The Realistic Teenage Spirituality of Glee

 Glee continues to be one of the most amazing shows on television, adding to its many accomplishments Tuesday night’s incredibly sophisticated treatment of religion. In one hour, sandwiched in between Bllly Joel (noted as a Jew), Yentl (also a Jew), Simon and Garfunkel (gospel Christians, ever since Clay Aiken, apparently), and Michael Stipe (from Georgia, therefore a Christian), and a Sikh who performs acupuncture, and whatever else, there were moments of pretty realistic teenage spirituality. Such as:

a) The conversation in which Rachel insists that the children she and Finn might someday have be raised as Jews. (I had a similar, and similarly ill-starred, conversation with my girlfriend in high school, although she probably would never remember that.)

b) The jejeune but heartfelt theophany, in this case seeing Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich.

c) The meandering pantheism masquerading as doubt, or doubt masquerading as pantheism, as represented by the Joan Osborne song, the R.E.M. song, and the babble about there having to be something out there else life is too hard...

d) The earnest, simple questing that teenagers can do in part because, being young and feeling immortal,the stakes are so low.

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