I recently watched a show called "The New Normal". It aires Tuesday at 9:30pm on NBC. The premise of the show is based off of the three main characters, "Blondie" played by Georgia King, Andrew Rannells as Brian and Justin Bartha as David. Brian and David are a happy gay couple living in L.A. The only thing they still want is a baby. They meed Blondie, a single mother who has run away to L.A. from her overbearing grandmother (but she follows them there). Brian and David find Blondie from a surrogacy program Blondie agrees to be the surrogate for Brian and David's baby because the money will help with her dream to go to law school. But as the shows progress, Blondie, Brian, David and Shania (Blondie's daughter) become more of a family. The episodes from this season tell stories and show the preparation everyone involved is taking before the baby comes. I think one of the biggest eye openers in the show is the type of characters created. We have Brian and David, who are in a relationship and aren't afraid to show it, Blondie, who is running away from her super conservative grandmother Jane, and Rocky, who is Brian's African American assistant. The diversity of the characters is helpful for the viewers to keep an open mind and help them connect to the real life as well. Homosexuality is still something that most Americans find "hard to talk about" but I do believe that shows like The New Normal and Modern Family are trying to show Americans that its good to talk about it and there is nothing really different about it. I think this show is crying out to the kingdom so that people all over the world will know about "issues" facing us in the future, especially with homosexuality. I think this show is redemptive to the point that it is making aware differences in American and around the world that may be "new" to some people. Some of the problems that happen in the show are exactly what happen to real people. In the episode I just watched, Brian and David try their hand at being parents when they send Blondie to a spa for a week, while they watch Shania. Human purpose is to love one another, just as you would want to be loved. God made us all different. But we all live in His image. If a person is different it doesn't give you the right to treat them differently. The kingdom of God will accept everyone who loves God above everything else. Whether the person is straight, gay, bisexual, black, white, of African decent, loves movies, loves books etc. The empire seems to think that if your not a certain way or keep up with the cultural norm then you don't deserve what others have. This is wrong, and shows like The New Normal are trying to fix that.
Questions:
Would you say that America, or even Calvin College is trying hard enough to understand homosexuality? What is something that you would do to get more information?
Do you believe that the Kingdom of God is everywhere? (In everything and every person?)
I really like your approach to this new show.
ReplyDeleteI would say that America and Calvin College aren't trying hard enough to understand homosexuality. I think they are both still dealing with the issue of homosexuality with fear. We need to change the way we think about homosexuality and read the Bible properly to discern what God really thinks about this issue.
This show opens up some really good questions for Americans and the community of Calvin College. I think that Calvin is trying to open up its eyes to the issues that surround homosexuality. For Calvin to be attempting this in the first place, where the CRC has only looked down on the issue, seems to me to be progress in the right direction. God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and i think that The New Normal is opening doing just that.
ReplyDeleteThe "New Normal" is a great approach. Using the media to lower our guard and face the faces about homosexuality. If we were to see and understand the homosexuality side a bit more by listening their stories and feelings. We may have a deep meaning, but since our culture, our feelings, and our religion is against homosexuality, which made this more difficult to face and to solve at Calvin. God made us even though we will break his rules about homosexuality, but I believe the kingdom of God in everywhere, it is just that it is hidden from us.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely an interesting artifact to study, Hannah. I think shows like this and "Modern Family" (as well as shows like "Will & Grace" before them) show the power of narrative in shaping the way we understand the world. The more Christians see these kinds of stories (and, increasingly, take part in these stories by knowing gay folks), the more our pre-conceived notions are being challenged.
ReplyDeleteThe Church has a lot of work to be done in this area of life to understand what Kingdom living looks like. It would be helpful to do a more careful reading of scripture (context, context, context) while remembering that the least of these are always provided for in the Kingdom.