When this episode aired I was really bracing myself for something worse than how it actually turned out, so I was a little bit relieved, although I agree with all of you that it was still very flawed.
The scene that actually annoyed me the most in the episode was the one where Rachel pretty much ordered Finn to give up his new beliefs because she had plans to raise her kids in her own faith. The scene just continues to reinforce her as being a selfish prima-donna psycho (she is not my favorite character ^^;; ), and could be seen as a criticism of how parents will pass their faith down to their kids ("I want them to be free to practice the faith that I choose for them!") If she really cared about him I would have thought that she would take his new "faith" just a little more seriously.
the Grilled Cheesus storyline didn't bother me so much in the concept, but the execution was poor. I thought there was potential to contrast how all of Finn's prayers to the sandwhich were selfish prayers compared to the others in the group who were praying for someone else, but they seemed to totally miss that. And then he randomly loses faith ><, and though it was nice that the councilor lady acknowledged that God exists even if the sandwhich has no power, I was dissapointed that she didn't try and point him in a more productive direction; he was obviously searching, she could have led him to a church group or suggested reading the Bible (although granted, there could have been problems with doing that when they were at school).
I think the other sad part is if they introduced a character who acted like a normal human being and was just really nice and supportive of everyone, but had flaws and faults and then said in passing "Yeah I'm a Christian" that certain kinds of Christians would go "He doesn't act like a Christian because he smokes/drinks/swears/hangs out with gays/isn't ever seen praying or reading a Bible or going to church!"
Give a real human character who acts like a sinful human being admitting they're Christian, and they'll get bashed for not acting like one. Give a stereotypical Christian character and they'll get bashed for being a stereotype. It's a lose-lose situation, and at least in the second example of using stereotypes, most of the more prominent Christian representatives in the media will approve of it, even if we don't.
Your totally right, I agree. and you could argue that this has already sort of happened with Glee, with the character of Quinn, although in kind of the opposite direction. when she was introduced she was established as a Christian, president of the Celibacy club, but also mean, stuck up, manipulative, judgemental, most of the negative sterotypes. and she became pregnant. But over the course of season 1, they really gave her a lot of depth; she opened up to the other characters, her superior icy demenor began to defrost, she began treating everyone better and making friends with people she formally ignored and looked down on; and she struggled with her mistakes and her future and what to do with her baby. She started out as a sterotype, but she's become a much stronger character since then. But it seems like reviews from people like Focus on the Family just focus on her action in the earliest episodes and the fact that she got pregnant.
