History Main / ChurchOfSaintGenericus

* Eli and his two wards from ''HotLeadAndColdFeet'' belong to a faith that espouses a lot of mumbo-jumbo about "human kindness," and Eli at least has some familiarity with TheBible, but the movie reveals zero details beyond that. When he gets his own church at the end, there aren't any holy symbols to be seen.

* Eli and his two wards from ''HotLeadAndColdFeet'' belong to a faith that espouses a lot of mumbo-jumbo about "human kindness," and Eli at least has some familiarity with TheBible, but the movie reveals zero details beyond that.

* Pictured above in {{Up}}, Carl sits at the chapel, mourning his wife. No explicit holy symbols are shown.

* Creator/{{Pixar}} has a fondness for this trope, it's used in the wedding scene in ''TheIncredibles''.

[[caption-width-right:350:Not everyone believes in the Great Purple Lilac, but don't argue about it now. This is a funeral.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:It's actually the Church of the Purple Lilac, a denomination of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syringa Oleaceae Syringa]].]]

* BenjaminFranklin wrote about a building designed to accommodate preachers of all religions in his [[http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/chapt10/ autobiography]]. This building was created after a wandering Irish preacher was forbidden to preach in churches and had to preach outside, drawing huge crowds. Franklin said that "even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach [[UsefulNotes/Islam Mohammedanism]] to us, he would find a pulpit at his service."

Compare JesusTaboo. Contrast ChristianityIsCatholic. See also CrystalDragonJesus and SaintlyChurch.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' went in the opposite direction and has an amalgamated world church that merges ''every'' religion.

** "Pastor Smith" is indeed a Protestant title. But [=RCs=] call the priest in charge of a parish "the pastor". (This IS {{Natter}} because I don't know and am not about to find out which case applies in this Hidden Object game, but I hope someone who knows will fix it one way or the other.)

To avoid PeopleSitOnChairs from cases where the denomination of a church [[LawOfConservationOfDetail wouldn't be expected to play much of a part in the plot]], these examples '''[[color:red:shouldn't be included as examples.]]''' For example, a lot of films have newlyweds driving away from an unidentified church -- here, the church is used mainly as a signifier that this couple is just married, and its denomination isn't at all important to the plot.

[[caption-width-right:350:It's actually the Church of The Purple Lilac, a denomination of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syringa Oleaceae Syringa.]]]]

In works of fiction, the habit of not mentioning or showing the specific denomination (or even religion) of a temple, church, or place of worship where the denomination would be '''''expected''''' to play a role. This can take the form of using a generic/made up denomination name in place of a real one, not identifying the church or combining traits of different denominations to confuse the issue.

This trope is usually used to introduce religion while avoiding it entering too deeply or divisively into a show, a sort of LawOfConservationOfDetail used to keep from distracting the audience. Similar to JesusTaboo, this trope is sometimes purposely used to avoid accusations of favoring/disfavoring a religion, especially when used to avoid marketing mishaps in children's media. Usually they just have a steeple, pews, a dais and generic stained glass windows without direct symolic links (such as crosses or angels) that could be identified or interpreted as a specific denomination.

Interestingly, this trope is very much TruthInTelevision. Much like SecularHero and JesusTaboo are common in communities that have diverse religious practices, it's common to see non-denominational "places of worship" in funeral homes, wedding chapels, hospitals and airports in these communities.

To avoid PeopleSitOnChairs from cases where the denomination of a church [[LawOfConservationOfDetail wouldn't be expected to play much of a part in the plot]], these examples '''[[color:red:shouldn't be included as examples.]]''' For example a lot of films have newlyweds driving away from an unidentified church -- here, the church is used mainly as a signifier that this couple is just married, and its denomination isn't at all important to the plot.

* In ''[[Film/TwoThousandTwelve 2012]]'', the White House has a non-denominational chapel with pews and stained glass art of doves. Interesting considering that not long before the Vatican was destroyed by earthquakes and not long after a Tibetan Buddhist monastery is destroyed by a tsunami.

* Pixar has a fondness for this trope, it's used in the wedding scene in ''TheIncredibles''.

* {{Redwall}} Abbey. Aside from being a monastery, no religion is referred to.
** Possibly a different trope: It's almost an Abbey to Saint Martin...
* The murder mystery anthology ''Board To Death''; all three of the protagonists are openly Christian, but attend specifically non-denominational churches.

* On ''{{Amen}}'' the church's denomination(if it had one) was never mentioned.
* A church Rick Grimes goes into in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' appears on the outside to be a Baptist-style church (the marquee says "Southern Baptist Church of Holy Light")... but there is a very large Catholic crucifix hanging on the back wall. Either this was a St. Genericus church or they didn't know better. (Or both.)

* For a long time on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' the First Church of Springfield wasn't identified with any particular chirstian sect. Then they revealed they're part of the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Up}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/UpChurch_1952.png]]]]

* An episode of ''Series/DharmaandGreg'' took place in a hospital that sported a chapel complete with rotating religious symbol on the dais, so that anyone could use it.

* A church Rick Grimes goes into in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' appears on the outside to be a Baptist-style church (the marquee says "Southern Baptist Church of Holy Light")... but there is a very large Catholic crucifix hanging on the back wall. Either this was a St. Genericus church or they DidNotDoTheResearch. (Or both.)

This trope is usually used to introduce religion while avoiding it entering too deeply or divisively into a show, a sort of LawOfConservationOfDetail used to keep from distracting the audience. Similar to JesusTaboo, this trope is sometimes purposely used to avoid accusations of favoring/disfavoring a religion, especially when used to avoid marketing mishaps in children's media. Usually they just have a steeple, pews, a dais and generic stained glass windows without direct symolic links that could be identified or interpreted as a specific denomination such as crosses or angels.

Interestingly, this trope is very much TruthInTelevision. It's common to see non-denominational "places of worship" in funeral and wedding chapels, hospitals and airports with communities that have diverse religious practices, much like SecularHero and JesusTaboo.

To avoid PeopleSitOnChairs from cases where the denomination of a church [[LawOfConservationOfDetail wouldn't be expected to play much of a part in the plot]] '''[[color:red:shouldn't be included as examples.]]''' For example a lot of films have newlyweds driving away from an unidentified church -- here, the church is used mainly as a signifier that this couple is just married, and its denomination isn't at all important to the plot.

In works of fiction, the habit of not mentioning or showing the specific denomination (or even religion) of a temple, church, or place of worship where the denomination would be '''''expected''''' to play a role. This can take the form of using a generic/made up denomination name in place of a real one or when a religious institution that is prominent in the narrative but is not identified with any one religious denomination.

This trope is usually used to introduce religion while avoiding it entering too deeply or divisively into a show, a sort of LawOfConservationOfDetail used to keep from distracting the audience. Similar to JesusTaboo, this trope is sometimes purposely used to avoid accusations of favoring/disfavoring a religion, especially when used to avoid marketing mishaps in children's media. Usually they just have a steeple, pews, a dais and generic stained glass windows (without crosses or angels) without direct symolic links that could be identified or interpreted as a specific denomination.

In works of fiction, the habit of not mentioning or showing the specific denomination (or even religion) of a temple, church, or place of worship where the denomination would be '''''expected''''' to play a role. This can take the form of using a generic/made up denomination name in place of a real one, a religious institution that is prominent in the narrative but is not identified with any one religious denomination, or when a religious institution isn't linked to a denomination due to marketing efforts.

Usually used to introduce religion while avoiding it entering too deeply into a show, a sort of LawOfConservationOfDetail used to keep from distracting the audience. Also this trope is used to avoid accusations of favoring/disfavoring a religion, especially when used in children's media. Usually they just have a steeple and generic stained glass windows (without crosses or angels) without direct symolic links that could be identified or interpreted as a specific denomination

To avoid PeopleSitOnChairs cases where the denomination of a church wouldn't be expected to play much of a part in the plot '''[[color:red:shouldn't be included as examples.]]''' For example a lot of films have newlyweds driving away from an unidentified church -- here, the church is used mainly as a signifier that this couple is just married, and its denomination isn't at all important to the plot.