Will Meredith stay with Dr. McDreamy? Are Addison and Alex really going to get together? Will George's father pull through? All of these uncertainties surrounding the ABC hit Grey's Anatomy keep me glued to the television at 9 p.m. every Thursday night, snapping at anyone who tries to speak to me before the scenes from next week have been revealed. I own all of the seasons on DVD, have the cast as the wallpaper on my laptop and have been known to quote the show far too often in my away messages.
Although my experience with Grey's might seem a little obsessive, I recognize that it is just a show. The characters are fictional, and I do not base my life on them.
I figured that everyone understood that Grey's Anatomy is simply a source of entertainment, so you can imagine my shock when I was watching E! News (I know; I watch way too much TV) and I heard that there is a church in Georgia basing its sermons on the show. I was a little skeptical of the validity of the story ' as you should be when watching a news show that has weekly updates on Nicole Richie's weight changes ' but some research quickly showed that there is in fact a church implementing Grey's into its sermons.
Snellville United Methodist Church in Gwinnett County, Georgia, is exploring the spiritual lessons that can be learned from Grey's in an attempt to draw more parishioners from the young-adult demographic, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
During the church's services, clips from the show are played and some role-playing is used. The sermons analyze conflicts from the show and ask the question: How can I deal with that in a Christian way?
To be blunt, this is absolutely ridiculous. It is commendable to try to attract young people to the church, but this is not the way to go about it. If kids are really dead-set on not going, they are not going to start showing up to hear the pastor role-playing as a surgeon.
People flock to churches for different reasons. Some go for repentance, some go to pray and others go to learn. However, I bet that there are very few who say that they go for entertainment. Why would they start now?
Not only will this be ineffective, but I predict that it will also be counterproductive. It will probably fail to significantly increase the attendance of younger parishioners, but it will also likely decrease the attendance of the older members. For example, that elderly couple who has sat in the same seats every Sunday for the last 40 years is probably not going to appreciate the change.
Do we really want Grey's Anatomy to be the basis of the morals of the children of America? If the church wants to appeal to the younger crowd, perhaps they should try to discuss situations that kids actually go through. I doubt that most teenagers have had to deal with a majority of the issues portrayed by the fictional doctors of Seattle Grace Hospital, and perhaps having these mature issues presented to them in a church setting might push them in the wrong direction.
Will Grey's Anatomy be responsible for filling the pews of America's churches with eager teenagers? I doubt it, but I'll keep watching.
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Christina Stanek
Georgia church preaches with G
