'Glee' writer/producer Ian Brennan on being Catholic

It never fails to amaze me how a the faith of a stranger can break into your day and provide surprising inspiration and hope. I fell in love with the show 'Glee' from the very first episode and have been a tried and true 'Gleek' ever since.

Maybe it's because joining the choir at school was something I always wanted to do, but never did. Maybe It's how easy I found it to relate to this group of outcasts and misfits struggling to find their way in an often hostile academic and social environment. The cast of characters is as flawed and beautiful as any group of people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing both in my personal, religious, and professional life. They all have their crosses to bear, crosses they may or may not be aware of, and they are all struggling to deal with them the best that they know how.

Sound familiar? Not only does it sound like the whole of our world in microcosm (such is the purpose of Glee's William McKinley High). Not only does it sound like most all of the social groupings I've ever been a part of. It also sounds strangely similar to the groups of people Jesus surrounded himself with.

All of this from a writer/producer who has himself struggled with faith, belief, and growing up in world that does not always celebrate differences as much as we might like. Just what has it been that has helped Mr. Brennan get through the morass of fear, and doubt, wonder and hope? Apparently his own Catholic faith.

I would invite you to read the speech he delivered this past week on the occasion of his acceptance of a Catholics in Media award. I love his candor-ed surprise at even being nominated, his open sharing of the kinds of persecution he and the entire cast has faced from overly conservative Christian groups, and I love his frank approach to the division between the Church as it often presents itself and/or is presented in the media, and the Church as it truly is 'in the trenches'; that often zany group of outcasts and misfits trying desperately to carry crosses both seen and unseen, seeking only to love and be loved for who they are.

Above all, I love the following passage he shares from a scene in a very early screenplay of the show. The two characters in question no longer exist, but the scene itself is drawn from his own experiences of doubt regarding the existence of God. As it appears in the screenplay, a young girl is trying to console a friend;

“I spent some time kind looking back at some of my journals, and I came across this passage that was like from sixth grade or something, and I found this passage where I had written something which didn’t seem to make any sense like it didn’t have anything to do with what I’d been writing about and like most of the stuff I write kinda dies in childbirth, like never quite makes it all the way out… but I had written, for some reason, I had written about this time when my mom and I were at Wendy’s for lunch and there was this old man sitting by himself just drinking a coffee and eating like just a plain hamburger, like one of the 69 cent ones with just a coffee — and I just… I felt so bad for him, or like didn’t feel bad, really, I just kinda felt for him, I wanted to like be with him, I just wanted to sit there and keep him company, and my mom and I sat there and ate and she was talking and the whole time I just like wanted to go over and sit with him, this old man I didn’t even know just sitting there alone, eating a 69 cent hamburger by himself in the middle of the day… And there was like no way he could ever know that, you know? Like there was no way he could ever guess that. That I felt that way. And like I thought to myself: just as I secretly love this old man who I don’t know sitting across the restaurant from me and there’s no way he would ever know, like I believed there could be something, like, way across the cosmos, unbeknownst to everyone, just, like, loving us. And there’s no way we could ever know it. It would just be there. And it was like this weird, incredible gift. And I think I’ve stopped even like needing that love for myself; it was enough to just stand near it and watch it and know it exists. And I think it makes the rest… I don’t know. I think it makes everything else pretty easy.”

You can find the entire text of Ian Brennan's speech at BustedHalo.com; Raking Leaves, Racked with Skepticism

Peace and God Bless