FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS AND RELIGION

The choice of life, the beginning and the end, is still majorly influenced today by religion. [Ankeny, Jordens, Kerridge, Stephens, 2010] This is shown in Friday Night Lights through two characters, Becky and Erin. I will first be discussing how Christianity accepts abortion and then I will further explain how my research applies to Friday Night Lights.

 

 

 

“The Lutheran Church- Missouri synod in the USA maintains rather conservative standpoints and is strictly against the termination of pregnancy under all circumstances.” This quote here shows how Christians treat abortion. The church believes that ending a life is a sin and that “the child is a gift from God and it is necessary to gratefully accept this gift.” Within the church they try to educate Christians that abortion is wrong. It is wrong because within a mother there is a new life being formed. [Ankeny, Jordens, Kerridge, Stephens, 2010]. The idea of life being sacred arises a lot. It is not distinguishing that at what point does a fetus represents life. It is more that you are terminating the possibly of life, which is sacred. For some Christians it isn’t even the fetus that is the problem. If we take the fetus out of the abortion equation, why is it still wrong? Well, the main purpose for sex is procreation. It is classified as murder “because they blocked the only, divinely given, reason for sexual intercourse: procreation.” [Maguire, 2003].

Sometimes it is not as clear cut as abortion is wrong. Sometimes it might be a solution to two evils. In Lutheran theology and churches they have a twofold solution (“viewing abortion as morally wrong while tolerating a reasonable abortion law created by the state”). Even Jesus Christ addressed this problem with the Pharisees in Mathew 23:24. Jesus has to deal with the problem of healing people on the Sabbath. You are not supposed to do work on the Sabbath day but you cannot not heal someone, that is wrong. So Jesus makes the exception. The Pharisees had a problem with that since he was going against his own rule. “But Jesus, in spite of this still takes into account the consequences of moral actions and chooses the “lesser evil”’ this leads to the argument that you cannot force a women to carry a baby to term. [Ankeny, Jordens, Kerridge, Stephens, 2010]

“… [T]he Ameircan Baptist Churches, USA (1988) is an example of this: Recognizing that each person is ultimately responsible to God, we encourage women and men in these circumstances [of unplanned pregnancy] to seek spiritual counsel as they prayerfully and conscientiously consider their decision.” A strategy they think works is having the woman personally identify with the baby. Making the fetus “fully human with thoughts and feelings” or making them see picture of the baby or naming the baby. [Maguire, 2003].

 

 

 

Various young mothers in this article give their opinions of people who have abortions. This is one quote taken from the article to show their opinion. ‘When I asked Marisa, age 17 and the mother of a new born…” They did some bad things- things that scared me. I see children as a gift from God, even when they’ve been created from something that’s half wrong. These girls did something to get rid of the baby- to end the life of the baby… After that, they stopped coming to church because they’d let the Devil take over.” Father Cesaro states that he believes that young girls should not have abortions. The church should help the girls make pro-life decisions. He even says that going against the doctrine to teach teenagers about birth control and pre martial sex is “overall better than abortion” [Steele, 2011]

 

 

 

 

I will be discussing two pregnancies, one that results in an abortion and one that does not. Both girls considered not having a baby but only one goes through with terminating her pregnancy. 

 

Erin:

 

Erin is a character who is in the show for a very short period of time but has a major influence on a major character Jason Street. Jason Street was paralyzed after the pilot. Jason was told after he became paralyzed that both sex and children would not be possibility after the accident. Jason has a one night stand with a waitress, Erin, that he met while he was on a blind date with a different woman. Erin comes to Jason a little after that night and tells him that she is pregnant. For Jason this is a complete shock since he never thought this would be possible. When Erin comes to Jason she is unsure that she will keep the baby, especially where she doesn’t feel like she can support a baby financially. Jason tells her that she has to keep it because it is possibly his only chance to have a child. Erin does not appreciate this comment as shown below:

 

 

 

 

“You need to stop… You do not get to put that on me. I’m not some experiment for you to prove your manhood, Jason. This is my body, I am going to make the ultimate decision” [Leab, 2012]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erin decides after to keep the baby and Jason becomes a loving father to his son, Noah. This pregnancy reveals that the women have a choice with regards to her pregnancy. It is ultimately up to her whether she wants to keep the baby or not.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Becky:

 

Becky is a grade 10, high school student at East Dillon High. When Becky meets Tim Riggins she quickly falls in love with him. After he rejects her, she becomes very upset. She runs into Luke Cafferty, another high school student, at a store when she is trying to buy beer. Luke and Becky leave the store together and have sex. In episode 9, Becky finds out that she is pregnant. After she find out she goes to Luke and says that following:

 

“Look, I’ve got some bad news okay. I’m pregnant and its yours and I need an abortion.”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Becky asks Luke for financial support, she asks for him to pay for half of the money. Becky and Luke talk again later after this statement. Luke asks her if she has thought her decision through. Becky becomes very upset when he asks this because she says that if he does not want to be a part of this she can find the money. Luke says money is not the issue, he is just worried about her. He states that he has not been able to sleep the last few days since she told him. Luke says whatever decision she makes, that is the one she is going to have to live with for the rest of her life and for the rest of his. The idea of making a baby go away makes him feel really uncomfortable. 

 

Becky later tells Tim and she tells him that she is really scared. Tim after finding out brings her to Tami Taylor. "Tim knows that the Taylors are on of the more stable families in town and are used to counseling the youth of Dillion." [Seltzer, 2010] When Tami meets her the first thing she asks if she told her parents. Becky says she has not. Tami informs her that this is the first thing she should do. She then asks if the father knows. Becky tells her yes but she barely knows him and she does not love him. Becky asks what she should do. Tami gives her information about having the baby, like the teen clinic and adoption adjency. Then Becky asks her “what if I don’t want to keep the baby?” Tami says she can direct her to someone for that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Becky’s mom finds out she is very upset. Becky and her mom make an appointment to go to an abortion clinic. When they arrive there the doctors starts to inform Becky of her options. Her mother becomes very upset about this and tells the doctor she doesn’t care what the state mandates. On the other hand we see Luke’s reaction to the pregnancy as well. We see Luke struggle with the idea of Becky having a pregnancy. In this episode you see Luke up late one night. His father asks him what is wrong and he informs him of the pregnancy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later Luke’s mother tells him that she knows. She says to him “Mary and Joseph thought they were in this situation too at first.” Luke informs his mother that him and Becky are not Mary and Joseph. As you can see both Becky and Luke grew up in a completely different way. Luke was raised in a conservative Christian household. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before Becky’s abortion she goes to the Taylor household again. Becky asks Mrs. Taylor why she feels so weird. Tami says because it is a hard thing to do. “Have you thought about what you want?” Becky informs her that it is obvious that her mom wants her to have the abortion. Becky states to Ms.Taylor various reasons why she can’t have the baby. One reason that Becky aborts the baby is that she always felt like her mother regretted keeping her and she wouldn’t want to do that to her child[ Hanlon, 2010]. Becky asks Tami if she will go to Hell for have an abortion, Tami says she does not think she will go to Hell if she had an abortion.  After Becky has the procedure, she tells Luke that she believes that it was the right decision. "For the most part, we've watched a character arrive at this decision from an honest, intensely personal, non-ideological standpoint." [ Seltzer, 2010]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Managing a difficult abortion storyline was always going to be controversial for a television program and “Friday Night Lights” took a major risk in featuring it.” Friday Night Lights displays both sides of the abortion compared to most other shows only show one side. “Luke’s mother, for instance, is a religious woman who was grieving the death of her grandchild.” Luke’s mother reacts the way she does to Tami because she grieves the death of a new life and felt something could have been done to stop this. The flipside shows Becky’s mother, “a strong pro-choice voice…” “In fact, after a doctor tried to give Becky information about the child inside her, Becky’s mother became livid. She didn’t want to hear and didn’t choose to tell Becky about the other options that she had available to her.” Hanlon, 2010] 

 

Luke’s mother goes over to Becky’s house after the pregnancy. She asks Becky if it is okay to talk about what happened. Luke’s mother has an extremely hard time accepting the pregnancy. As shown by the priest and the teenager in my research above, many Christians have this same view. Luke’s mother sees it as the death of her grandchild. Luke’s mother never blames the abortion on either Luke or Becky she blames it on Tami Taylor. Tami gets a lot of flak for having advised Becky. Tami Taylor approaches Becky’s pregnancy like she would any other pregnancy that would have come to her when she was a counsellor. This can be shown by the questions and advice that Tami gives Becky. Pro-life town peoples believe that Tami pressured Becky into the pregnancy. The school board interferes with this problem, the tell Tami that Luke’s mother is trying to get Tami fired. Tami has a meeting with the school board and they agree that Tami followed protocol. Luke’s mother does not accept this and calls a newspaper to tell her story.  After the newspaper was printed, you see backlash from other pro-life people. 

 

“Those scenes were minimal as the show tried to depict what the public backlash would be is such news was printed on the front page of a local newspaper in such a small town.” The first instance of this is you see Tami arriving at the school and there are people with signs protesting her decision. Some of the signs say things like: “abortion is wrong” and “abortion stops a beating”. After this Tami is asked to give an apology. Tami prepares the apology and at the last minute does not go with the apology and says that she did what she did to support a child and that is her job and she is not going to apologize for helping someone. After Tami refuses to apologize, she is asked to take a leave of absence. However Tami asks them if instead she can go where she is needed which is East Dillon High as a counsellor.

 

Critics of the abortion plotline were that they should have shown Becky and Luke’s feelings about the abortion after it happened. This article was written by a pro-life advocate and she states that they did an “honorable” job. They state that even though they might not agree with her choice, they can understand that it is something that many teenagers face. “What pro-life advocates need to do is accept that reality and provide information to such teens about the options that are available to them other than abortion, options that should have been presented to Becky by her mother. If Becky had more information and her mother was more accepting, she could have realized that other options were much better than the one that she ultimately chose.” [Hanlon, 2010]. 

 

Religion can play a very important role in a pregnancy. Many people have the opinion that you cannot end a pregnancy because you are ending life. Others believe that it should be the woman’s choice of whether or not she wants to keep the baby. Friday Night Lights reveals how religion and choice are two important things to consider when deciding your pregnancy. Becky and Erin reveal how religious beliefs can play an important role in a pregnancy.