I’ve become a loyal viewer of the ABC drama Nashville. The story sort of comes and goes—here it’s a subtly observed relationship drama, there it’s an off-the-rails primetime soap—but it’s perhaps the first TV musical with consistently great music direction, and some of the performers are pretty good, too. So I wait the silly story lines out and keep watching.
Last week’s episode followed young country star Juliette Barnes through the aftermath of her confrontation with a conservative Christian protester. He saltily disapproved of her relationship with a married man; she retorted that “there is no God—[unlikely pause]—who would something something something”; the internets people clipped it after “God”; God-fearing country fans went ballistic.
But Juliette does believe in God, guys! So in last week’s episode, she goes to church to pray. Specifically, it appears, to an Episcopal church—note the pew copies of The Hymnal 1982 and Lift Every Voice and Sing:
