High School Junior Asked To Leave School After She Refuses To Sing Jesus Christ Superstar Songs

WABC, Ch 7 NY ^ | June 19, 2002 | AP

[southern rock]

(Uniondale, Long Island-AP, June 19, 2002) — An honors student at Kellenberg Memorial High School has been told not to come back for her senior year because she has refused to sing a medley of songs from the play Jesus Christ Superstar.

Megan Gaffey says she and her family consider the songs blasphemous.

As part of the spring concert, the school's chorus sang several selections from rock opera. But Gaffey, a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Franklin Square, said the medley was offensive. Gaffey says she asked to be excused during that medley or not to participate in the concert. Instead, she was removed from the chorus. James Gaffey says his daughter should have been excused from the concert for exercising a matter of conscience, or penalized in some other way for not participating.

Brother Kenneth Hoagland, principal of the Uniondale school, says the challenge to the songs only brought to a head almost three years of conflict with the family who "did not accept the school's notion of Christianity."

Hoagland says the parents showed they "had no confidence in the school's administration." He advised them to "seek a school more in line with their philosophy."

The Kellenberg School was founded by the Marist Brothers. It's 98 percent Catholic and all students must be Christian.

Gaffey wants to see his daughter graduate from Kellenberg next year. Otherwise, he said, she most likely will attend Amityville High School in the fall. She ranks among the top 15 in a class of approximately 340 students.

Gaffey attended a Christian day school from kindergarten through second grade and then was home schooled until she started as a freshman at Kellenberg.

[ArGee]

He is dangerous!!!!!!!!

Shalom.

[rwfromkansas]

All he was doing was trying to protect his daughter. You are against that?

[southern rock]

So if I come to your house, you offer me a beer and I say, "Thanks, but I don't drink" -- you throw me out of the house and warn me not to come back?

Hey, I've done that. :)

[Tarheel-CRH]

SATAN seems to be working overtime in our school systems in America; he is obviously paying his union dues.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

You know what always makes me cry? It's the scene in Godspell where everyone is taking off their makeup during the last supper. I'm tearing up over that one even now.

You know, I've never seen Godspell even though I know some of the songs: your wife is crying, sighing, and your olive tree is dying. Temples are graying and teeth are decaying and credit is weighing your purse.

Is there a vid of it?

[rwfromkansas]

There is a problem when people start allowing uninspired hymns in worship.....it is not too long before people are having musicals in church like you are describing. That is why people like myself only sing Psalms in worship. Only what God has ordained for worship is safe to be acceptable in His perfect sight.

But anyway, about the subject at hand, they weren't forcing their views on the school simply by trying to exempt their daughter.

[stanz]

I've seen the film, but I best remember the Broadway production. This was a sixties version of the Christ story and came on the heels of other productions such as Godspell and Hair which were totally unconventional for the time.
Although many objected to the life of Christ performed as a contemporary piece, it really was a positive portrayal IMHO.

[southern rock]

I was just thinking about that scene from "All in the Family" where Archie Bunker is in the jail cell with all the hippies. One of them is listening to "Jesus Christ Superstar" on his transistor radio. Archie says something like "What is that noise". The hippie says, "Na man, that ain't noise. It's Jesus Christ Superstar. Don't you dig Christ?" Archie says, "Christ I dig, and I dug him long before you weirdos turned Him into a superstar". LOL!

[Political Junkie Too]

In an interview with Tim Rice, he said that they wanted to tell the story from the point of view of why Judas did what he did.

It makes Judas out as someone who is more activist in helping the poor and less interested in the "message."

Woman, your fine ointment, brand new and expensive, should have been saved for the poor. People who are hungry, people who are starving, matter more than your feet and hair.

-PJ

[southern rock]

Of course they have the right, but does that make it right? No.

Exactly!

[amused]

I guess "cruel" and "narrow minded" only applies to protestants.

Only the holier than thou ones. Considering some of the implied Catholic bashing on this thread, go play victim somewhere else.

[ArGee]

They did a movie but I never liked it as much as the various live plays I've seen. I go every time I can.

They play a song called On the Willows:
On the willows there
We hung up our lives
For our captors there
Required
Of us songs
And our tormentors, mirth

(repeat)

Saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

But how can we sing, sing the LORD's songs
In a foreign land?

On the willows there
We hung up our lives.

It's a great song on its own (one of the Psalms but I can't remember which one). But it's sung by the chorus, not the cast. The cast is helping each other take off their clown makeup, then hugging and crying. Jesus keeps his makeup on and is going from character to character sharing some physical memory with them (some gesture that had been associated with that person throughout the show) about the great times they had together.

The song ends with everyone in their normal face except Jesus, who is taken away and tried and crucified.

Oh, G-d, I'm dead!
Oh, G-d, You're dead!
Oh, G-d, You're dead!
Oh, G-d!

Long live G-d.
Long live G-d.
Long live G-d.
Long live G-d.
(descant)
Prepare ye the way of the LORD.
Prepare ye the way of the LORD.
Prepare ye the way of the LORD.
Prepare ye the way of the LORD!

Can you tell I loved it? Sorry everybody.

Shalom.

[Political Junkie Too]

Except, IIRC, it's "My mind is in darkness now."

Yes, you're correct. I alway get that wrong because it plays so well off of the first line. I believe that it bookends better as "My mind is darker now."

-PJ

[bootless]

It's the scene in Godspell where everyone is taking off their makeup during the last supper. I'm tearing up over that one even now.

Me, too. I took my son to see a very good production of Godspell a year-plus ago in NoCal - it was updated very nicely. The "Long Live God/Prepare Ye" ending ALWAYS makes me cry.

[LiteKeeper]

dittoes

[ArGee]

In an interview with Tim Rice, he said that they wanted to tell the story from the point of view of why Judas did what he did.

Jesus of Nazareth portrayed Judas as a zealot who thought Jesus was the key to throwing off Rome. He thought if the Priests only understood Jesus they would accept Him and crown Him king. People are always trying to excuse Judas. The Gospel simply paints him as an opportunistic thief.

Shalom.

[drjimmy]

Actually, the ending is even more complicated than that. Even though Judas has come to some understanding of what he has done, his mind is so utterly dark that he blames God for causing him to betray Jesus:
My mind is darkness now
My god I am sick
I've been used
And you knew
All the time
God I'll never ever know
Why you chose me for your crime
For your foul bloody crime
You have murdered me!
You have murdered me!

[RightWhale]

The Amityville...as in the movie?

Sure, but Amityville isn't as in the movie.

[Sloth]

I guess reaching people in Jesus' Name isn't nearly as important as making sure you do it in a denominationally blessed fashion.

The arrogance of writing a work like this is breathtaking. God's word isn't good enough, so I'll make up my own lines and put them in Jesus' mouth. Yeah, I'm sure that will score big points with the Lord, in light of passages like Rev. 22:18-19.