"I have two books at my bedside, Lieutenant: The Marine Corps Code of Conduct and the King James Bible. The only proper authorities I am aware of are my commanding officer, Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, and the Lord our God."
This character is a total Bad Ass and doesn't seem to answer to anyone. Oh, but he does. He devoutly follows none other than the Big Man himselfwith much devotion. He studies the Good Book, he does what it says, won't miss services, and is often deeply conservative. He is not necessarily Christian; his faith of choice varies widely depending on setting, and how devout he is may vary, from simply strongly to painfully religious. Basically, even the toughest badass needs to have some hope and guidance through this life.
A subtrope is Badass Preacher, when said person is himself a religious leader. See also Religious Bruiser for when this is used as for the humor/shock value of their contrast or Church Militant, when the real man fights for Jesus.
Compare and contrast Knight Templar, Well-Intentioned Extremist. After all, when you consider God to be your only authority, you're free to interpret orders however you like.
Examples
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Anime
Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist, though he struggles with his faith later on. Take note that the main character is something of a Nay Theist (having met "God" and discovered that he's kind of a dick).
Bartholomew Kuma of One Piece is very powerful and is always seen carrying a Bible.
Prussia in Axis Powers Hetalia was hinted as being this back in his Teutonic Knight days.
Comic Books
Nightcrawler was a devout Catholic and the nicest guy to ever join the X-Men. He could also kick butt when called upon to do so.
Eli from Hot Lead And Cold Feet. Though played as a "soft city boy", a pacifist, and a bit of a nebbish, he routinely walks headlong into, and THROUGH, danger that would make far mightier men quail, to the point of being an Implacable Man.
Saving Private Ryan: Private Daniel Jackson was a Christian sniper who always said a quick prayer and/or kissed the cross on his necklace just before blasting some Nazi straight to hell. In the final scene, he's saying prayers while he's mowing down Nazis.
In The Book of Eli, Eli is most definitely a Badass for God. However he has to learn throughout the movie to properly follow the words of the book that he so desperately wants to protect, leading to him ultimately giving up the Bible he had to save Solara's life. Although it helps that he memorized the whole thing during the thirty years he had it.
Connor MacLeod Highlander astoundingly remains a devout Catholic four hundred and fifty years after the very ignorance of his Catholic-kinsmen drove him out of his village for the crime of being "a witch" after returning from a mortal wound in battle. The same applies for his great-grand Nephew Duncan MacLeod, also immortal and driven out by religious ignorance.
The series also introduced Retired Badass Darius, who's been a Catholic monk for over a thousand years.
Rocky: Rocky himself. Anybody else would probably also pray to Jesus if they were about to fight Apollo.
Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption lives by the Good Book, and expects the prisoners in his watch to live by it, as well... but is only too willing to let Andy Dufresne launder money for him, and kill the only man who might set Andy free.
Full Metal Jacket: Gunnery SergeantHartman is proud to declare his love for the Virgin Mary, and his belief that anyone who fails to share that love is a Goddamn communist heathen.
So you can give your heart to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the Corps! Do you ladies understand?
As shown in her biographical film Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton.
In the Daredevil movie, Matt Murdock is shown to have a regular habit of going to Catholic confession to atone for his violence.
His parish priest is fully aware of his dual identity, but is forbidden to disclose it due to the right of the confessional. He does wish Matt chose a different image though.
[Captain America puts on a parachute to go follow after Thor, Loki, and Iron Man] Natasha Romanoff: I'd sit this one out, Cap. Steve Rogers: I don't see how I can. Natasha Romanoff: These guys come from legend, Captain. They're basically gods. Steve Rogers: There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that. [jumps out]
Hans from Seven Psychopaths is a very devout old-fassioned Christian. His faith is specifically named as the source of his confidence and tranquility, allowing him to stare death in the face without ever flinching.
Literature
The Dresden Files: Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross. Known as "The Fist of God" to his friends. We don't know what his enemies call him.
Don Blas Vivar in Sharpe's Rifles. With just five hundred men — only one third of them actual soldiers — he attacks a city held by 2,000 French soldiers, and wins. Why? So he can pray in the cathedral there.
Gordon McSweeny in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 storyline (specifically the Great War series) is the most fierce soldier on either side during the Great War, willingly leads any raid that he is ordered to make, and won the Medal of Honor at least once, possibly twice. He is also a fanatical Christian, constantly scolds his men for the slightest of offences (once putting himself on report for failing to clean his mess kit, then chewing out his CO for ignoring the complaint) and prefers to use a flamethrower to "give [the Confederates and Mormons] a nice foretaste of hell before they get there."
Trapped on Draconica: In this case, Real Women Love Dronor. Daniar regularly reminds her group that Dronor is watching over them, guiding them, etc. In her book 'pray to Dronor' is a legitimate plan.
Live-Action TV
Played straight and then subverted with Malcom Reynolds in Firefly. The first scene in the pilot episode shows us that he once was a devout believer, but the Independents' defeat at the Battle of Serenity Valley breaks his faith completely.
Also Shepherd Book, who is an itinerant pastor with a special ops background. He follows the Ten Commandments and doesn't killuntil his town is destroyed by an Alliance patrol ship in the movie, though the Good Book is a mite fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.
Mr Eko and Sayid are both shown to be religious in LOST. Mr Eko is a Catholic priest and has a 'Jesus Stick' covered in scripture, which he also uses to beat the bad guys to death with. He's a deeply spiritual badass. Sayid is a Muslim and former Iraqi soldier and undisputable badass, but is also shown praying on at least one occasion on the island, and in his flashbacks prays in mosques.
The Reagan family on Blue Bloods are similarly devout Catholics. And all the men are cops (retired, in Henry and Frank's case), and Erin Reagan is a district attorney.
Major Dick Winters of Band Of Brothers - a brave, stoic, competent leader - is shown to be very religious.
Religion
The Bible: King David. Except, y'know, he was actually Jesus' ancestor (and also the ancestor of his stepdad).
In The Four Gospels, Jesus' twelve disciples/apostles mainly worked blue-collar jobs such as fishing and carpentry, so it's fair to assume they were manly men. At least one was implied to be a terrorist (the Zealots believed in violent revolution, and one disciple had that descriptor attached to his name) and another was a tax collector. Jesus himself worked as a carpenter for most of his life before starting the Messiah gig.
Peter, in particular, was badass enough to pull out his sword and take on a large crowd armed with swords and clubs sent to arrest Jesus, all by himself, until Jesus stopped him.
Saints who were soldiers or warlords in life, with St. George as the most iconic example.
In The Book of Mormon, Mormon himself, and both seriously hardcore capitains known as Moroni kill a bunch of people, in order to protect the people of God, defend their countries, families, liberty and their right to worship God as they see fit.
A few Mass Effect characters tend to fit this trope.
Thane Krios, a badass assassin who before and after every mission prays to his Gods to aid him in the mission, forgive him for killing and forgive the person he killed and should he die bring him to the Afterlife. (The spiritual one, not the club in Omega.)
Matriarch Benezia, who is a religious philosopher and teacher and a incredibly powerful space magician. (Also known as a biotic ingame.)
Shepard, pretty much the ultimate badass, can also be religious if the player chooses that option in a conversation. Or he could just be saying that to get in Ashley's pants, as Ashley just said she believes in God.
More to the point: Ashley. In terms of pure combat ability, she's number one in the first game.
Well, besides Shepard. As said above, s/he's the galaxy's ultimate badass.
In Dragon Age, there are the templars, a military faction of the game's major religion. On a more personal level, there's Dragon Age II companion Sebastian, a brother in the Chantry and badass archer.
Legacy of Kain: Janos Audron is both physically imposing (tall, well-muscled, with giant black wings) and a powerful warrior-sorcerer. He's also completely, unflinchingly devoted to his God.
Joshua Graham, from the second Fallout New Vegas add-on, Honest Hearts. In his youth, he was trained as a missionary for the (post-apocalyptic) Church of Latter-day Saints. He was one of the co-founders of Caesar's Legion until he was disgraced and found his faith again. He also happens to be one of the strongest beings in the Fallout universe, gameplay-wise.
South Park did this once in a Dog The Bounty Hunter parody.
The Simpsons: Ned Flanders, considering the length of the censor bar when Homer tapes him in the shower. Also muscular build and incredible physical strength, as shown in several episodes.
Wolverine becomes a Christian in the 90sSeries/X-Men cartoon
Starting fairly recently, Sylvester Stallone. The missionary plot of the recent Rambo movie was partly influenced by his newfound faith.
Mr T; this man averted the Blasphemous Boast with his celebrity bodyguard service's motto, and it makes him all the more Bad Ass for it ("The best protection short of God Himself").
Pervasive in works dealing with The Crusades.
George S. Patton. A hard-charging, immensely profane general who prayed and read the Bible every goddam day.
Orde Wingate an eccentric British officer who helped organize Zionist militia forces and later became known as a Commando during the war (highly controversial for many say he was wasteful in lives). Wingate modeled himself after the great Hebrew warrior heroes of the Bible and his career was rather uncannily similar. He was intensely fond of rather grim Old Testament style speech.
"God give it to us to slay the enemies of the Jews for the enemies of the Jews are the enemies of all mankind."
Jesus Christ arguably counts, though He was more religious to His Dad than Himself.
Johnny Cash. "I've been down on bended knee, talking to the Man from Galilee..."
The Jewish population of Israel is mostly secular, even if they follow some traditional Jewish cultural practices.
The whole Muscular Christianity movement was built on this idea
Pilgrims would hold Church service in the same building where the militia's powder was kept. Which means they could not light the stove in the middle of a New England winter. It was considered a point of honor to stand straight and upright through the entire long service. When they started chattering the preacher would shout out something like, Stand! And hear the word of God! Apparently Pilgrims thought that the way of the Lord was similar to The Spartan Way.
Salah-ad-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub the Great was the Muslim version of this, as were many Muslim commanders during the era of the Crusades and onwards.
Most, if not all, Muslim military personnel are the Islamic version of this trope.
Khalid ibn Al-Walid is the king of the trope (the Muslim king, at least). A fiercely devout and zealous Muslim, a companion of the Muslim Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), under his military leadership, the entire Arabian peninsula was united under the Muslim Khalifat. He is likely one of the most brilliant generals in history, being one of the three to have never suffered a defeat. He was a terrifying warrior as well, a tale states that during the Battle of Muta that he shattered nine swords. For his faithfulness and skill, he was named Saif-ul-Allah, meaning the 'Sword of God'. Upon his deathbed, he lamented only that he would not die a martyr for Islam.
Filipino boxer Manny Paquiao. A devout catholic who is currently considered as one of the best boxers, pound-for-pound wise.
St Ladislaus of Hungary, has ascended to Memetic Badass status even during his rule. Among other things, he is said to have cleaved a mountain in two thus creating the Gorge of Torda, and coming back from the dead for one last battle.
Russian Mixed Martial Arts champion Fedor Emelianenko is very outspoken in his faith.
Tim Tebow and Troy Polamalu are both devout Christians (Tebow is Evangelical, Polamalu is Greek Orthodox) and pray constantly on the field.
