SO MUCH GLORY IN GOD
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The Reverend Adams has done well by his church, Noah’s Christian Habitat and Church of God, whose programs to aid the poor and address the problems of drug and alcohol abuse are so successful that they have attracted media attention and Adams has been appointed by the mayor to implement a citywide program. All is not orderly in Adams’s own house, however. Brother Jordan, a member of the church board, has taken it into his head that what the church community needs is not more social programs but a new building commensurate with its new prestigious position. To achieve his goal, he is not above the use of Machiavellian tactics, including trying to seduce the pastor’s daughter Staci. Recently returned from school, Staci chafes under the authority of her father, whose attention to his work has led him to neglect his own family.
Ironically, all these people claim to be doing what they do in the name of their Lord–and so they are, for Shine is no Protestant Christopher Durang, setting up cartoon hypocrites so that we can giggle at them. The temptation to put the self ahead of the job is all too human, and the Reverend Adams reminds us over and over that we in the audience should not think ourselves any less foolish or misguided than these characters–we are assumed to be members of the congregation, requested but not required to participate in the service. (His reminder was ignored by one audience member, who chortled “Cat Daddy!” at the sight of Brother Jordan preparing to put the move on the innocent Staci.) Nor does the leader of the flock exclude himself from his own caveats. “As the pastor, you’re put upon a pedestal,” he says. “People think of you as some sort of supreme being. But all you are is another servant of the Lord, and when you sin you must go to the Lord the same as they do.”
