"Blame it on the alcohol"

Maybe it was boredom. Call it enculturation. Or a love of music. Either way, yes I did just finish watching the latest episode of Glee entitled, “Blame it on the alcohol.” I don’t even know where to start. I’m not going to pretend the show was ever a model of morality or the shining star of sitcoms, but this episode particularly made me mad ... enraged me, dare I say. I’m sorry if you love glee for one reason or another (shout out to Rachel – you have an amazing voice) but here are my thoughts, take it or leave it.

1. Shock vs. Moral
   1. No matter what moral is thrown into a show in the last 3 minutes – the viewer is still going to walk away remembering the most shocking moments of the other 57 minutes. You should work out to be healthy. An elephant swallowed my laptop! Which statement hit you more? We love to be shocked. In a world where so much information is vying for our attention, we tend to enjoy and remember that which is most shocking. I don’t care that the glee club learned a lesson at the end – to the average teen they looked like they were having a heck of a lot of fun the rest of the time – and that’s what sticks.
2. Dangerous
   1. The show was supposed to be about the dangers of alcohol – but now millions of Americans (particularly young Americans) will be listening and singing along to fun alcohol related songs sung by the cast when the next cd is released – backward? I think so. “In 2006, a total of 22,073 persons died of alcohol-induced causes” that’s a lot of grieving families, and it’s not to be taken lightly.
3. Illegal
   1. Underage drinking is illegal. And where were the repercussions for the Glee club’s actions? That they signed a form promising to not drink – just til after nationals? Tough love, Mr. Schuester, means more than that. Love is doing what you can to help a person be what they were made to be. Degrading yourself by getting drunk, loosing control, playing with your own and others emotions, and putting yourself in a dangerous situation for the sake of being “cool” or having a “life” is not the kind of lives we were made for.That's not a way to thrive.
4. Kurt
   1. Oh Kurt, you’re a good person. If you were real I would love you for who you are. But I would also tell you that yes, acting upon being gay is disordered, “inappropriate” and your dad has a right to be “uncomfortable.” You looked like the victim but it’s the dignity of marriage that’s really suffering here. Your dad isn’t obliged to educate himself on gay sex to support you. It's not that your Dad’s stuck in his “comfort zone” because he only knows how a traditional marriage works – it’s the natural order, the way God created us to be. You looked so hurt and I’m sorry, but I can’t sympathize because living a gaylifestyle (I did not say being gay) will never lead to happiness for you or the countless others like you. Tough love… we all have to make sacrifices somewhere.

I don't need to watch the show to know that I won't use people as a means to my end, as Rachel did. I don't need to throw up in order to learn I don't want to be drunk. I don't need to let my morals fly out the window to have a good time. I won't listen to how the culture tells me to be happy, but how God does. And while I don't need glee for great music, I'm not afraid to watch it in order to be able counter the lies and speak truth.

Pin It