“Glee” creator Ryan Murphy delivered some good news and some bad news to Gleek fans like me in a recent TV Guide interview and he managed roll it all up in the same announcement. It seems that starting next season on “Glee” that New Directions will have a new member and that new member will definitely be a Christian. Murphy says in the interview that his reason for the cast change has to do with the series theme of being inclusive of all groups and points of view. That’s the good news.Then he gave some further hints of what to expect with the new character by adding that the character will make her beliefs known and sometimes her peers will agree with her and sometimes they won’t.
So how is that potentially bad news ?

Well,Murphy also hinted that the new character will not exactly be BFFs with Kurt because he is gay and that she will challenge some of the sexier elements of the New Directions choreography and music.
Really? A show as delightful and creative as “Glee” is going to settle for a stereotypical portrait of an uptight Christian girl who is judgmental about everything from a gay guy in the glee club to songs being too sexy? This is “Glee,” not “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” It actually doesn’t sound very inclusive to me at all.
Granted, I may be jumping to conclusions. A show that has created a character like Artie to be something more than a kid in the wheelchair and created a Cheerio who has special needs should be able to do something smarter and funnier with a Christian character than just make her a vessel for trudging familiar ground instead of finding a fresh, authentic way to bring faith to “Glee.”