past the blatant immorality which is front and center on nearly every episode I have seen (not many).

    Is making money the issue? Hollywood can't make money unless they create entertainment which violates traditional Christian values? Exhibit "A" against this idea is the success of "High School Musical." A squeaky-clean production, and yet a huge hit. And the "Star Wars" franchise -- no cuss words, no nudity, no extra-marital sex (that I can recall), but its popularity is legend.

    And you are right on about Rachel and her reasons why not to have sex. I have seen this theme before in TV dramas. It's a very sneaky way for Satan to do a bait-and-switch with the viewers. So she chooses not to have sex -- that should please Christian viewers, and probably does in many cases. But many Christian viewers will not consider her reasoning as being deficient, but will only rejoice that she remained chaste for the moment. But the lie has been implanted: God is not God, you are.

    Thanks, Adam, for a great post.

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