Posted on 06/20/2002 11:08:28 AM PDT by 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.
IMHO (and I've been studying the Bible for a long time) it was no more blasphemous or disrespectful than the made-for-TV movie "Jesus of Nazareth."
Of course, that probably makes me just as bad.
Shalom.
I thought the same thing the first time I heard it over 30 yrs. ago. But I've since read interviews with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber about their thoughts when they were writing it. They intended no disrespect, just wondered what it would have been like if Jesus had come to earth in the 20th century instead of the first. If you listen closely to the words, you'll see they are not mocking Jesus, except in those areas in which the Scripture mentions the mockery of the Pharisees and the Romans. It is simply a 'what if' done in the style of the times, that is, rock and roll. It actually shows the limitations of man's imagination when dealing with the power of God.
I've never thought rock and roll was the work of the devil, though some of the folks who sing it are questionable, so I never had a knee jerk reaction about the style of music. I've never seen it performed on stage, but Sir SuziQ and I walked out of the movie because Teddy Neely as Jesus had such a wimpy voice that it was very annoying and not enjoyable. I would love to see it done on stage by a really good cast sometime.
But this school sounds like they'd put up with about as much as they could stand with this family. If the family is not Catholic, it is no wonder they did not agree with stuff going on in the school, whether the school was more liberal or even more traditionally Catholic.
Every time I look at you I don't understand
why you let the things you did get so out of hand.
You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned.
Why'd you pick such a backward time in such a strange land?
If you'd come today you would have reached a whole nation!
Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.
The atheists will never understand G-d's ways. The lyrics were right on.
Shalom.
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?
If you read the whole song, it's her confusion on that "just a man" point that is causing her the trouble. She is only now awakening to her spirit and doesn't realize that it's the "more than just a man" that is causing her trouble.
I've been changed
yes, really changed
That said, I still don't think somone who really met Jesus and was touched by Him would have had that confusion.
Shalom.
This makes the entire production blasphemy. If you are real Christians, you should start noticing things like this.
This ain't up for grabs.
That's Mary M. reasoning with herself . . . trying to convince herself that she shouldn't be so hung up on him . . . "he's just a man." But as she sings she realizes he isn't just a man at all---he's much more. That's why she's confused.The musical is set in Jesus' time, not 2,000 years afterwards.
Nope. But if you re-read the whole article you will see that this was the straw that broke the camel's back. If you came into my house and picked at everything I did, then I'd toss you out after refusing a beer. It wouldn't be about the beer, it would be about your attitude.
Shalom.
Exactly. I think "Jesus of Nazareth" (was it a Franco Zeffirelli production?) was probably the best film about the life of Christ. Even though it was open to interpretation. The fact is, we only know what the Gospels tell us. The rest has been shaped by mere opinion over the centuries. We really don't know.
The actual original album ends with Jesus saying "Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit." followed by silence, and then the postlude called "John 3:16".
The movie with Ted Neely starts with a bunch of hippies driving a bus into the desert. They pull out props and costumes and then start to perform the play. That movie ends with everybody packing up and going home leaving Jesus hanging on the cross. Judas is looking at him thoughtfully as the bus pulls away.
For the record, Godspell ends with the cast bearing Jesus' body out of the theater singing "Long live God/Prepare Ye"
Shalom.
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