Wicked: How Do You Respond To Injustice?

May 21, 2025 by Ethos Team

Assembly Objective:

How should we respond to situations of injustice? When we are bombarded by news about situations that are unfair we can respond by feeling angry, overwhelmed or apathetic. This assembly invites students to consider a biblical response to injustice. Through the account of Jesus overturning the tables in the temples, students will reflect on justice and righteous anger and consider the response of prayer.

Film:

Wicked (Universal Pictures, 2024, certificate PG). Click here to buy the DVD online.

Bible:

Mark 11:15-19 (NIRV)

Supporting Values Education:

The value of Individual Liberty affirms each person’s right to self-determination, but the values of Democracy, Respect and Tolerance call us to live as part of a community. This assembly encourages pupils to consider the appropriate response to situations of unfairness and injustice.

OPENING ACTIVITY

Flip Out, Freak Out or Opt Out

Use the Flip Out, Freak Out, Opt Out PowerPoint to present the group with a series of scenarios to consider. Explain that you are going to ask them to think about their responses. Ask them to be honest, and not just to choose the same answer as their friend. Depending on the group, you could ask students to raise their hands in answer to each slide, or to think about it silently. You could ask one or two students to share their responses.

The definitions on the slide are:

Flip out = get angry and take action

Freak out = feel overwhelmed and upset but don’t do anything

Opt out = can’t be bothered to do anything, so do nothing

These broadly mirror the Fight/Flight/Freeze response, so although the activity is lighthearted, it’s rooted in a serious response to trauma, so be alert to anything that might come up.

Finish the activity by making the point that people respond in different ways in different situations. Some people are triggered by particular things, and people express anger in different ways.

FILM CLIP

Play the clip from Wicked (Universal Pictures, 2024, certificate PG)
Start time: 01:27:04 (Beginning of chapter 12 – students walking to class)
End time: 01:34:32
Clip length: 7 mins 28 seconds

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is on her way to her history class when she bumps into Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and has a brief conversation with him. On arrival she tries to offer her teacher, Dr Dillamond (a goat, voiced by Peter Dinklage), a bouquet of poppies, but he tells her this is not the time. He proceeds to tell the students that this will be his last day at Shiz University, as animals are no longer permitted to teach. As he is speaking, a group of soldiers march in to the room and arrest Dr Dillamond. As the class looks on in horror at their brutality, Elphaba protests that this shouldn’t be permitted. The goat is dragged away shouting that they are not being told the whole story. Elphaba asks her fellow students if they are all just going to sit in silence. Everyone sits and Elphaba is told to take her seat. The new history professor wheels in a trolley bearing a cage in which cowers a lion cub. He tells them that they should not merely study the past but look to the future. He tells them that the cage is a remarkable innovation for the good of Oz. Elphaba asks why the cub is trembling if it’s so good. The teacher tells the class the cub is happy to be there, and adds that because of the cage, the lion will probably never speak. Elphaba, thinking of Dr Dillamond, is furious and demands that someone do something. She thumps the desk, releasing pollen from the bouquet of poppies. Everyone except Fiyero falls asleep. Fiyero steps forward and releases the cub from the cage, then he and Elphaba cycle into the woods to release it into the wild. Everyone else is still asleep. In the woods, Fiyero asks Elphaba why she is always causing such a commotion. She asks if he thinks she should just keep her mouth shut, and challenges him, saying that the fact that he could have walked away but didn’t shows that he is not as shallow and self-absorbed as he pretends to be. When he protests that he is indeed shallow and deeply self-absorbed, she tells him that this is not true, as otherwise he wouldn’t be so unhappy.

TALK

Download the Wicked PowerPoint for use with this talk.

Scripted Talk

[PowerPoint slide 1]
- Welcome to our assembly today. When was the last time you got angry? Maybe you’re the sort of person who kicks off when someone queue jumps in the queue for lunch, or perhaps you’re more of a slow burner. You stay calm for a long time and then something will tip you over the edge and make you furious. Perhaps you don’t get angry at all. We’re all different.
[PowerPoint slide 2]
- When life feels uncertain or confusing, people respond in different ways, and when we see or experience something unfair it can make some of us feel angry and want to pick a fight. Some people, though, respond to troubling situations by feeling overwhelmed and anxious. That in turn might mean that they don’t do anything about an unfair situation – they freeze and do nothing. Others respond by avoiding thinking about the problem and walking away. In that situation, when faced with something unfair or threatening, their first reaction is get away fast, or to flee.
[PowerPoint slide 3]
- Maybe you can think of people or situations where you’ve seen someone fight, freeze or flee.
- Let’s take the example of someone being bullied. Imagine for a minute that you noticed a younger pupil being bullied by someone you knew. I wonder how you would react. You might want to get involved and stick up for the person being bullied. You might feel frozen, not quite believing what you were seeing and unable to decide what to do. You might want to get away fast in case the bullies turned on you. Fighting, freezing and fleeing are all natural responses that human beings have to difficult situations.
[PowerPoint slide 4]
- In today’s assembly we’re going to watch some people respond to a stressful, unfair situation, and we’re going to look at an example of someone responding to injustice from the Bible. Let’s begin with the first situation. In the musical, Wicked, the character Elphaba has faced unfairness and prejudice all her life. Elphaba is green in colour, unlike anyone else at Shiz University where she studies. In the Land of Oz, where Wicked is set, animals can talk, and have an equal place in society. Elphaba’s professor of History is a goat called Dr Dillamond, but things are about to change in Oz. Let’s find out how Elphaba responds to the unfair treatment of Dr Dillamond.
  - Play the clip from Wicked (Universal Pictures, 2024, certificate PG)
  - Start time: 01:27:04 (Beginning of chapter 12 – students walking to class)
  - End time: 01:34:32
  - Clip length: 7 mins 28 seconds
- Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is on her way to her history class when she bumps into Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and has a brief conversation with him. On arrival she tries to offer her teacher, Dr Dillamond (a goat, voiced by Peter Dinklage), a bouquet of poppies, but he tells her this is not the time. He proceeds to tell the students that this will be his last day at Shiz University, as animals are no longer permitted to teach. As he is speaking, a group of soldiers march in to the room and arrest Dr Dillamond. As the class looks on in horror at their brutality, Elphaba protests that this shouldn’t be permitted. The goat is dragged away shouting that they are not being told the whole story. Elphaba asks her fellow students if they are all just going to sit in silence. Everyone sits and Elphaba is told to take her seat. The new history professor wheels in a trolley bearing a cage in which cowers a lion cub. He tells them that they should not merely study the past but look to the future. He tells them that the cage is a remarkable innovation for the good of Oz. Elphaba asks why the cub is trembling if it’s so good. The teacher tells the class the cub is happy to be there, and adds that because of the cage, the lion will probably never speak. Elphaba, thinking of Dr Dillamond, is furious and demands that someone do something. She thumps the desk, releasing pollen from the bouquet of poppies. Everyone except Fiyero falls asleep. Fiyero steps forward and releases the cub from the cage, then he and Elphaba cycle into the woods to release it into the wild. Everyone else is still asleep. In the woods, Fiyero asks Elphaba why she is always causing such a commotion. She asks if he thinks she should just keep her mouth shut, and challenges him, saying that the fact that he could have walked away but didn’t shows that he is not as shallow and self-absorbed as he pretends to be. When he protests that he is indeed shallow and deeply self-absorbed, she tells him that this is not true, as otherwise he wouldn’t be so unhappy.
[PowerPoint slide 5]
- Elphaba was furious at the way Dr Dillamond was being treated. Not only that, but she understood that putting the lion cub, or any animal, in a cage would mean that they would no longer be allowed to talk, and that they would be discriminated against. It wasn’t easy for Elphaba to speak up. Everyone else in the class stayed silent, but she couldn’t stop herself from reacting angrily to the injustice she saw.
[PowerPoint slide 6]
- Elphaba’s response to the situation was to stand up and fight for the rights of Dr Dillamond and the lion cub.
[PowerPoint slide 7]
- Because Wicked is set in a fictional land of talking animals and magic, Elphaba’s angry outburst caused the poppies to send everyone to sleep apart from Fiyero, her fellow student. Until this point in the story, Fiyero had acted as though he didn’t care about anything. He’d been fairly frozen about injustice. However, when given the opportunity to take action, he seized the cub and escaped with Elphaba to the woods.
[PowerPoint slide 8]
- Did you notice what Elphaba noticed about Fiyero? She told him that she didn’t believe he was as shallow and self-absorbed as he pretended. She could see that he cared about the injustice he saw. She was also aware that she found it hard not to open her mouth and speak out about injustice, even when she knew it would get her into trouble.
[PowerPoint slide 9]
- Although life was harder for Elphaba when she spoke up, she couldn’t help but challenge unfairness.
[PowerPoint slide 10]
- Anger can be unhelpful if it is uncontrolled or violent. Selfish anger doesn’t make any situation better, but righteous anger is the type of anger that Elphaba experienced. Righteous anger is a response to an unfair situation or treatment of other people.
- In the Bible, there is an account of a time where Jesus, the Son of God, showed righteous anger.
[PowerPoint slide 11]
- Before we read what happened, we need a bit of background to the story which takes place in a large temple, a holy building. Around the temple building there was a courtyard, which was meant to be a place of reverence and respect for God. It was meant to be a place where people could come and worship God, pray and feel peaceful. When they passed through the courtyard, they would take sacrifices to burn in the temple. In those days, some traders had set up in the courtyard, selling sacrificial animals. What had been intended as a peaceful, reverent space had become noisy and a place where people were being charged a lot of money to come in and worship God. Let’s find out what happened when Jesus visited the temple.
[PowerPoint slide 12]
- Mark 11:15-19 (NIRV).
- When Jesus reached Jerusalem, he entered the temple courtyard. He began to drive out those who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of the people who were exchanging money. He also turned over the benches of those who were selling doves. He would not allow anyone to carry items for sale through the temple courtyard. Then he taught them. He told them, “It is written that the Lord said, ‘My house will be called a house where people from all nations can pray.’ But you have made it a ‘den for robbers.’ ”
- The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard about this. They began looking for a way to kill Jesus. They were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples left the city.
[PowerPoint slide 13]
- Jesus was furious at what he saw in the temple, and he responded angrily. He didn’t freeze, and he didn’t flee, but he fought against the injustice. It may seem strange to us to think about him pushing over the tables and benches. It doesn’t seem like very good behaviour, but I wonder if you noticed what Jesus said?
[PowerPoint slide 14]
- He said that the temple was meant to be a place of prayer, but that the people in the courtyard had turned it into a den for robbers.
- The courtyard of the temple was meant to be a place where people could meet God – a place that was free to enter and peaceful. Instead, it had become a noisy place where people were being charged a lot of money for the privilege of being there. This made Jesus angry. Jesus didn’t spend his life turning over tables for no reason. Most of the time we read about how he healed people, fed the hungry and taught them about God’s love. On this particular occasion, though, he was furious at the way people were being treated unfairly by other people who claimed to be religious. He was also furious at how people were disrespecting God.
[PowerPoint slide 15]
- Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, so they believe that what made him angry was what makes God angry too. God is full of love for everyone in the world, and what makes him angry is when any of his people are treated unfairly or exploited. But standing up to unfairness can get us into trouble, a bit like Elphaba in the film.
[PowerPoint slide 16]
- I wonder if you noticed what happened at the end of the bible passage we read? It says that from that point onwards, the religious leaders looked for a way to kill Jesus. Standing up for what is right can make us unpopular.
[PowerPoint slide 17]
- We’ve been thinking about what makes us angry in this assembly. Maybe it’s bullying, maybe it’s unfairness, maybe it’s the mistreatment of people or animals. That sort of anger is righteous. It provokes us to take action. That’s not the same as being bad-tempered or violent. Standing up to unfairness or injustice means fighting for what is right, not taking revenge or being aggressive for selfish reasons.
[PowerPoint slide 18]
- When we see something unfair or unjust we might fight, flee or freeze, but there is also something else we can do. Because of Jesus, and because he died for us, we can come to God and pray about any situation we see, or anything that is happening to us.
- Let’s finish our assembly by doing that.

Headings and Bullets

Download the Wicked PowerPoint for use with this talk.

[PowerPoint slide 1]
- When was the last time you got angry?
- Do you kick off when someone queue jumps in the queue for lunch?
- Are you a slow burner?
- Do you stay calm at all times?
[PowerPoint slide 2]
- We’re all different.
- When life feels uncertain or confusing, people respond in different ways.
- When we see or experience something unfair it can make some of us feel angry and want to pick a fight.
- Some people feel overwhelmed and anxious and then freeze and do nothing.
- Some respond by walking away or flee the scene.
[PowerPoint slide 3]
- Example of fight, freeze or flee.
- Imagine you noticed a younger pupil being bullied by someone you knew.
- You might want to get involved and stick up for the person being bullied.
- You might feel frozen, not quite believing what you were seeing and unable to decide what to do.
- You might want to get away fast in case the bullies turned on you.
- Fighting, freezing and fleeing are all natural responses that human beings have to difficult situations.
[PowerPoint slide 4]
- Introduce the clip. In the musical, Wicked, the character Elphaba has faced unfairness and prejudice all her life. Elphaba is green in colour, unlike anyone else at Shiz University where she studies.
- In the Land of Oz, where Wicked is set, animals can talk, and have an equal place in society.
- Elphaba’s professor of History is a goat called Dr Dillamond, but things are about to change in Oz.
- Play the clip from Wicked (Universal Pictures, 2024, certificate PG).
[PowerPoint slide 5]
- Elphaba was furious at the way Dr Dillamond was being treated.
- She understood that putting the lion cub, or any animal, in a cage would mean that they would no longer be allowed to talk, and that they would be discriminated against.
- It wasn’t easy for Elphaba to speak up.
- Everyone else in the class stayed silent, but she couldn’t stop herself from reacting angrily to the injustice she saw.
[PowerPoint slide 6]
- Elphaba’s response to the situation.
- Stand up and fight for the rights of Dr Dillamond and the lion cub.
[PowerPoint slide 7]
- Wicked is set in a fictional land of talking animals and magic.
- Elphaba’s angry outburst caused everyone to sleep apart from Fiyero, her fellow student.
- Fiyero had acted as though he didn’t care about anything.
- He’d been fairly frozen about injustice.
- However, when given the opportunity to take action, he seized the cub and escaped with Elphaba to the woods.
[PowerPoint slide 8]
- What Elphaba noticed about Fiyero.
- She didn’t believe he was shallow and self-absorbed.
- She could see that he cared about the injustice.
- She found it hard not to open her mouth and speak out, even when it would get her into trouble.
[PowerPoint slide 9]
- Life was harder for Elphaba when she spoke up.
- But she couldn’t help but challenge unfairness.
[PowerPoint slide 10]
- Anger can be unhelpful if it is uncontrolled or violent.
- Selfish anger doesn’t make any situation better.
- Righteous anger is the type of anger that Elphaba experienced.
- Righteous anger is a response to an unfair situation or treatment of other people.
[PowerPoint slide 11]
- Righteous anger in the Bible.
- Background to the story which takes place in a large temple, a holy building.
- Around the temple building there was a courtyard, which was meant to be a place of reverence and respect for God.
- A place where people could come and worship God, pray and feel peaceful.
- What had been intended as a peaceful, reverent space had become noisy.
- People were being charged a lot of money to come in and worship God.
[PowerPoint slide 12]
- Mark 11:15-19 (NIRV).
[PowerPoint slide 13]
- Jesus was furious at what he saw in the temple.
- He responded angrily.
- He didn’t freeze, and he didn’t flee.
- He fought against the injustice.
- It may seem strange to us to think about him pushing over the tables and benches.
- It doesn’t seem like very good behaviour.
[PowerPoint slide 14]
- Jesus said the temple was meant to be a place of prayer, but that the people in the courtyard had turned it into a den for robbers.
- The courtyard of the temple was meant to be a place where people could meet God – a place that was free to enter and peaceful.
- Jesus didn’t spend his life turning over tables for no reason.
- Most of the time we read about how he healed people, fed the hungry and taught them about God’s love.
- On this particular occasion, he was furious at the way people were being treated unfairly by other people who claimed to be religious.
- He was also furious at how people were disrespecting God.
[PowerPoint slide 15]
- Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
- They believe that what made him angry was what makes God angry too.
- God is full of love for everyone in the world, and what makes him angry is when any of his people are treated unfairly or exploited.
- But standing up to unfairness can get us into trouble.
[PowerPoint slide 16]
- From that point onwards the religious leaders looked for a way to kill Jesus.
- Standing up for what is right can make us unpopular.
[PowerPoint slide 17]
- What makes us angry?
- Bullying.
- Unfairness.
- Mistreatment of people or animals.
- Disrespecting God.
- Righteous anger provokes us to take action.
- Not the same as being bad-tempered or violent.
- Standing up to unfairness or injustice means fighting for what is right, not taking revenge or being aggressive for selfish reasons.
[PowerPoint slide 18]
- A fourth response.
- When we see something unfair or unjust we might fight, flee or freeze.
- We can come to God and pray about any situation we see.

Photo copyright for Flip Out, Freak Out, Opt Out PowerPoint: Slide 1 Pixabay.com / Slide 2 Pixabay.com / Slide 3 Pixabay.com / Slide 4 Pixabay.com / Slide 5 Pixabay.com / Slide 6 Pixabay.com / Slide 7 Pixabay.com / Slide 8 Pixabay.com / Slide 9 Pixabay.com

Photo copyright for Wicked PowerPoint: Slide 1 Pixabay.com / Slide 2 Pixabay.com / Slide 3 fight Pixabay.com freeze Pixabay.com run away photo by Socyo at Freeimages.com / Slide 4 Universal Studios / Slide 5 Universal Studios / Slide 6 Universal Studios / Slide 7 Universal Studios / Slide 8 Universal Studios / Slide 9 Universal Studios / Slide 10 photo by Bananastock at Freeimages.com / Slide 11 image 5 Courtesy of Lumo Project Films – www.lumoproject.com / Slide 12 image 6 Courtesy of Lumo Project Films – www.lumoproject.com / Slide 13 image 4 Courtesy of Lumo Project Films – www.lumoproject.com / Slide 14 image 5 Courtesy of Lumo Project Films – www.lumoproject.com / Slide 15 Pixabay.com / Slide 16 image 14 Courtesy of Lumo Project Films – www.lumoproject.com / Slide 17 Pixabay.com / Slide 18 Pixabay.com / Slide 19 photo by John Foxx at Freeimages.com / Slide 20 Porapak Apichodilok

RESPOND

Prayer

[PowerPoint slide 19]
- Father God
- Help us to know the difference between righteous anger and selfish anger.
- When we want to fight back, help us to know how to speak up.
- When we freeze, help us to know what to do.
- When we want to flee, help us find courage to be strong.
- Bring an end to unfairness, injustice and exploitation in our lives and across the world.
- Thank you that you love us and that you stand up to injustice.
- Amen.

Reflection

[PowerPoint slide 20]
- Invite students to think about any situations of injustice or unfairness in the world that come to mind. This might be a country affected by conflict or natural disaster, a group of people who are oppressed or an individual they know of.
- If appropriate, ask students to share some of the situations with the group or to write the situation onto a piece of paper or post-it note and stick it to a map or globe.
- Take a moment of quiet to think about those in need, and to think about how you could help them by speaking up.

YOU WILL NEED:

A copy of Wicked (Universal Pictures, 2024, certificate PG). Click here to buy the DVD online.
Flip Out, Freak Out, Opt Out PowerPoint for Opening Activity.
Wicked PowerPoint.
Post-it notes or other resources you might need for the Reflection.

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