Church Militant - Television Tropes & Idioms

The Lord is my shepherd, he maketh you to lie down in greener pastures.

"I kick arse for the Lord!"

—Father MacGruder, Braindead

The world often notes that certain groups take God and Guns with equal fervor. The Church Militant takes this observation to the natural conclusion, a Catholic (or Catholic-like) superpower that is very heavily armed. While most agents will rely on really big guns, expect a few priests and nuns to swing around a broadsword or two. Or three/six, which seems to be some kind of standard.

Usually justified by the actual existence of witches, vampires or The Legions Of Hell; nevertheless the Church Militant often struggles with going too far. Don't expect heavy consistency with real world religious teachings, writers will make it up as they go along (c.f. The Lowest Cosmic Denominator). Anime will just substitute in that Nuns Are Mikos.

Individual members are usually Hunters or Warrior Monks and can also be referred to as "church militants" (where "militant" is the noun). Note that this trope really only applies to Western theist/deist religions, as Eastern religions (Buddhism, Shinto, Tao, etc...) are ALWAYS depicted as kung-fu-slinging warrior monks (sometimes Christian/Pseudo-Christian monks can be kung-fu-slinging as well). Nuns With Guns usually come halfway between this and Amazon Brigade.

If a Church Militant exists as a subdivision of a larger, predominantly pacifist Church, expect it to be called "The Inquisition" regardless of the fact that Real Life inquisition was more like a detective and judicial branch of the Catholic Church (see also The Spanish Inquisition) than its military arm. See also Kung Fu Jesus.

Not to be confused with Corrupt Church, where the religious folks are clearly the bad guys. Badass clergymen who are minorities amongst a meeker lot would be Badass Preachers instead.

The moral questions surrounding the idea of religious authorities advocating violence have been around since the beginning of monotheism. Polytheistic religions generally don't result in Moral Dissonance, instead delegating war behavior to deities who are specifically devoted to kicking ass. Monotheistic religions, on the other hand, have always had the problem of reconciling a loving God (assuming he is to begin with) with the specifically unloving human behavior that is intrinsic to warfare. It must also be understood that soldiers face death every day, and naturally have a vested interest in spiritual pursuits. Also, in general, non-Christian religions portrayed with ~~Mosque~~ Church Militants are usually frowned upon.

Church Militants often make use of Smite Evil.

Examples

Anime and Manga

The Black Order in D Gray Man.
Hellsing has both Protestants and Catholics forming their own Churches Militant. They will sometimes delay fighting each other to fight vampires. Sometimes.
Chrono Crusade features a religious order whose role is to serve as the Church Militant. As one might expect, the main character is a member of said order.
In Trinity Blood, the Vatican is one of the two major world military powers, the other being the vampire-led Empire.
Nicholas D. Wolfwood, and specifically the Eye of Michael group from Trigun.
The organization "Solomon" from Witch Hunter Robin.
Tsukihime and Fate Stay Night, which take place in the same ~~world~~ multiverse, have a secret church organization that hunts down heretics, which includes undead and rogue sorcerers. An example is Ciel.
The nuns on the Mahora campus of Mahou Sensei Negima are all trained battlemages who make up school security in addition to more traditional duties.
One Piece features several armed nuns on Whiskey Peak. One of them even tries to kill Zoro, though as it turns out everyone in town is either an agent of Baroque Works or a bounty hunter after the Straw Hat Pirates.
Altena's faction of les Soldats in Noir aka "The Nuns With Guns".
- In appearances, in any case. Actually the term probably would be closer to "priestess", as their beliefs don't seem very Christian.
The Ishval religion in Fullmetal Alchemist have warrior priest, followers of Ishvala who are also experts of martial arts. It was stated that during the Ishval rebellion an unarmed Ishval warrior priest could take down 10 fully armed Amestrian soldiers.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has Sister Schach, a kindly nun and battle-ready knight of the Belkan Saint Church.
- And after the post-StrikerS Time Skip, Sein, Otto, and Dido of the Numbers Cyborgs have joined the Belkan Saint Church's ranks.
- Also post-StrikerS Time Skip there is Vivio, literal Saint King of that church, though she hates to be called so... And she IS called so. On regular basis.
The original Moetan book's entry for the word "priest" recalls this trope: "The priest has a cross-shaped bazooka." Given its penchant for references, this is almost certainly an allusion to Wolfwood.
There is an evil priest in Berserk who fulfills this trope together with his followers. They take great pleasure in killing and torturing "heretics" at will.
By episode five of Mnemosyne, Mimi has retired to a solitary life of a Buddhist nun. Of course, thanks to various problems that an immortal faces, her temple is outfitted with a laser cage, and other immortal nuns who happen to know how to use guns and katanas.
Black Lagoon has the "Church of Violence''. While it's unclear whether its members are actually religious or are just using the Church as a front for weapons smuggling, it still doesn't stop its members from toting a ridiculously massive arsenal of weapons such as M60 heavy machine guns and a gold plated Desert Eagle (wielded by a 70 something nun with one hand).
Subverted in Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure. While Enrico Pucci is an evil fighter priest, it is not out of fanaticism. In fact, he is a heretic who worships an evil vampire and abuses his status as a priest to hell and back.
It could be said that Roger from Big O is, unwittingly, one of these. Big O's screen displays the phrase, "Cast in the name of God Ye not guilty" whenever Roger climbs in. This was engraved on executioners' axes in olden times, and was a reassurance-it basically means, "This weapon was created in God's name. The death is on His hands, and you will not be counted guilty for it."
Sonia from Hayate The Combat Butler.
Theresa/Sister Hell from Prism Ark
Justin Law from Soul Eater is the Deathscythe in charge of Europe, dresses as a priest and is a very devout Christian, although given that he works for a Physical God, the last point involves a fairly extensive misunderstanding on Justin's part.
- It isn't even just that he worships the Christian god yet works for Shinigami; he seems to think Shinigami is God. No-one corrects him.
- Recent events reveal that Justin has apparently turned his allegiance to the other side. Oh, and his new boss has kidnapped the 'Jesus' of his little religious misunderstanding.
Axis Powers Hetalia: Prussia's origins as the Monastic State of The Teutonic Knights are acknowledged in his bio and some strips. Though God doesn't really seem to like him.
Idamaria of Defense Devil as seen here.
Meg from Tetragrammaton Labyrinth is a nun who fights against demons with guns both big and small.

Comic Books

Warrior Nun Areala
William Stryker◊, an infamous X-Men villain, is a Christian fundamentalist televangelist who saw himself on a mission from God to eradicate the mutant race. The version in X-Men 2: X-Men United discarded this aspect, making him just a plain old militant.
- In an at-best utterly forgettable storyline, Nightcrawler takes steps to become a priest.^spoiler
  ^{- click to reveal:It turns out he's been mentally controlled into thinking he's becoming a priest by an extremely militant vaguely Catholic organization that plans to make him pope, and then use some sort of explosive-laced communion wafer that disintegrates people. This will then be the sign that the rapture has come and Nightcrawler's image inducer will be short-circuited, revealing his demonic appearance and leading everyone to believe the anti-Christ has taken over the church. Of course, Catholics don't actually believe in the Rapture, but still... anyways, it features a very militant church attempting to effectively take over the world. In the most badly-written way imaginable.}
The Evangeline comics.
Marvel's 2099 line of comics included the Sisters Of The Howling Commandments, an order of nuns who modeled themselves after (and possibly worshiped) Nick Fury and The Howling Commandos.
Robert Kirkman's "Battle Pope"
Vol de Galle, eponymous character of The Marquis, is a former Catholic Inquisitor who fights demons that have infiltrated human society.
Azrael from The DCU, a brother from the Order of St. Dumas.
Magdalena, somewhat similarly, is a name passed on from generation to generation of nuns in a certain order that claims to have began with Mary Magdalene herself.
The Badger had a recurring character named "Sister Twister", a (no I'm not kidding) reformed Nazi transexual nun.
- There's also a Sister Twister who was in the latest incarnation of the Suicide Squad. A woman with distorted features and the power to painfully contort other peoples' bodies, she found god and became a nun. However, her supervillain sadism is still not fully dulled; when asked if the old axiom of "it's better to give than to receive" also applies to pain, she responds that while she hadn't thought of it that way she's very interested in applying it.
Canon Fodder takes place in a future where the church and police forces have been consolidated into one, and follows a single very devout, not entirely sane priest as he attempts to destroy evil wherever he finds it.
The Ghost Rider comics give us the Deacon, a monster of a man who is so devout in his belief that he is saving sinners the Penance Stare has no effect on him. He eventually fights a nun-turned ally of Ghost Rider, with the Pre Ass Kicking One Liner of "Very well, woman. Let us pray."

Film

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
Braindead and its famous kung fu priest.
Parodied in Grindhouse with a shotgun-toting, one-liner spewing priest played by Cheech Marin.
The 1998 Dolph Lundgren movie The Minion has the Knights Templar (the organization, not the trope-type) survive into the present day as an Ancient Tradition tasked with preventing the awakening of the Anti-Christ. They used everything from spiked cesti to BFGs.
In Johnny Mnemonic, Dolph Lundgren plays a cybernetically-enhanced assassin who poses as a Warrior Monk and rants about religion while he beats on his marks.
The vampire hunting teams from John Carpenter's Vampires were sponsored by the Catholic Church.
The Boondock Saints are a variant of this trope. They don't fight the legions of hell (or at least not in any demonic implication), but they do themselves state religion as their reasoning (the 'inspirational' speech from the priest at the beginning) and go so far as to say their family prayer over their victims.
Freejack features a shotgun-toting, profanity-spewing nun who helps the protagonist. Some fans refer to her as Sister Mary Shotgun.
Something of an example occurs in two of the Trinity Spaghetti Western films.
- In the first movie, Trinity and his brother Bambino (both are criminals themselves) assist some Amish settlers in fighting off Mexican marauders who take advantage of their vow of peace. By the end of the movie, Bambino and Trinity have taught the religious people how to defend themselves. The movie ends with the Amish people making a stand for themselves and defeating the Mexicans.
- In the second movie, Trinity and Bambino wind up in a monastery where several criminals are hiding and pretending to be monks. When Bambino asks the true monks to raise their hands, everyone raises their hands. Trinity responds by saying, "Every monk who is a monk, hit a monk that ain't a monk."

Literature

The two Endymion books by Dan Simmons feature a rabid Vatican that exploits the resurrecting power of alien cruciforms to grant believers immortality. The Pope heads an aggressive crusade against "heretics" with interstellar warships, manned by Swiss Guard special forces.
The Catholic organization Opus Dei as seen through the filter of The Da Vinci Code. The real-world equivalent has little to do with this.
- Various Real Life conspiracy theories place Opus Dei as in league with the Mafia, usually as money-launderers.
The Faith Militant, or Swords and Stars, in A Song Of Ice And Fire consists of two armed orders: the Warrior's Sons and the Poor Fellows. Both of these orders were banned for over two hundred years, but Cersei Lannister resurrects them as part of a political bargain with the Faith. The carnage of the ongoing wars creates a major revival in religious fervor, causing both orders to swell in rank and rapidly become uncontrollable.
David Eddings' Elenium uses this heavily, with most of the major characters being members of or otherwise involved with the Church Knights, an organization of elite trained mage-warriors who were created to defend 'the West' from the sorcerers, demon-summoners and necromancers of the Evil Empire and its Cthulhu-esque god. The irony...they get their divine/magic powers from a different god than the one they supposedly worship; they don't worry about it.
- Amusingly, a proposed experiment with drawing upon the power of their own God (who is, after all, one of the most powerful and most distant deities) is quite strongly rejected by the party's clergyman.
- Eddings played this on both sides of the coin, really, as the Belgariad/Mallorean's Torak had the Grolim priesthood, and all of Cyrgon's priests in the Elenium/Tamuli were warriors as well. Even Azash from the latter series tried this as well as a counter to the Church Knights, but neither Azash nor his high priest Otha could really comprehend the realities of it as the former was too elemental-minded and the latter was... well, to put it bluntly, too stupid.
Brothers Benedict and Tobias of Revelations hail from such a group, which amazingly avoids being a gathering of Well Intentioned Extremists, though more because all the "heroes" of Revelations do nasty things from time to time than from their own moderation.
Both played straight and subverted in The Dresden Files with the three Knights of the Cross aka Knights of the Sword. Michael, the most prominently featured Knight, is a devout Catholic who fights demons, fallen angels, ghosts, vampires, dragons and evil sorcerers with a divinely powered sword and improbable luck courtesy of divine intervention. However, the other two Knights are a) a self-proclaimed agnostic who fights evil purely for the sake of serving the common good, and b) a Japanese man who was only baptized by accident (but tries to be a good Christian anyways now that he is one). Averting the usual Knight Templar tendencies of Church Militants, all these Knights are practically The Messiah and try to save even the most twisted, corrupted of humans even if it means risking their lives for it.
The Omnian theocracy in the Discworld novel Small Gods - combines the military-imperial aggression of medieval Islam with the paranoid doctrinal intolerance of medieval Catholicism. After the events of the book the religion mellows out somewhat, but is no less aggressively evangelical, so now Omnians travel door-to-door to distribute religious pamphlets and talk to people about Om. Most of their neighbors view this with equal dread, and end up hiding behind furniture when they see Omnian priests headed their way.
- This even extends to naming their children things like "Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets".
  - And "Smite-The-Unbeliever-With-Cunning-Arguments".
Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels has the Anathemata Curialis, a militant and officially excommunicated group fighting the return of the undead, partly by using the undead themselves, or any other means available.
The Children of the Light/Whitecloaks in The Wheel Of Time, a militant religious organization resembling the Knights Templar and Crusaders and mainly dedicated to calling people Darkfriends and executing them for looking at them funny, besides calling all the magic users (Aes Sedai) witches and assassinating or outright killing them whenever possible. Despite pretty much every other country but Amador (their base) hating their guts, they are for some reason given free passage into any country as long as they are only in small numbers (however they break this rule constantly), and don't cause any trouble (again, they break this rule constantly). It is mentioned that 50% of the common people supposedly like them, which may be the reason rulers tolerate them, but Jordan never bothered to show any common people doing anything but cowering in fear when they come by, so...
In the Whateley Universe stories, the superheroine known only as Merry finds herself being inducted (rather painfully and mystically) into an order of Church Militant characters known informally as 'the Thorns and the Roses'. Since this is a Cosmic Horror Story universe, they're definitely needed.
The Little Sisters of the Immaculate Chainsaw in Simon R. Green's Nightside books.
Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, and Don Jerome, bishop of Valencia after its conquest, serve as examples of this in the tales about Roland and El Cid, respectively. Both apparently used swords, at least in the stories.
The Thirty, in David Gemmell's Drenai novels. They're also Exactly What It Says On The Tin - there's 30 of them. And they are badass.
The Twisted Cross in the Wingman series by Mack Maloney features friars in the South American jungles who defend their mission from regular raids from bandits and Neo-Nazi invaders. A group of them, including their leaders, later join the protagonist on his journey to stop the Nazis from finding hidden Incan gold to fund their war effort and plant nuclear mines in the Panama Canal to keep control of it.
Cestus Dei, by John Maddox Roberts, set in a far future when a heavily reformed Catholic Church is a major spacefaring military power.
The short story "The Way of Cross and Dragon" by George R.R. Martin. The protagonist is a Catholic Inquisitor traveling among (mostly) human colony-worlds to put down heresy.
Gordon Dickson's Dorsai series has the First Militant Church on the planets Harmony and Association, commonly called the Friendlies, exemplify this trope.
David Weber's Honorverse has the Masadan's as the dark side of this trope, but Grayson's Church of Humanity Unchained has quite a few very fierce warriors who are completely dedicated to their religion as the more positive side of this trope.
In John Barnes' Sin of Origin the Christian Commonwealth has a renewed Knights Templar as it's military wing. They're actually the good guys, more or less.
The Fraternity of Stone (from the book of that title by David Morrell), a secret society dating back to the Crusades created in response to the Assassins. In modern times they serve as an intelligence (including assassination) arm of the church.

Live Action TV

THE BISHOP!
- It could also be argued that The Spanish Inquisition is an example of this, but they are very very very very incompetent at it.
The vampire-killing organization in Ultraviolet appears to be some kind of spin-off of the Catholic Church.

Tabletop Games

Both the Gothic fantasy world of Warhammer and its science-fantasy counterpart Warhammer 40000 (especially the latter) feature extravagantly armed warrior priests in prominent roles in the Empire/Imperium factions. 40K also adds a permanent Inquisition, and armies of power-armored, gun- and flamethrower-wielding nuns.
- Not to mention the tremendous amounts of religious iconography and fanaticism that characterize the "normal" soldiers.
  - Incidentally, and somewhat amusingly, the Inquisition in 40k actually fits the historical definition of being more of an investigative and judicial force than military. This despite the fact that at least three major branches of the Inquisition appear, each one of which has its own, huge, separate army, the above-mentioned nuns only being one. The other two named forces are the Grey Knights and the Deathwatch. The three branches look for psychics, daemons and their cultists, and aliens and their sympathizers, respectively.
  - In all fairness, the position of the Inquisition is more akin to an intergalactic secret service, who ape this trope simply due to the enemies they fight. The Ministorum of the Imperial Creed fits the image more accurately.
- This troper doesn't understand how the quotes page doesn't self ignite due to the amount of Hate it contains...
  - Because the Imperials are bad guys who see themselves as good guys. Of course, when you factor in Chaos, the Necrons, the Dark Eldar, and the Tyranids, maybe they're not too far off...
- The (even more) evil version is the Word Bearers, a Chaos Space Marine chapter who are fanatical worshipers of the Chaos Gods. They actually made a Face Heel Turn because The Emperor didn't want to be worshiped.
Chess gives us the Bishop, making this Older Than Print.
The cleric class in virtually all incarnations and permutations of Dungeons And Dragons, of course. It seems that no matter what deity you serve, basic training in this class inevitably also covers melee combat with such weapons as your faith permits while wearing heavy armor. (Reinforced in the third and fourth editions of the game with additional combat powers, including ones specifically boosting the cleric's own butt-kicking prowess.)
- There is also an NPC Adept class, which represents something closer to your average non-combatant cleric. It's just that your average PC is most definitely not a non-combatant.
- And the Cloistered Cleric variant, who gets marginally more weapons and armor training than the average wizard.
  - From the Greyhawk campaign setting, three spring to mind — Heironeous, whose clerics are soldiers, making them a literal Church Militant, Saint Cuthbert, whose followers can be ... enthusiastic at times about evangelizing, and who opposed evil with a passion, and Pholtus, whose inquisitions you probably don't expect, particularly from a non-evil church.
- And the Paladin class, which is far more combat-capable than the Cleric class but their divinely-granted magical powers are restricted to healing rather than the Cleric's broader range of smiting spells
- The entire Church of the Silver Flame in the Eberron setting is a combination of this and Knights Templar at its worst
Hunter: the Vigil has three of these: the Malleus Maleficarum, a secret arm of the Vatican dedicated to hunting down monsters (and usually of the "suffer not a witch to live" ethos); the Long Night, a loose group of pre-millennialist fundamentalists devoted to "redeeming" monsters; and the Knights of St. George, an Anglican group that focuses mainly on demons and sorcerers.
- Also in the Old World Of darkness there's The Society of Leopold, your basic secret Catholic monster hunters.
The Sisters of Mercy from the Feng Shui supplement Glimpse of the Abyss are a convent of Nuns With Guns based in the Netherworld who hunt down and kill those whom their Mother Superior deems to be deserving of the respite of death from the suffering the Sisters believe that life is. Of course, those whose names end up on the Rolls of Mercy and are targeted for "deliverance" often aren't so keen on dying.
The Talislanta RPG allows players to become (among other things,) any one of several types of intolerant cleric. Although few have any spellcasting abilities, these classes are interesting in that they are the only characters that come with the "torture" skill.
The parody RPG Macho Women With Guns has only three character classes : Bimbos, Succubi, and Combat Nuns. I'm sorry, "Sisters of Our Lady of Harley Davidson". Needless to say, that game is made of raw Awesome.
The Iron Kingdoms setting has a whole nation of these, called the Protectorate of Menoth.
Infinity gives this in spades. Most factions have either a Buddhist Catholic, Christian, or Islamic militant sect.
The Cyber Europe expansion to Iron Crown's Cyber Space RPG introduces some hotshot special forces of the Vatican, such as the Apostolic Carabiniers SWAT unit and a Mission-Impossible-ish intelligence service, of course managed by Jesuits. And, BTW, these organizations are consistently portrayed as (reasonably) Good Guys, which is surprising since the authors are all Swedes.
Exalted's Immaculate Order is what happens when you take this trope, add Warrior Monk, Supernatural Martial Arts, and Elemental Powers, and stir vigorously.

Video Games

It's fairly common for Eastern RPGs to have Catholic monks as brass knuckle-wearing rosary-carrying hand-to-hand fighters. Ragnarok Online especially seems to depict them as being the cross between Catholic priests and Shaolin monks.
Games of the Castlevania series set closer to modern day depict "The Church" this way. Said church is rather open-minded, having "Church Witches" in high ranking positions. Not surprising, as Dracula tended to kill off anyone the Belmonts weren't protecting, and they were fond of white-magic users; especially the Belnades clan. Social evolution in action.
- Its been retconned that Sypha Belnades worked for the Church and was on a mission for them when Castlevania III took place.
The Protoss High Templars from Star Craft pretty much qualify for this trope, since they're highly trained priests capable of summoning deadly thunderstorms out of thin air.
The Ethos organization from Xenogears bears certain resemblances to Catholicism, and seems to have at least their fair share of firearms.
Command And Conquer 3 : Kane's Wrath introduces the post-Second Tiberium War Black Hand, a powerful Nod faction composed of highly trained religious zealots with an obsessive tendency to equip all their squads with flamethrower weaponry. Additionally, these guys have a tendency to resist incredible amounts of damage and fight harder than any other faction due to their fervent religious beliefs.
- To better understand the Black Hand, just have a look at the weaponry they tend to use: the Purifier, the Confessor Cabal, the Black Disciple and the Purifying Flame Upgrade.
The Lord's Believers in Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri are a faction of technophobic Church Militants. Their combat bonuses (from fanaticism!) keep them militarily competitive and, incidentally, make them scary fuckers if they manage to steal your weapons research. Which they will, because the same fanaticism makes them awesome spies (can't brainwash 'em, can't break 'em, and more than happy to die in the line of duty!).
- Or they just get Transcendence before anyone else and instantly win.
The Gunslinger-turned-Reverend Ray McCall in Call Of Juarez.
The Ordinators from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind are a corps of elite guards/soldiers in service of the Tribunal Temple.
- They also have the Buoyant Armigers, who are the private soldiers/agents of the most stable man-god of the Tribunal (Vivec, the two-tonal hermaphrodite poet god).
- There's also the High Ordinators, who are under the rule of the least stable one (Almalexia, the gold-skinned, red-headed ax-crazy warrior goddess).
  - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had Wenyon Priory, home to a few ex-blades who manage to arm and defend themselves with claymores when attacked by the Mythic Dawn.
In Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings to the western gamers) one of the characters is a missionary named Zabii (Q-Ball in Devil Kings), a Love Freak who dual-wields handcannons based on the foreign missionaries of Japan and whose goal seems to be the conversion of all of Japan (or whatever indeterminate country Devil Kings is supposedly in).
The Apostles in Dreamfall serve as elite enforcers of the theocratic Azadi Empire. According to one of them (who is also a playable character), they are "missionaries," "the last resort" to "bring the Word of the Goddess to unbelievers."
The Church of Martel in Tales Of Symphonia has an army to its own. This isn't even mentioning the Cruxis — the Angels that said Church worships. Or their underlings. In addition there's the Chosen One, Colette. She's quite strong compared to her cute, religious appearance, and she's quite the Game Breaker, if used right. Zelos also shares that title- it being one of the highest positions in the Church. He's also a very powerful fighter.
- Played again in Tales Of The Abyss - again Crystal Dragon Jesus Church with an army. Given, this time, it isn't just a Church - it's a country, a ~~country ran-by-and-pretty-much-is that church~~ theocracy. The game's The Chick, The Scrappy, and the Quirky Miniboss Squad / Psycho Rangers, in addition to the Big Bad, as well as several other characters are from this military. And even some of the non-militants, like Ion for example, have kick ass combat abilities.
In Xenosaga - Ormus is a religion with its own full-fledged military industrial complex, including weapons and advanced physics research.
The Aeon Illuminate of Supreme Commander has its military wing, led by the Avatar of War. Aeon ranks are known to include Knight, Templar, and Crusader, which should tell the player plenty. If not, their enormous robotic army, navy, and air force includes the Exodus, Harbinger, Fervor, Radiance, and the dreaded Galactic Colossus, termed the Sacred Assault Bot. Oh, and their nuclear missile launcher is called the Apocalypse.
The Order of the Hammer, or Hammerites, from Thief The Dark Project.
Two Words: Father Grigori in Half Life 2. Notable for being both a rare Orthodox Christian Church Militant and one of the good guys.

Although they call me crazy I care not, for thou art my helper, my strength, and my savior. (Shooting zombies with his shotgun.)

World Of Warcraft is filled with these. There's the Paladin and Priest classes, and most members of various religious organizations in the game fit the trope.
- Warcraft had priest-type units long before World Of Warcraft. The first game had the Human clerics and Orcish necromancers.
Hunter: The Reckoning had a priest. With a sword-slash-crucifix. And a crossbox-slash-crucifix. AND he could shoot light out of his hands. Proving that priests have secret magical powers that will be useful in the event of a secret zombie apocalypse.
- Not sure about the video game, but in the table game from which it's derived, powers are granted for mysterious reasons to seemingly incongruous and unrelated people. Many characters, left with no rational explanation for their new powers, are going to explain them the best they can based on their cultural background. In other words, if a 'typical' American suddenly was able to sprout a flaming sword and smite a vampire with it, all the while hearing voices or seeing hidden messages, what's less likely than that they would attribute it to God? And if a priest gained such powers, religious mania is a perfectly reasonable outcome.
La Pucelle is about a squad of monster hunters belonging to a church whose (sorta secret) purpose is destroying demons.
The Church of Elemia from Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia, as evidenced by Cardinal Radolf's really nice spear. This is because Bishop Falss formed them with the intent to invade Platina.
Rune Scape: Priest robes (prayer bonus), best mace you can find (prayer bonus), hunt giants/dragons (their bones give more prayer xp). You can take a lot less damage (Protect from x prayers) while dealing a lot more damage (Fortify Strength/Attack/etc.) And, the Monks of Zamorak, too.
Halo has the Covenant, a conglomerate of alien species that embark on crusades in the name of their gods, the Forerunners, all in the name walking the path to the Great Journey.
The priest class of Dungeon Fighter Online is supposed to be a support class, albeit a support class that's NOT a frail caster that needs to run away when danger approaches. Those bulging muscles and that oversized weapon he carries on his back isn't just for show.
Touhou features two rival shrines of miko, both of whom now carry out "youkai exterminations", and Sanae actually does so under the direct behest of her live-in goddesses.
Rosenkreuzstilette has a variant on this: the titular group was formed after the hero Rosenkreuz and his eight closest disciples won a holy war against the Holy Empire, and became a Magi-specific order of the Orthodox Church's army. Unfortunately, the Church and the RKS seem to have come to blows again recently...
The Yagudo Theomilitary in Final Fantasy XI consists of a race of Church Militants.
The 'Lethal Hounds' of the Garden Children from Luminous Arc.
Twin Blades has a gun-and-scythe-toting nun as a player character. Said gun can shoot all kinds of crazy supernatural ammunition, the better to halt the Zombie Apocalypse in its tracks.

Web Animation

Madness Combat features a version of Jesus who fits this trope perfectly.

Webcomics

Sister Mona Theist of Flaky Pastry, as a member of the Sisters of Holy Retribution, fits to a tee.
The Vatican church of Cry Havoc employs teams of vampire and deamon hunters. They're preferred weapons are automatic air burst grenade launchers, broadswords, helicopter gunships and strike bombers. The only competing religion, the Norse based Aesir church, is implied to be even more aggressive with its methods.

Web Original

Tech Infantry has the Christian Federation, one of several rebel factions during the Third Civil War. There are also Crusader Teams who hunt Vampires in the Federation, and later in the Middle Kingdom.
Open Blue features the Order of Saint Lennox, which is more or less the Avelian Church's Inquisition. Suffice to say, even after the inquisition, they teach their preists (and maybe even nuns) to use a sword or two... or three... or six... This is likely due to the fact that the Order sends many of its priests off as chaplains on Avelian warships, and in a time of pirates, you can never be too careful.

Western Animation

King Of The Hill. Monsignor Martinez: "Vaya con dios."
In Family Guy, the fake movie The Passion Of The Christ 2: Crucify This provided the caption for the picture up top.

Real Life

The Assassins, an Ismaili Muslim cult organized by Hasan-i-Sabbah with the goal of overthrowing the Caliphate. Famous for using hashish (hence the name) to induce visions of paradise that the believer would obtain upon his death.
- They were a heretic sect at least by the opinion of the contemporary Muslims, though just how much their teachings strayed from orthodox is unclear. The association with hashish is most likely fictional (the name is more likely to refer to their founder, Hasan), since it was a very well known drug in the region at the time, and no-one would have mistaken its effects for actual heavenly visions. The scholars are still debating just how prevalent drugs were in their rituals, and what drugs they were.
  - According to the fairly definitive research by Edward Burman, the use of drug-induced visions by Hasan-i-Sabbah's Nizari Isma'ili cult was a much later invention, based on a fairly egregious misunderstanding of the religion. The cult itself melded Shi'a Islam with Greek philosophy and religion; creating an esoteric mystery religion with multiple levels of initiation. This combined with the heavy persecution of the sect by more mainstream Shi'a and Sunni sects to create a fundamentalist degree of fanaticism in its adherents. The actual killers were typically lower-level initiates seeking to gain entry into the higher levels; and their targets were most often those responsible for persecution of the sect. The promises of paradise for those killed in combat/assassination attempts were fairly common to most Islamic sects; and murder as a political tool was used prior to Hasan (and was the forerunner of modern Islamic terrorism), though not as effectively or systematically, due to the Islamic world's reliance on charismatic leaders and cult-of-personality. The Assassins found that this tactic worked considerably less effectively on the hierarchical and bureaucratic Crusaders, most notably The Knights Templar, who ultimately destroyed them.
Related to the above example, the original Knights Templar (and several other crusading orders established thereafter) were originally intended to be an "order militant" of the Catholic church organized along monastic guidelines entrusted to protect and provide care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. However, the Templars gradually grew in power, wealth, and influence to the point that they were pretty much largely autonomous of any overseers, whether religious or secular, until the King of France convinced the Pope to disband the order and brand them as heretics in 1314.
Defense of the righteous is fairly central to the faith of Sikhism, which is understandable considering their history of being surrounded by militant Islamic factions and equally militant Hindus.
- The Sikh militias are long gone, though, and their martial culture is quite diluted when compared to say, the Gurkhas. Much of the Pakistani army is Punjabi though.
From about 1378 to 1418, the Catholic Church fought a civil war. A real civil war. With actual battles and many, many factions.
- Many of them also though that the Crusades they fought against Islam were civil wars - from where the belief started is not known, but in Middle Ages most of the people who bothered to put their minds into the subject at all thought that Mohammed had been a rogue cardinal who had founded his own version of Catholicism centered around himself, when he wasn't elected for the Pope.
The English city of York had some pretty tough Archbishops before the reformation. In 1138, Archbishop Thurstan commanded an army at the Battle of the Standard and routed a Scottish army. In 1346, another Archbishop (the fantastically named William La Zouche) defeated a numerically superior Scots invasion at Neville's Cross near Durham. Yet another Archbishop, Richard le Scrope, led an unsuccessful uprising against King Henry IV in 1405. One of Henry VIII's Archbishops, Christopher Bainbridge, ended up going to Italy and besieging the city of Ferrara for the infamous "warrior Pope" Julius II. And this was just one See...
- Another Archbishop of York to take up the sword was William Melton, albeit without much success. In 1319 a Scottish army threatened York, and in particular Queen Isabella of England who had taken up residence there. While the Queen was smuggled out of the city by boat, Archbishop Melton hastily raised a rather small, ragtag army of York residents, which involved a large number of priests and monks from the region. Unsurprisingly, in the ensuing "battle" at Myton-on-Swale they were literally massacred by the Scots. The sheer number of clergy and religious men involved on the English side led to the battle being nicknamed the "Chapter" of Myton.
Another example is Odo, half-brother of William the Conqueror and bishop of Bayeux (he might have commissioned that famous Tapestry), who was present at Hastings and had a number of other military adventures. He died during the First Crusade.
Many modern militias in the Islamic world, for example Hezbollah, combine civil defense with religious education. Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah was trained first in Iran as a religious scholar, and came later into militancy during the Israeli occupation of his country. However, at least in Hezbollah's case the religious element takes a backseat to civil defense, and many Maronite Christians and Druze are members or supporters of Hezbollah.
- In that note, some people accused Islam as a religion spread "by a sword in the left hand, and Quran in the right hand". While it's not really true, they had reasons for this; their power and fervor is such that they were able to take out the Persians completely and fight toe-to-toe against the Roman Empire. Yes, that Roman Empire.
  - While Islam wasn't spread by the sword, the loose Arab Empire certainly was, and within it it was beneficial to convert Muslim. Often it had to regulate the number of people allowed to convert annually because the Muslims were free of certain taxes, and they really needed those taxes to pay for the military campaigns.
  - However, it is true that Islam is the most militant of the today's major religions. The Prophet was a war leader and raider for a large period of his life, unlike the founders of other religions he was quite successful as spreading and establishing his word within his life, and so naturally had to take steps to defend it against those angered by the political upheaval.
Philip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais (1158-1217) (did Beauvais have ANY good bishops?) was so notorious for his warlike activities, that when he was captured in full armor by Richard The Lion Hearted, and representations were made by his cousin, Philip Augustus of France, for his release, The Pope is said to have replied, "Truly, this bishop is more a son of Mars than a son of ours."
This Troper read how when Alexis de Toqueville was visiting America and attended a local Catholic Church he witnessed collections being raised for Polish Nationalists and heard the priest give a fearsome (almost bloodthirsty) Rousing Speech for the Polish cause with lots of Old Testament, "Smite them, O Lord," kinds of stuff.