History MisaimedFandom / MythAndReligion

* On the Veneration of "Saint Ernesto": In some parts of Latin America, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_in_popular_culture#In_religion shrines have been made to venerate Che Guevara]] with some even "Canonizing" him as a "Saint" along with making prayers for his intercession. It is taken to the point that it was noted in one rural village in Bolivia in 2007 had a space that included images of him along side those of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Pope John Paul II. However the only problem with this is that Guevara, who while motivated by Marxist beliefs that coincide with some Christian tenets of generosity and charity, was an ardent Atheist who disdained both the Catholic Church and for that matter organized religion in general and would not at all take kindly to being associated with the Catholic Church. Then again: see the veneration of Mother Teresa by Orthodox Christians... although they persecuted her when she was alive (she was ethnically Albanian and grew up facing persecution by Orthodox Serbians).

** Some asexuals see Athena, Artemis, and Hestia as being asexual representation due to their attributes as being virgin goddesses. This ignores that the Ancient Greek did not interpreted virginity the same way as today[[note]]To them, virginity means being not married as opposed to not having sex or holding sexual attraction[[/note]], as well as did not consider the concept of asexuality. Furthermore, real life Ancient Greek religion practices demonstrate that the goddess' virgin attributes aren't universal for most Greeks. Case in point, Artemis, whose major role is the goddess of fertility and childbirth (something that is often ignored in pop culture), particularly has a cult in the Asia Minor where she's [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Artemis_of_Ephesus Artemis Ephesia]] depicted with a hundred breasts), and has her share of obscure myths having affairs (such as Orion).

** A lot of people in the LGBT fanbase ended up seeing the heroes and gods from Myth/ClassicalMythology as LGBT representation and role models, citing that they also engaged in same-sex relationships - despite that the homosexuality that was acceptable to them was pederasty, which is a relationship between an older man and a much ''younger'' boy. Essentially, Ancient Greeks would find homosexuality as "effeminate", and they viewed the passive (aka bottom) role as shameful because it assumes one is taking the role of a woman., and plus, the majority of the male gods and heroes aren't... paragons of [[ReallyGetsAround morals and virtues ]][[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal to be used as]] good representation...

* On Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation: Many Protestant Christians hail Martin Luther as a hero for cutting ties from the Roman Catholic Church. However, Luther sought to ''reform'' (hence why it was initially called a reformation in the first place) the Catholic Church, not to create any sort of other religious denomination(s). Near the end of his life, he even [[CreatorBacklash aired his own disappointment]] about a new Religious assembly (Lutheranism) and "complained that he did not want to give his name to a community that should take its name only from Christ".[[note]]:Luther, Martin. New World Book Encyclopedia. 1984. [[/note]]

** A lot of people in the LGBT fanbase ended up seeing the heroes and gods from Myth/ClassicalMythology as LGBT representation and role models, citing that they also engaged in same-sex relationships - despite that the homosexuality that was acceptable to them was pederasty, which is a relationship between an older man and a much ''younger'' boy. Essentially, Ancient Greeks would find homosexuality today as "effeminate", and they viewed the passive (aka bottom) role as shameful because it assumes one is taking the role of a woman., and plus, the majority of the male gods and heroes aren't... paragons of [[ReallyGetsAround morals and virtues ]][[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal to be used as]] good representation...

** A lot of people in the LGBT fanbase ended up seeing the heroes and gods from Myth/ClassicalMythology as LGBT representation and role models, citing that they also engaged in same-sex relationships - despite that homosexuality wasn't necessarily acceptable to the Ancient Greeks[[note]]What was acceptable to them was pederasty, which is a relationship between an older man and a much ''younger'' boy. Essentially, Ancient Greeks would find homosexuality today as "effeminate", and they viewed the passive (aka bottom) role as shameful because it assumes one is taking the role of a woman.[[/note]], and plus, the majority of the male gods and heroes aren't... paragons of [[ReallyGetsAround morals and virtues ]][[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal to be used as]] good representation...

* Similarly, certain neopagan sects and circles attracts transphobic people with beliefs and doctrines influenced by second-wave feminism, ignore entirely that pre-Christian societies (whether that be Ancient Greece or Mesopotamia) had fluid and complex gender roles that wouldn't fit their criteria of binary gender roles (in other words, some would be puzzled by this).

* On the Veneration of "Saint Ernesto": In some parts of Latin America, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_in_popular_culture#In_religion shrines have been made to venerate Che Guevara]] with some even "Canonizing" him as a "Saint" along with making prayers for his intercession. It is taken to the point that it was noted in one rural village in Bolivia in 2007 had a space that included images of him along side those of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Pope John Paul II. However the only problem with this is that Guevara, who while motivated by Marxist beliefs that coincide with some Christian tenets of generosity and charity, was an ardent Atheist who disdained both the Catholic Church and for that matter organized religion in general and would not at all take kindly to being associated with the Catholic Church. Then again: see the veneration of Mother Teresa by Orthodox Christians... although they persecuted her when she was alive (she was ethnically Albanian and grew up facing persecution by Orthodox Serbians). Ironically, she's a saint in the Orthodox Church but not in the Catholic Church, due to the Orthodox Church having considerably more lax rules about canonization.

** Additionally, not really misaimed fandom because Satanists don't literally worship Satan. They mostly just use the iconography to annoy/anger ultra-conservative Christians (and admittedly [[RuleOfCool because it's cool]]. Most of them are actually just Atheists and/or pagans.

** Revelation does not contain the word "Antichrist". The word ''only'' comes up in the Literature/EpistlesOfJohn, and in one case, it's plural. The Antichrist is either some particular guy who denies the divinity of Jesus, or it's a generic term for ''any'' person who denies the divinity of Jesus (i.e. "Antichrist" is a synonym for "non-Christian"). Meanwhile, Revelation features Satan, The Beasts, The Dragon, and The Whore of Babylon, but none of them are named "Antichrist". And they generally come across as physically (not just morally) monstrous, which sorta messes with the popular idea that "The Antichrist" will show up as a charismatic human-shaped leader, and that such an event is plainly predicted in Revelation.
* The story of Adam and Eve has been misused for centuries to provide AnAesop that women are seductresses who lure men to their downfall. Since Eve was the first one to bite the apple, it also has the implied message that women are weak, stupid, evil, and so on, and should therefore be punished for all eternity by being reduced to second-class citizens or kept out of high-profile religious professions. Even to this day you'll find people who use this story as a reason why women cannot be ordained as priests or popes. [[FemaleMisogynist Some of them are even women!]] They ignore the fact that Adam also eats the apple of his own free will.

%% ** Throughout history, a lot of Christians have claimed that babies need to be baptized (and sometimes circumsized) if they are to get into Heaven, see Dante's Paradiso for an example. This completely misses the point that Jesus' sacrifice was meant to absolve humanity of the Original Sin.

* In the story of CainAndAbel, God gives Cain some kind of "mark," so that no one will go and take revenge on him. What this mark was or might have been is not known. But somehow, some sects thought it was a change in Cain's overall skin color, and that it was not so much a protection as a curse...and used it to justify slavery and racism towards black people.

* On the Veneration of "Saint Ernesto": In some parts of Latin America, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara_in_popular_culture#In_religion shrines have been made to venerate Che Guevara]] with some even "Canonizing" him as a "Saint" along with making prayers for his intercession. It is taken to the point that it was noted in one rural village in Bolivia in 2007 had a space that included images of him along side those of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Pope John Paul II. However the only problem with this is that Guevara, who while motivated by Marxist beliefs that coincide with some Christian tenets of generosity and charity, was an ardent Atheist who disdained both the Catholic Church and for that matter organized religion in general and would not at all take kindly to being associated with the Catholic Church.

%%* The tale of Pandora's box is often subjected to this due to cultural and religious shifts in attitude over the centuries. The original version of the story is meant to be a cautionary tale against idle curiosity in the face of explicit warnings against exposing things that shouldn't be messed with. When Pandora opens the box, she unleashes all of the woes of mortality into the world (sickness, blight, aging, etc). Modern spins on the myth tend to portray the final concept to come out of the box, hope, as a good thing meant to balance all of the despair that was just inflicted, yet this goes directly against what the ancient Greeks intended. To Greeks, hope was the absolute worst thing that could have been set loose, because from their point of view it is very closely tied to ''apathy''. Basically, it's the ancient Greek version of HoldingOutForAHero - which they highly discouraged, because anyone who needed a hero to come along and fix their problems was either too weak or too lazy to clean up their own mess, and were objects of pity rather than symbols of virtue. Moreover, the story in all its versions points out that Pandora means "all presents" or "she who received presents from all" as in all the gods, because the gods created her. Specifically, that they created her to be beautiful and very curious among other things, essentially setting her up to fail from the very start, yet everyone, even the ancient Greeks, took the story in a way similar to Adam and Eve's story, to mean how ruinous women are.
* While not characters per se, the suicide bombers and similar in RealLife are the result of MisaimedFandom of their own religious texts.

** Loki similarly is often seen as a "misunderstood hero" - and while he's certainly not a GodOfEvil, he isn't exactly a "good guy" either since he essentially got Baldur killed, prevented his resurrection, and said [[JustJokingJustification it was just a joke]]. He may have been the one to help execute ideas involving trickery, but the entire story with Baldur shows that he went ''too far''.

* In many health food stores, one can find "Ezekiel 4:9" bread, which, as prescribed in the verse cited, is made from wheat, barley, lentils, beans, millet, and spelt. The problem is that the bread is being made as ''penance''; the next few verses tell them to cook it over ''human feces''.
** Though when Ezekiel is unwilling to use that as fuel even to make a point, God allows him to use cow dung instead. And the point they're gleaning from it, while not the main thrust of the passage, is that if you can live off of nothing but about 12 ounces of it a day (a little more than 340g) for 390 days, it must be reasonably nutritious. (Though yeah, they probably diverge from the original recipe in that don't bake it over any kind of dung these days. And that's not even getting into cinnamon raisin...)
** In general, Christians who treat every word in the Bible as though it is on equal ground. This is not even going into the issues of whether we should interpret it literally or allegorically; we could be here all day with that. But even with a literal interpretation, there are some books which are intended to be read as histories, not as rules to follow. And even as far as rules go, some of them were laws only meant to be followed by Jews (e.g. the ones in Leviticus); indeed, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Jerusalem the first dang Church Council, attended by Paul and the Apostles themselves]] and recorded in [[Literature/ActsOfTheApostles Acts]]'', specifically said that Gentile Christians (i.e. those who are not ethnically Jewish) are not bound by Jewish law. (Eventually, this came to be understood to mean that ''all'' Christians are not bound by Jewish law, but the black letter of the Council's judgment at the time was limited to what was required of Gentiles and did not address whether Christianity abrogated Jewish law for Jewish Christians.)

* A lot of weddings like to use the blessing from Deuteronomy 28:2-14, where God promises a lot of juicy blessings for his people who obey his commands -- blessings for their city and country, their offspring, their produce of the ground, their herds and flocks, their tools and houses, their jobs and relatives, when they come in and go out, etc, if they obey his commandments. What newlyweds who pick that passage forget is the passage immediately after that one, 15-64, where the Lord promises that if they don’t obey him, they will be host to a whole horde of punishments, including curses on everything he listed above, as well as defeat in war, conquest, death and rape of your family, exile, etc. Not much fun to read at a wedding, hence why it’s important to be read in context.

* The story of Adam and Eve has been misused for centuries to provide AnAesop that women are seductresses who lure men to their downfall. Since Eve was the first one to bite the apple, it also has the implied message that women are weak, stupid, evil, and so on, and should therefore be punished for all eternity by being reduced to second-class citizens or kept out of high profile religious professions. Even to this day you'll find people who use this story as a reason why women cannot be ordained as priests or popes. [[FemaleMisogynist Some of them are even women!]] They ignore the fact that Adam also eats the apple of his own free will.

* The Proverbs passage about the Wife of Noble Character is sometimes used by various sects in the modern age to demonstrate that women should StayInTheKitchen and tend to their families and to work deemed appropriately feminine (the example given is [[TextileWorkIsFeminine textile work]]), and stay out of trouble, while their husbands should work in the public sphere. However, it was actually written not so much to tell ''women'' what they should be doing, but to encourage men to appreciate the work done by the women in their lives, instead of taking their wives and the work they did for granted. (Indeed, the woman in the poem is strong and capable, and she runs her own business. And her husband boasts about her to his friends and colleagues.)

** Not really misaimed fandom, as biblical depictions of god run the gamut from BigGood to OmnicidalManiac DependingOnTheWriter, and details about Satan's nature are much more sparse and [[CompositeCharacter may be referring to separate figures and concepts]], not to mention the simple fact that a book ostensibly written to advocate for one being would ''of course'' depict its central figure as good and strong and their opposition as evil and weak. This isn't so much misaimed fandom as some people seeing the story as more GrayAndGreyMorality or BlackAndGrayMorality.

* Some feminists really seem to love viewing [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Athena]] as some sort of role model. The reasoning's justified (Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom ''and'' War, after all), but it completely disregards the fact that Athena was quite the opposite of a feminist; due to never having a real maternal figure in her life, Athena grew up siding more with ''men'' than women.
** Case in point: She sides with [[Theatre/TheOresteia Orestes]] against the Erinyes for killing his mother, Clytemnestra (who had killed his father) and concedes a belief that, in a marriage, the man is more important than the woman, citing the fact that she was born from Zeus without a mother.[[note]]Which, by the way, is entirely false. Her mother, the Titan Metis, was alive inside Zeus and forged her armor.[[/note]]
** A more famous case involves one of her own priestesses, who was [[RapeAsDrama raped]] by Poseidon in her temple. Athena showed less concern for her priestess being brutalized and more concern with the fact that sex of any kind occurred in her temple (and involving Poseidon--with whom Athena had an intense rivalry--no less). For this, Athena gave the priestess a swift and brutal punishment in the form of [[ForcedTransformation a terrifying transformation]]. The name of that unfortunate priestess? {{Medusa}}.[[note]](In Creator/{{Ovid}}'s version of her story, at least; in most others versions, she was ''born'' a monster.)[[/note]]
*** Some scholars speculate that this story *is* more feminist than it seems at face value. Some view Athena's actions as protecting Medusa from Poseidon and other men by making it impossible to look upon her. This is speculated because a gorgon head was a symbol associated with the Ancient Greek version of domestic violence shelters. This theory is however somewhat diminished since Athena helped Perseus to kill Medusa in the first place.
*** Also, it's possible that this origin for Medusa wasn't part of the original myths! In the earliest versions, Medusa was always a monster; her being a victim of divine punishment seems to have been invented by the writer Ovid in the 1st century. (Ovid had a pattern of portraying the gods, and powerful figures in general, as very selfish - possibly as a commentary on the rising Roman Empire.)
* The Midas Touch is a term used for someone who's extremely lucky or skilled in their endeavors, despite the fact that it was explicitly a [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor cautionary tale]] about King Midas being BlessedWithSuck. King Midas did turn everything he touched to gold, but [[ExactWords it literally meant everything]], including food, wine, and his own daughter. The tale is supposed to be a cautionary story on the nature of greed, and what Midas went through was portrayed as horrific. In the end, he ''begs'' Dionysius to undo his gift as he'll starve otherwise (he'd been given it as a reward for helping Dionysius' friend) according to Hawthorne's version.
%%* The tale of Pandora's box is often subjected to this due to cultural and religious shifts in attitude over the centuries. The original version of the story is meant to be a cautionary tale against idle curiosity in the face of explicit warnings against exposing things that shouldn't be messed with. When Pandora opens the box, she unleashes all of the woes of mortality into the world (sickness, blight, aging, etc). Modern spins on the myth tend to portray the final concept to come out of the box, hope, as a good thing meant to balance all of the despair that was just inflicted, yet this goes directly against what the ancient Greeks intended. To Greeks, hope was the absolute worst thing that could have been set loose, because from their point of view it is very closely tied to ''apathy''. Basically, it's the ancient Greek version of HoldingOutForAHero - which they highly discouraged, because anyone who needed a hero to come along and fix their problems was either too weak or too lazy to clean up their own mess, and were objects of pity rather than symbols of virtue.
%%** Moreover, the story in all its versions points out that Pandora means "all presents" or "she who received presents from all" as in all the gods, because the gods created her. Specifically, that they created her to be beautiful and very curious among other things, essentially setting her up to fail from the very start, yet everyone, even the ancient Greeks, took the story in a way similar to Adam and Eve's story, to mean how ruinous women are.
* A lot of people in the LGBT fanbase ended up seeing the heroes and gods from Myth/ClassicalMythology as LGBT representation and role models, citing that they also engaged in same-sex relationships - despite that homosexuality wasn't necessarily acceptable to the Ancient Greeks[[note]]What was acceptable to them was pederasty, which is a relationship between an older man and a much ''younger'' boy. Essentially, Ancient Greeks would find homosexuality today as "effeminate", and they viewed the passive (aka bottom) role as shameful because it assumes one is taking the role of a woman.[[/note]], and plus, the majority of the male gods and heroes aren't... paragons of [[ReallyGetsAround morals and virtues ]][[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal to be used as]] [[UnfortunateImplications good representation...]]
** To an extent, some aces sees Athena, Artemis, and Hestia as being asexual representation due to their attributes as being virgin goddesses. This ignores that the Ancient Greek did not interpreted virginity the same way as today[[note]]To them, virginity means being not married as opposed to not having sex or holding sexual attraction[[/note]], as well as did not consider the concept of asexuality. Furthermore, real life Ancient Greek religion practices demonstrate that the goddess' virgin attributes aren't universal for most Greeks. Case in point, Artemis, whose major role is the goddess of fertility and childbirth (something that is often ignored in pop culture), particularly has a cult in the Asia Minor where she's [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Artemis_of_Ephesus Artemis Ephesia]] depicted with a hundred breasts), and has her share of obscure myths having affairs (such as Orion).
* Many people think that Hades of Greek mythology was handed a raw deal and that the EveryoneHatesHades trope is mean - primarily because [[ValuesDissonance he was one of the few gods who, as far as we know today, never]] [[ReallyGetsAround went around cheating on his wife]], [[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal fostering illegitimate children]], and [[JerkassGods screwed mortals over]] for no real reason except for people who are considered to have "deserved it" (ie wanting to kidnap his wife). And on top of it? His dog, Cerberus, is even named "Spot". Except that EveryoneHatesHades actually ''does'' have mythological basis. While Hades was never the GodOfEvil (Ares would actually be a better candidate, prior to when he became "Mars"), the ancient Greeks were ''not'' exactly ''fond'' of him. Ancient greeks would look away when making sacrifices to him and calling him the one who enriched himself off of the tears of man. Speaking his name was very much a curse (Which is why "Hades" was also often a synonym for "Hell") which was why so many other names for him included things like "The Zeus of the Underworld" (meaning he was just as powerful and as wise as Zeus), or even "Pluton" meaning "Wealthy one". This is the source for his ''Roman'' name, Pluto. Hades isn't the god of death - that's Thanatos - but he is the lord ''of'' the dead ''and'' everything inside the earth. This includes mineral wealth, hence why several of his nicknames derive from such a thing.
* ValuesDissonance ''also'' applies to Zeus as well - to the ancient Greeks? Zeus, like all other Olympians (even [[EveryoneHatesHades Hades]]) was a flawed, but ultimately wise figure who was one of the most ideal figures you would want to strive to be. Zeus wasn't just the god of thunder and [[ReallyGetsAround the god of cheating on his wife]], but also the god of law and justice.
* {{Atlantis}} was never actually seen outside Plato's writing - Even though it may have been inspired by numerous events (ie the Minoan people) it was a philosophical dialogue as to what Athens should ''not'' be, as even a city of half-man-half gods could be sent to the bottom of the ocean by someone bigger than them. This hasn't stopped many people from insisting that it was in fact actually real and was in the Americas, even in Antarctica, or declaring every underwater city or ruins to be "Atlantis". This doesn't make the {{Atlantis}} trope any less awe-inspiring though, as it's led to many interesting works about what "Atlantis" would be like.

** A more famous case involves one of her own priestesses, who was [[RapeAsDrama raped]] by Poseidon in her temple. Athena showed less concern for her priestess being brutalized and more concern with the fact that sex of any kind occurred in her temple (and involving Poseidon--with whom Athena had an intense rivalry--no less). For this, Athena gave the priestess a swift and brutal punishment in the form of [[BalefulPolymorph a terrifying transformation]]. The name of that unfortunate priestess? {{Medusa}}.[[note]](In Creator/{{Ovid}}'s version of her story, at least; in most others versions, she was ''born'' a monster.)[[/note]]

* On Jesus and Economics (given that none of the authors of the New Testament Gospels and Epistles are alive to explain their writings, obverse Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment; note also that socio-economical structures of the time were downright alien to a modern lens, so there's the real risk any of their advice is inapplicable): Many of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_left Christian Left]] have accused those of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_right Christian Right]] of having a misaimed fandom in using religion to rail against various [[HeteronormativeCrusader social issues]] (e.g. same-sex marriage) while overlooking efforts to confront poverty and other socioeconomic problems. On the other hand, Rightists have also accused Leftists of also observing a misaimed fandom in pursuing Social Justice in that Jesus, while calling people to be charitable and humble, did not call for forcibly seizing people's private property (and thus in doing so, conflicting with prohibition on theft) autocratically to impose this on people and that such actions would not be so different from the Roman Empire's despotism that Jesus was opposed to. The Book of Acts is frequently interpreted by both sides as supporting their respective arguments.

* The vast majority of Christian theories about the apocalypse are a result of reading large numbers of passages in unintuitive ways that were largely not meant to go together. A large cornerstone is Revelation, a book that could just as easily be read as a veiled criticism of Roman policies at the time than any kind of warning about the world's demise. But this confusion pales before one of the resulting theories, which is that an Antichrist will come forth proposing peace, but truly desiring war, who will begin all of the troubles. While it is true that people can deceive others in their bid for power, this often results in followers of these theories who will absolutely refuse to follow any leader who argues in favor of policies that promote peace. Which, as you know, was a concept Jesus often supported himself.
** Oddly enough, ''Revelation does not contain the word "Antichrist"''. The word ''only'' comes up in the Literature/EpistlesOfJohn, and in one case, it's ''plural''. The Antichrist is either some particular guy who denies the divinity of Jesus, or it's a generic term for ''any'' person who denies the divinity of Jesus (i.e. it's a synonym for "non-Christian"). Meanwhile, Revelation features Satan, The Beasts, The Dragon, and The Whore of Babylon, but none of these are actually named "Antichrist". And they generally come across as physically (not just morally) monstrous, which sorta messes with the popular idea that "The Antichrist" will show up as a charismatic human-shaped leader, and that such an event is plainly predicted in "Revelation".
* The story of Adam and Eve has been misused for centuries to provide an aesop that women are seductresses who lure men to their downfall. Since Eve was the first one to bite the apple, it also has the implied message that women are weak, stupid, evil, and so on, and should therefore be punished for all eternity by being reduced to second-class citizens or kept out of high profile religious professions. Even to this day you'll find people who use this story as a reason why women cannot be ordained as priests or popes. [[FemaleMisogynist Some of them are even women!]] They ignore the fact that Adam also eats the apple of his own free will.

* As far as religious figures go, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} has the worst case of MisaimedFandom ever. Here's a poor son of a Jewish carpenter who, for the most part, [[NewAgeRetroHippie was practically]] a [[HippieJesus Proto-Hippie.]] A man who spoke on behalf of the poor and marginalized, respected women as human beings and equals, eschewed material wealth and earthly power, chewed out the "Fat Cats" and stuffy [[TheFundamentalist religious authorities]] of the day, [[BadassPacifist a man]] who taught [[NiceGuy kindness]], [[GoodFeelsGood altruism,]] [[GoodSamaritan generosity]], [[AllLovingHero unconditional love]], [[TurnTheOtherCheek forgiveness]], and peace... If anything, he was practically a "Liberal Peacenik Hippie Socialist" or whatever... Yet institutions professing to follow him [[ActivistFundamentalistAntics have used his brand]] of a kinder, gentler, humanitarian Reformed Judaism to commit horrific acts of violence and bigotry! Yeshua Bar Yosef (a.k.a 'Jesus') would look at [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar the Crusades]], [[WitchHunt pogroms, Witch Hunts]], hate crimes, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans totalitarianism]], [[EvilColonialist imperialism]], [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain bigotry]], [[HeManWomanHater sexism]], and [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans lust for power committed]] through the ages with utter horror!

* A lot of weddings like to use the blessing from Deuteronomy 28:2-14, where the Lord promises a lot of juicy blessings for for his people who obey his commands, including blessings for their city and country, their offspring, their produce of the ground, their herds and flocks, their tools and houses, their jobs and relatives, when they come in and go out, etc, if they obey his commandments. What newlyweds who pick that passage forget is the passage RIGHT AFTER, 15-64, where the Lord promises that if they don’t obey him, they will be host to a whole horde of punishments, including curses on everything he listed above, as well as defeat in war, conquest, death and rape of your family, exile, etc. Not much fun to read at a wedding, hence why it’s important to read in context.
* Depictions of Judas as a despicable villain, cowardly betrayer and an agent of Satan are pretty mainstream. Judas was meant to betray Jesus, so he could die for humanity's sins. Also remember that Satan actually wanted to prevent Jesus from dying, so why would he send a guy to sell him out to people who want him dead?

* Feminists really seem to love viewing [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Athena]] as some sort of role model. The reasoning's justified (Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom ''and'' War, after all), but it completely disregards the fact that Athena was quite the opposite of a feminist; due to never having a real maternal figure in her life, Athena grew up siding more with ''men'' than women.

* The story of Adam and Eve has been misused for centuries to provide an aesop that women are seductresses who lure men to their downfall. Since Eve was the first one to bite the apple, it also has the implied message that women are weak, stupid, evil, and so on, and should therefore be punished for all eternity by being reduced to second-class citizens or kept out of high profile religious professions. Even to this day you'll find people who use this story as a reason why women cannot be ordained as priests or popes. [[FemaleMisogynist Some of them are even women!]]

* Many people think that Hades of Greek mythology was handed a raw deal and that the EveryoneHatesHades trope is mean - primarily because [[ValuesDissonance he was one of the few gods who, as far as we know today, never]] [[ReallyGetsAround went around cheating on his wife]], [[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal fostering illegitimate children]], and [[JerkassGods screwed mortals over]] for no real reason except for people who are considered to have "deserved it" (ie wanting to kidnap his wife). And on top of it? His dog, Cerberus, is even named "Spot". Except that EveryoneHatesHades actually ''does'' have mythological basis. While Hades was never the GodOfEvil (Ares would actually be a better candidate, prior to when he became "Mars"), the ancient Greeks were ''not'' exactly ''fond'' of him, looking away when making sacrifices to him and calling him the one who enriched himself off of the tears of man. Speaking his name was very much a curse (Which is why "Hades" was also often a synonym for "Hell") which was why so many other names for him included things like "The Zeus of the Underworld" (meaning he was just as powerful and as wise as Zeus), or even "Pluton" - which is the source for his ''Roman'' name, Pluto. Hades isn't the god of death - that's Thanatos - but he is the lord ''of'' the dead... but also the lord of everything ''within'' the earth as well, and this includes mineral wealth.

** Loki similarly is often seen as a "misunderstood hero" - and while he's certainly not a GodOfEvil, he isn't exactly a "good guy" either since he essentially got Baldur killed, prevented his resurrection, and said [[JustJokingJustification it was just a joke]].

*** The end result is that some Christians seem to pick and choose what parts of the Mosaic law they want to enforce, potentially for decidedly non-religious reasons. They love to cite Leviticus when claiming the Bible condemns homosexuality, then when someone accuses them of violating some other part of Leviticus they claim that Jesus made it so they don't have to follow the Mosaic law, which leaves unanswered the question of why this one part of it is still in effect... although:

* As far as religious figures go, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} has the worst case of MisaimedFandom ever. Here's a poor son of a Jewish carpenter who, for the most part, [[NewAgeRetroHippie was practically]] a [[HippieJesus Proto-Hippie.]] A man who spoke on behalf of the poor and marginalized, respected women as human beings and equals, eschewed material wealth and earthly power, chewed out the "Fat Cats" and stuffy [[TheFundamentalist religious authorities]] of the day, [[BadassPacifist a man]] who taught [[NiceGuy kindness,]] [[GoodFeelsGood altruism,]] [[GoodSamaritan generosity,]] [[AllLovingHero unconditional love,]] [[TurnTheOtherCheek forgiveness,]] and peace... If anything, he was practically a "Liberal Peacenik Hippie Socialist" or whatever... Yet institutions professing to follow him [[ActivistFundamentalistAntics have used his brand]] of a kinder, gentler, humanitarian Reformed Judaism to commit horrific acts of violence and bigotry! Yeshua Bar Yosef (a.k.a 'Jesus') would look at [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar the Crusades,]] [[WitchHunt pogroms, Witch Hunts,]] hate crimes, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans totalitarianism,]] [[EvilColonialist imperialism,]] [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain bigotry,]] [[HeManWomanHater sexism,]] and [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans lust for power committed]] through the ages with utter horror!
** Throughout history, a lot of Christians have claimed that babies need to be baptized (and sometimes circumsized) if they are to get into Heaven, see Dante's Paradiso for an example. This completely misses the point that Jesus' sacrifice was meant to absolve humanity of the Original Sin.

Examples of MisaimedFandom for characters in mythological and religious stories. Note that many of these entries involve religions that are actively practiced today, and as such many of these issues are hotly debated. Remember the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment when editing this page.

** The ordination restriction actually has Biblical support; 1 Timothy 2:12-15 makes mention of not "suffering a woman to teach or usurp authority over a man" and specifically mentions Eve's deception as the reason (along with Eve being formed second). At the same time, different denominations have different interpretations of what that particular line actually means or what positions it would restrict a woman from if it does indeed restrict them. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment To say it is a touchy subject would be a vast understatement.]]

** We have WordOfDante to blame for that one, of course. The Church (for quite some time, [[ChristianityIsCatholic Christianity really ''was'' Catholic]]) demonized Judas for various reasons, a portrayal cemented in our culture by...well...Dante, whose ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]'' has Judas be one of the three great historical traitors (with [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Caesar's]] traitors Brutus and Cassius) deemed bad enough to be chewed upon by Satan for all eternity.

** An ancient UsefulNotes{{Gnostic|ism}} sect called the Cainites had a misaimed fandom for Cain himself, believing him to be a saint persecuted by an evil demiurge. They had similar views of [[SiblingRivalry Esau]], [[RebelliousRebel Korah]], and the [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil men of Sodom]].

** An ancient UsefulNotes{{Gnostic|ism}} sect called the Cainites had a misaimed fandom for Cain himself, believing him to be a saint persecuted by an evil demiurge. They had similar views of Esau, Korah, and the men of Sodom.