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Author: Jordan

Mar 21st 2012 at 9:30:21 PM

Yeah, this can definitely include both bad guys and good guys, and for either, is a good way to justify BadassPreacher.  Although, I wonder whether this might be covered (the good guy version at least) under HeelFaithTurn

*Two examples from ''Literature/TheDecameron'':
** The very first story involves a guy who is more or less a comically portrayed CompleteMonster (he's an AmoralAttorney, a murderer, a forger, a perjurer, a DepravedBisexual...) tricks a priest who gives him last confession into thinking he's extremely holy and ends up having miracles attributed to him post-death and is sainted.
** The second story of the fourth day tells of a similarly vile career criminal who pretends to have had a religious conversion and starts to pass himself off as a monk, and in this guise seduces a woman by tricking her into thinking he's the angel Gabriel.

On the good guy side of things:

*In ''Film/TheReplacements'', one of the football players is a former thug who has become a minister.  He's currently a spiritual man who tries to practice pacifism, but BewareTheNiceOnes is definitely in play.
*''{{Dexter}}'' has the character Brother Sam, a supposedly ReformedCriminal who is now very religious and helps find jobs for other ex convicts.  Dexter doesn't think he's legitimate, but he turns out to be sincere.
* Not precisely criminal, but in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', there is Septon Meribald, one of the only GoodShepherd priests in the series.  Meribald started out as a common soldier who raped and pillaged, but ended the war broke and with all of his friends dead.  Also, in the past, he used his position/knowledge of scripture to con young women into sleeping with him.  After a nervous breakdown, he had a HeelFaithTurn and now walks the land barefoot as penance, doing good deeds along the way.