Breaking noses

David Neal didn’t expect to get his nose broken when he tried to opt out of attending a production of "Godspell."

That's the lead from this story by Adam Wills in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.

Neal, the son of a rabbi, didn't want to attend the school musical -- Godspell -- at Centennial High in Bakersfield, Calif. But attendance at the performance was mandatory.

The incident led to heated religious arguments between David and other students, which degenerated a few days later into an after-school brawl involving 30 [Christian] students that left David with a broken nose and a five-day suspension. The disciplinary action was later dropped following an appeal from the Anti-Defamation League.

Ah yes, nothing quite as winsome and Christlike as spreading the good news through "heated argument." And if that doesn't work, gang up on the would-be convert and force them to accept Christ's love by beating the snot out of them.

Evangelism, as I've written before is an invitation, not an imposition. It is a form of hospitality. Hospitality never involves ganging up on the outsider and bloodying their nose. (Violently ganging up on the outsider is, in fact, what got Sodom and Gomorrah in so much trouble.)

So what were these little Sodomite twerps thinking? What the hell kind of church were they attending that taught them that this was acceptable behavior?

From another perspective, I've also got to wonder why attendance at a school musical should ever be mandatory. With all the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and younger siblings buying tickets, school plays always sell out. If Centennial is desperate to get more students in the audience then they should do what every other school does: stage Grease or Bye Bye Birdy or West Side Story and stock the chorus with popular kids from the football team. You're not doing the students or the arts any favors by turning theater into homework that must be enjoyed, or else.

I like Godspell, but if you're going to do a musical based on the Gospel of Matthew at a public school then you have no business making attendance mandatory. Jesus didn't make attendance mandatory when he told these parables the first time. (Next year at Centennial: "Hero: The Musical.")

Wills writes:

While the high school production of a Christian musical might seem innocuous to some, the evangelical and fundamentalist push to get more Christian programs, events and clubs into public schools, especially in rural areas, is gathering momentum on a national level. Many blame the recent release of Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" for spurring on these groups and providing them with publicity they might never have achieved on their own.

I still haven't seen Gibson's Passion -- I'm always reluctant to see the movie when I really liked the book. But for all the controversy surrounding that film, Neal's story is the most worrisome thing I've read. If these CHINO hooligans can get this worked up from the hippy-dippy Godspell I'm truly worried about what they'll be capable of after two hours of an R-rated Hollywood spectacle passion play.

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See also: Christ-killer.com, The Fashion of the Christ. (Interview here.)

Comments

[Andew Smith]

"I like Godspell, but if you're going to do a musical based on the Gospel of Matthew…"
I have spent a lot of time watching and thinking about "Godspell". My children were in a church production (St. Paul's Episcopal in Cleveland Hts, OH), so I practically memorized the script. Next, I was working in the cast of "The Boys From Syracuse" when John Michael Tebelak directed "Godspell" at the Berea Summer Theatre ( Baldwin Wallace College, OH) Then, some years later, I reviewed a production at the Black Hills Playhouse for the Custer County Chronicle (SD). I wound up seeing all the performances, it was that good. An older cast, a much different play as a result.

What suddenly stuck me, after having lived with it and seen it over a dozen times was this: Jesus' lines are all from Matthew. You were right, above, but wait! The ensemble's lines are all from Luke! This sets up the internal tension in the play that makes it so powerful in performance. And it highlights the frustration of the ensemble members with Jesus -- he's speaking out of an entirely different framework than the ensemble.

I believe that Tebelak's and Schwartz' book is among the best written in America in the 20th century. Another point: most of the songs are original in their music, but the words are straight out of the Episcopal Hymnal (I forget which year, but it's red). Most obvious is "Turn Back, O Man", but it is not the only one, not by a long shot. Very clever.

[Saltation]

If you feel like a bit of a YouMustTake*MY*GodSeriously related laugh, you might enjoy this.