Victoria Jackson is not happy with "Glee," because on last week's show two boys kissed. No word on whether the show's past plotlines about a lesbian couple, a teen pregnancy and a teen character straight up going to jail bugged her, too.
Ok, let's get a few things out front. I don't watch "Glee." But I appreciate its popularity, and if even one kid out there takes away that performing is cool, then all the over-emotive singing and non sequitur writing will be worth it. And, something I've always taken for granted as a cis-gendered hetero - it is significant for LGBTQ teens to have a pop-culture model of a teen crush just like my girlfriends and I always did back when we were pulling together our all-Keanu Reeves slumber party.
I'm also going to resist the temptation to call Jackson names. While it would be satisfying to just dismiss her as a bigoted whack-job, that a) isn't fair, and b) keeps us from talking about more important things.
For one thing, she has every right to her religious beliefs, and to express them, and to keep her kid from watching a show that she thinks isn't compatible with her values. That's her right as a parent. That's her job as a parent. That's why my parents policed the TV and movies my sisters and I watched. For instance, the Keanu Reeves slumber party? Did not include "My Own Private Idaho." And when there was a movie or TV show that they felt we could handle, but that maybe had some violence or language they weren't sure about, we talked about it.
I know this is radical, but parents *are* allowed to talk to their kids. Maybe we were the last family on Earth that had "family meetings," but I hope not. Your children have values, and they have opinions, and part of their growing up has to involve how they balance those values with the situations they're going to encounter in the wider world. Talking with their parents helps them do that.
This is what bugs me about Jackson, in the above clip, repeatedly implying that broadcast TV is responsible for instilling her personal interpretation of Christian morality in Our Nation's Youth (tm). We're talking about programming on wide-open public airwaves. You are allowed to turn it off. You are allowed to explain to your children why you don't approve of what's on it. Be a parent.
I have a larger problem with how Jackson seems to be interpreting Christian teaching, though. She throws out a lot of Bible verses up there. But, as Jesus himself told us, the single most important commandment, above every single thing that appears anywhere else in the Bible, is this: Love the Lord, and treat others as you would want to be treated.
The Bible covers the same ground in Hebrews 13:2 - "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." - and more extensively in Matthew 25: 35-46. As a Christian, I consider this passage to be one of the foundations of the practice of our belief system, so I'm going to post the whole thing:
35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
41“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
And, in my opinion, going on national television to say that two boys sharing a fully clothed kiss is gross and icky and God hates it just doesn't strike me as the act of a loving Christian. I don't care how much of the Bible you've got memorized.
My parents taught me that. When the TV was off.
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