Background Audio... Clip #1: Linus: What do you think Ms. Hatzilakos would do if we went on there and told everyone what we believed? Ms. Anti-Christian. Spinner: It’s like we’re the bad guys. Linus: The system is against us

Spinner: Well I’m sick of it. Linus: That’s the spirit bro. We’ve got to take this school back. Make it safe for the normal people. Clip #2 Spinner: Girls could I interest you in this interesting pamphlet about Jesus? Paige: Um Spinner may I suggest methadone to uh kick the Christian habit? Spinner: It’s not a habit Paige. It’s for life and beyond. (transcripts from Degrassi:The Next Generation Transcripts)

Background Info...

When it comes to Degrassi: TNG there is not much background information on issues dealing with Christianity. Season five is the first time we are really introduced to there even being a presence of the Religion at

Degrassi Community School. Though there is no background on the presence of the religion, there are backgrounds to the two characters who later get involved with the religion. Gavin Mason, a.k.a Spinner. Spinner is Gavin's nickname because he has A.D.D and if he don't take his pills he gets pretty hyper. Early on we find out that Spinner is the school bully and is always picking on the younger kids, like J.T and Toby. Later Spinner even gets involved with the law. He steals Jimmy's I-Pod and later pulls a prank on a psychotic student. Spinner and his friends decide it would be funny to tar a fellow student and feather him. They pull this prank and then pretend that Jimmy was the cause of it. Jimmy was actually the one who said that they shouldn't go ahead with the prank. Rick, the psychotic student, can't take much more of the bullyinh and brings a gun to school. He aims the gun at Emma but Jimmy jumps in to try and save Emma and gets shot himself. When everything is found out, Spinner is expelled from school. The next year when Spinner is allowed to return, he is a year behind and meets up with Darcy.

Darcy first showed up on Degrassi: TNG in season four. At this time she was considered more of an extra. Her only significant story line was that she was a member of the "Spirit Squad", Degrassi's

Cheerleaders. She was also one of the cheerleaders who dropped Paige from the pyramid, causing her to break her leg. It can be seen that Darcy was probably a diva who liked to be the center of attention, which is part of the reason they dropped Paige. They thought she was stealing all their attention. Season five when Spinner returns from being expelled and meets Darcy, she comes across as nice. She offers to help him with any work he might need help with and to just be a friend while the rest of his friends turned their back on him (because of the shooting). We see Darcy in a different light than we did in season four. Later, when Darcy invites Spinner to "Friendship Club" we understand why she's changed. She is now part of Degrassi's Christian Society at school. Spinner gets kind of freaked out by the whole Christian thing but when he finds out Darcy is just another normal teen girl, he gives in and gets saved. Soon after they start dating. This leads to a lot of complications.

Issues Concerning Religion...

The episode "Redemption Song" (season 5, episode 10) is where we first get a glimpse of Spinner as a Christian. This

episode starts off introducing us to what is known as a Christian Youth Retreat. Basically what it is is when a bunch of Christian youth get together and share their thoughts, opinions, and just have fun with other people who believe the same thing they do. Jay, Spinner's old friend, hears about this retreat. He finds out that Spinner is going to be spending a weekend at camp with Darcy. Jay decides to get to Darcy's head by telling her that Spinner won't stay with her unless she has sex with him. This is where the issues of pre-marital sex within the Christian tradition comes up. Also, Jay can almost be seen as the devil on the shoulder type of character in this episode. When Darcy realizes that she really does love Spinner, she don't want to lose him. She goes to give him what he wants. When Spinner finds out what Jay said, he confronts Jay. Jay tells Spinner that he was only trying to do a friend a favour and this is when Spinner punches him. Spinner tells him that this is not what he wants. He then tells Darcy that he will love her no matter what.

"I Against I" (season 5, episode 14) was a more controversial episode. It starts off at a Carnival where "Friendship Club" is passing out pamphlets about Jesus and raising money for

charity/missions. While "Friendship Club" are passing out Christian pamphlets, at the same time Marco and his friends are passing out posters for a safe sex seminar with free condoms. When "Friendship Club" finds this out, Linus (the club president), gets angered. He knows that Spinner, now a member-at-large, used to be friends with Marco and so he tells Spinner to try and talk Marco out of putting off the seminar. Spinner is on successful. Linus comes up with a new plan. He knows that giving teens condoms are only going to encourage them to have sex and therefore this has to be stopped. "Friendship Club", without the help of Darcy, makes signs to protest the seminar, saying abstinece is the safest way. When "Friendship Club" shows up to protest. Marco and Linus get into a heated debate. Linus finally takes a blow at Marco by telling him that being a freak is better than being a homo (discussed in the Homosexuality section of this site). This causes yet another fist fight in which a Christian is involved. The homosexual comments is what made this episode a little controversial. Also, the extreme reactions of Spinner and Linus also made Christians mad at this show, saying that it didn't portray them as they really are. The thing that was over looked in this episode was Darcy's reactions. Darcy mentions how Christians are supposed to look on people with love and not fight. Darcy is also one of the people who don't take part in the protest, showing that she is mature and knows that Christians are supposed to live in love and peace.

Pre-marital sex is one of the main issues covered under Christianity in Degrassi: TNG. Abstience is the best policy according to Spinner and Linus. In Degrassi: TNG we also see some extreme Christians who have loud voices. They never hesitate to do what they think is right, the "work of God". They think that bullying people and telling them what is right and wrong is going to make for a better world. They are also very closed minded people and discourage anything that they don't agree with. All except Darcy that is. Darcy, although she has a bad past, seems to understand people. She looks on people with love and don't bring people down or hurt them in anyway. She also shows the side of Christianity that people never look at. The side that when people do look at it, they call it hypocritical. Darcy, although she is living a good life, almost gave into peer pressure. She didn't want Spinner to leave. This shows the side of Christianity where Christians do make mistakes. They aren't perfect droids like most people think. They aren't doing what's right twenty four hours of the day. This is a more realistic look at how a Christian lives.