Tuesday, May 08, 2012

"virginity" vs. "God" on Grey's Anatomy

I've been a die-hard Grey's Anatomy fan from the jump... and I'm still a Christian (imagine that!).  If you're not familiar with the show, it's about a group of young doctors working their way up the ranks of their medical careers, along with all the drama that swirls around in their lives while they do this.  Honestly, I like the medical content more than anything else but the characters have sucked me in. And I blame Shonda Rhimes for that, but anyway...  Something specific in the episode that aired last week, Let the Bad Times Roll, seriously disturbed me so I decided to chop it up here.

One character, April Kepner, stands out from the rest [at least, she did, until last week] as the only virgin in the group of mostly promiscuous physicians.  She confessed this one or two seasons ago but I don't recall if she ever shared why she never had sex up to that point.  Welp, fast-forward to the present where all of the young doctors travel to take their board exams and--to make a long story short--April gets drunk, gets aggressive, and gets laid (by one of her colleagues).  To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement... not just at the fact that she gave it up so casually, but her [physical] demeanor right after the act was portrayed in a way that I found to be simply unrealistic.

I was pissed off enough up to that point, but when April is shown coming to grips with her actions the next day--of her board exam--she becomes completely hysterical... and then starts talkin' bout Jesus... something to the effect that she had remained a virgin because she loved Jesus and now that she is no longer one, Jesus no longer loved her.

Now let me make it clear--I fully understand the guilt and shame that comes with doing something sinful and feeling like you let God down.  My angst is directed towards the scriptwriter [once again, that would be Shonda Rhimes] for playing the "J card" now that April did something 'wrong', as opposed to mentioning April's Christian convictions from the jump.  And to add insult to injury, April later delves into a monologue in which she basically questions why she even had said convictions to begin with. *spoiler alert*  Finally, she discovers that she's the only doctor of the group to fail the boards.

April's end result said one thing to me--and possibly to other viewers, as well: God punished her [i.e. "no longer loved her"] for losing her virginity outside of marriage.  Am I saying that God doesn't exact consequences for breaking His rules?  Not at all.  Do I think that this obviously non-Christian TV show should have used this opportunity to show an example of God's grace and mercy?  Possibly.  But the major bone I have to pick here is that Jesus was used as the 'fall guy'.  He is wrongfully accused by April on account of her own guilty conscience, after which she essentially dismisses her faith in Him and then she fails the biggest exam of her life (and that's His fault too, obviously).  How convenient to leave the Lord out of the picture until things start going wrong and then highlight His ineptitude/vengeance.  Seriously...

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