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Token Religious Teammate

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"This is the religious one, there's always a religious one. Eugene McVey from Cleveland, and there's always one from Cleveland."
Lt. Col. Bruce Derringer, Memphis Belle

There's this one guy or girl in the team that stands out from the other team members. They stand out because of their faith or their religious values. While many of the team members may be atheists or agnostics, or at least haven't given much thought to religion, this team member is devoted to their faith.

Regardless of whether they serve one god, or multiple gods, or some divine cosmic energy, their beliefs have defined the way they see the world and the way they respond to any given situation. This may manifest in a Thou Shalt Not Kill code or they may be a violent, psychotic character who uses their faith to justify their actions. Whatever the case, this causes the character to stand out from the other characters due to their faith. If they are Church Militant, expect them to be a Badass Preacher, a Religious Bruiser, or a Technical Pacifist.

If they are Christian, they will almost invariably be Catholic. Unless they're wacky or hypocritical, in which case they'll be Protestant.

Quite often the Token Good Teammate, although psychotic examples could qualify for Token Evil Teammate. May also be the Token Wholesome.

At their worst, a Token Religious Teammate is Stupid Good or Lawful Stupid or even a Holy Hitman or Churchgoing Villain.

Compare with Real Men Love Jesus. Contrast with Secular Hero. Sometimes, they'll just be Ambiguously Christian or Ambiguously Jewish.

noreallife


Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Black Lagoon:
    • Sister Eda is the only major side character who shows religious affiliation (Catholic) in an otherwise secular or atheistic Roanapur. It's subverted because not only is Eda rather irreverent, her "church" is little more than a gun cartel and an undercover CIA listening post built into a church.
    • Claude Weaver from the Greenback Jane arc says he's a Mormon, but he's private about his faith and also has problems with some tenets of his faith, primarily the whole "thou shalt not kill" thing.
  • Seikai, one of the Brave10, left the Izumo temple to pursue his own brand of Buddhism which involves worshiping all gods equally on the basis of maximizing potential protection from them. The Braves are pretty skeptical, but it does give him a Charles Atlas Superpower.
  • Daimos: Both Richter and Erika believe in the Baamite religion and pray to the "Baam-God" from time to time. The religion itself just seems to be Christianity with extra steps.
  • In the American official Gag Dub of Ghost Stories, Momoko becomes a very devoted Christian. In the original Japanese dub, she was simply psychic, but the dub needed to make her funny and explain both her powers and why she was frequently possessed by the spirit of Satsuki's dead mom.
  • Asia Argento, Xenovia Quarta, and Irina Shidou from High School D×D. And no, being demons didn't stop the first two from being religious at all.
  • Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: Spartos is this in Sinbad's group of Eight Generals who also doubles as The Team Normal. Also Exaggerated with his home country of Sasan; it's apparently the only religious country in the entire world of Magi, so all religious people in this manga hail from there. This series isn't sci-fi by the way; it's a magical fantasy world based on the 1001 Arabian Nights and has a character named Aladdin, whose name means "noble of the religion/faith". It also features characters named David and Solomon and has another country whose name looks to be derived from a Greek goddess, Artemyra.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE has Max Hartway, a pilot for Woolf's squadron who always prays to God for strength prior to battle.
  • Subverted in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing with Duo. Although he wears crosses and a priest's collar, he's actually a Hollywood Atheist.
    • Possibly played straight with Quatre. In Endless Waltz, he calls on God in his mind to help them (though it's translated as "It all depends on us.") And one possible interpretation of a line from the series proper, where he requests non-alcoholic champagne to celebrate the end of the Eve Wars, is that he's Muslim and therefore can't drink alcohol for religious reasons.
  • Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair: Jeanie is a Christian and prays to Jesus whenever anyone is sick or in need of comfort. Many of her actions, such as humility and treating people with kindness, reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ himself.
  • Hello! Sandybell: Linda, the amnesiac mother of Sandybell is a nun. She's implied to be a Greek orthodox Christian because she lives in Lefkada.
  • Lady!! has a somewhat downplayed example with Sheikh Sharif. He is an Arab from Dubai, and mentions that he has faith in Allah.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • There are hints that Mezo Shoji is a Buddhist, particularly, his mentions of having "no worldly desires".
    • In Class 1-B there's also Ibara Shiozaki, a devout Christian who has a literal crown of thorns thanks to her quirk and who would rather restrain her opponents than harm them.
  • Yukariko of the My-HiME anime as she is a nun.
  • Pollyanna has Pollyanna's father, John Whittier. He teaches Pollyanna to "look for joy" because the word for joy appears 800 times in the Bible.
  • Remy: Nobody's Girl: Pierre is very religious. He once snuck into Gerard's mansion and to pray to the statue of Holy Mary for his sister Nina to be able to speak again.
  • Sailor Moon: Rei Hino is this in the manga and Crystal. She takes her miko duties seriously and her dream is to become the head priestess of her family's Shinto shrine. One of her attacks is even called "Burning Mandala" (though the term ultimately originates from Hinduism).
  • Implied with Megu-nee from School-Live!. She seems rather spiritual and carries around a rosary.
  • For the Death Scythes in Soul Eater, Justin Law is this, though he takes it a step farther in that he thinks his boss, the Grim Reaper, is God. In the manga, this doesn't change, though it isn't Lord Death he's worshiping.
  • Voltes V: Prince Heinel is of the "mad cultist" variety, he engages in Boazanian pagan rituals that involve animal sacrifice and his faith plays a huge role in him going One-Winged Angel.

    Comic Books 
  • The title character in Nexus is a devout Christian (possibly Eastern Orthodox since his parents were Russian) and makes more frequent references to his faith than most of the main characters. By contrast, while his friend Judah Maccabee is introduced as a devout convert to Judaism (his name was Fred before he converted), in practice he doesn't actually talk about it that much. As a side note, Judah is an alien.
  • Victor Mancha of the Runaways was raised as a devout Catholic. Teammate Nico Minoru used to be an altar girl but has lapsed somewhat.
  • X-Men:
    • Nightcrawler is a devout Catholic despite the fact that his appearance frequently causes him to be mistaken for a demon.
    • Wolfsbane, who is a devout Presbyterian. Several of her teammates on the New Mutants are also religious (Cannonball is Baptist, and Sunspot and Karma are Catholic) but she stands out due to her strict repressive upbringing.
    • In one of the later iterations of the series, there is Dust, a devout Muslim who still observes niqab.
  • Among the main characters in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, only Drift, Swerve, and Cyclonus are notably religious (Drift subscribes to Spectralism, Swerve is a standard Primalist, and Cyclonus is one of the few remaining Clavis Aurea adherents), and Drift disappears from the comic for quite some time following his exile. Most of the others seem to be willing to keep it private or are generally indifferent to the whole thing, and Whirl is something of a misotheist. Ironically enough, one of those shipmates who doesn't put on a particular show of faith? Even he doesn't know it, but he's Primus, the Transformers' God.
    • Inverted with Ratchet, the Token Antireligious Teammate. While he's certainly not the only nonbeliever (Skids is a Hollywood Atheist whose faith died in a horrific event, and Lug is stated to be nonreligious by Anode), nor is he the only one who mistrusts organised religion (Whirl dislikes anything that, in his words, offers forgiveness as a reward for compliance), Ratchet is the character who most enthusiastically defines himself in terms of rationalism and science and forcefully rejects any supernatural explanations. Even when they appear to be dead and in the afterlife, Ratchet is one of the most intense about finding out what it really is, which means that he ultimately saves the whole crew with a well-swung chair.
  • While the members of Strikeforce: Morituri were religious to varying degrees, Adept wore her faith up front. Her costume bore a heavy resemblance to priestly robes, and she would often pray for guidance during stressful situations.
  • Supposedly, the original writers' bible for Lost in Space asserted that in addition to being a scientist, Professor Robinson was an ordained minister, but it never actually came up in the TV series. When the 1990's Comic-Book Adaptation (largely written by Bill Mumy) came out, focusing heavily on exploring the cast's personalities, it finally came up.
  • As a reasonably devout Muslim whose beliefs inform her moral behavior, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) is likely to be this when she participates in a team.

    Fan Works 
  • In Dungeon Keeper Ami we have Snyder. An acolyte of the Light working for the only good dungeon keeper in existence: Keeper Mercury. He tries to work as the voice of reason and constantly mentions his religion whenever the group has to do something morally reprehensible but goes along with it most of the time.
    • There's also Abbot Durval, a Badass Preacher who serves as Baron Leopold's right-hand man and the main representative of the Light in King Albrecht's court.
  • Shizune from Perfection Is Overrated. Unfortunately, she also holds particularly extreme and uncompromising beliefs, and is willing to kill anyone who disagrees with her in almost any way, including the rest of the Himes.
  • Downplayed in Peace Forged in Fire. Most of the characters are Romulan and pay at least lip service to the Romulan spiritual belief in the Elements, but it's not an organized religion in the manner of Jaleh Khoroushi's Shi'a Islam. Jaleh also pointedly doesn't keep halal for practical reasons. Meanwhile D'trel's crew has Omek'ti'kallan, a Jem'Hadar First and a devout follower of "Glorious Odo'Ital" (a.k.a. Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) who frequently quotes religious maxims from a Sparse List of Rules.
  • The USS Bajor among Federation starships in Bait and Switch and related fics, due to having a crew that's about 15% Bajoran, including the captain and operations officer. They've even got a Bajoran monk for a chaplain. In "Shakedown Shenanigans" conn officer Park Jin-Soo asks Captain Kanril Eleya if she has a problem with him being Catholic (after she notices him kissing a medallion of St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron saint of pilots), and she basically says that'd be hypocritical of her.
  • This trope is often applied to works featuring Mello from Death Note, who because of owning some Catholic paraphernalia note  and a real name that hints at a heritage that would make him more likely to actually be one, is thought to be a practicing Catholic.
  • Out of the HIVE Five and Teen Titans in To Catch A Raven, Jinx is the most religious. She's a devout Hindu.
  • Despair Island reimagines Ezekiel as this, depicting him as a devout Christian as an expansion of his homeschooler stereotype.

    Film — Live Action 
  • Grandmother's Farm: Saeed is mentioned regularly in the early part of the movie to be the religious one of the group. He also regularly prays, and insists on blessing the fire to cook the roast before they light it.
  • Major League:
    • The first film has Eddie Harris, the stock hypocritical Protestant, and Pedro Cerrano, the voodoo practitioner, who are often in conflict.
      Harris: Are you saying Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball??
    • In Major League 2, Cerrano converts to Buddhism, which puts him in conflict with new outfielder Isuro "Kamikazi" Tanaka, who mocks his shallow understanding of Buddhism.
  • Holly Little from Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. In addition to Little, Sky Marshal Omar Anoke is also revealed to be religious but he is not worshipping the same god that Little was.
  • Deacon, from Red Tails, who made a point of praying to "Black Jesus'' for protection for himself and his fellow pilots.
  • Mad Max has two highway patrolmen chasing a maniac. After a crash, one starts cursing and the other says that he doesn't have to "... work with a blasphemer."
  • In Smiley's People, a man is found shot in the face. A detective starts saying "Christ, Christ" and becomes sick. His superior tells him that if he has to vomit go off and do it, but no blaspheming.
  • The Avengers has Captain America make a specific reference to Christianity. Upon being told that Thor is very powerful, enough that he's considered to be a god...
    Steve: There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that.
  • Bull Durham: Minor character Jimmy is an outspoken born-again Christian who is introduced trying to start a team Bible study group, to his teammates' annoyance. Surprisingly, in the third act, he ends up marrying Millie, a girl who has "gone down on half the Carolina League."
  • In Star Wars: Rogue One, Chirrut Îmwe is a blind warrior from Jedha who strongly and enthusiastically believes in the Force. His buddy Baze Malbus was once a devoted believer but now thinks Chirrut is being stupid. Unusually, the Force in Star Wars is canonically and literally present in the galaxy, so Baze is less a Flat-Earth Atheist and more a Nay-Theist. Jyn is implied to be a lapsed believer, as she still has a Kyber crystal, the token of faith for Force-ism.
  • The Old Guard. Nile Freeman is the only member of the immortals who's shown to be openly religious (Nicky and Joe who fought in the Crusades might be, but it's not clear). She is specifically Christian, wearing a small cross while mentioning God early on. This is to contrast her with Andy's lack of belief in any god, despite their supernatural status.
  • The New Mutants: A great deal of Rahne's character revolves around her Catholic faith. Especially where she tries to reconcile her faith with her mutant power, and the horrific abuses she suffered at the hand of Reverend Craig when said power first manifested. She's the only member of the cast shown to be religious.
  • Mythica: Teela is the only one of the main cast who consistently shows religious beliefs, because she's also the clergy member among them.
  • Lycan: Isabella, a Latina, is Catholic and prays multiple times, first saying the Hail Mary with her rosary while out in the woods. No other characters are shown to be religious.
  • Memphis Belle starts with an Army public relations officer reviewing the plane's crew, identifying Eugene as "the religious one", noting there's always a religious one.
  • In Rats: Night of Terror, Deus appears to hew to moral and spiritual beliefs the others don't recognize.
  • Spring Breakers: Faith is shown at a Bible study group near the beginning. She's not only the only one among the girls to leave early as she's disturbed by the hedonistic setting they vacation to. None of the rest ever show any religious sentiments.
  • Ghostbusters: Winston Zeddemore is the only explicitly religious member of the Ghostbusters. In the first film, he has a conversation with Ray about Judgement Day from The Bible.

    Literature 
  • The Alice Network: Lili is mentioned as being a devout Catholic, always carrying a crucifix and praying before every mission. Eve initially mentions she was raised Protestant but becomes an atheist, with the rest not expressing any religious (or irreligious) sentiments.
  • Isaac Asimov's "Flies": While Polen and Casey went into scientific research, their friend Winthrop went into seminary. Twenty years later, he's now Reverend Winthrop (but still missing a sense of purpose).
  • Relg in the Belgariad is a fanatic who observes strict religious rites, including stopping to pray several times a day, until the rest of the party force him to stop. He also has issues with sin, especially relationships with women, that he never entirely gets over even after he's married.
  • Inverted in Bridge to Terabithia. New Transfer Student Leslie stands out in her small-town because she was raised secular and is an atheist.
  • Discworld:
    • Constable Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets is this for the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. He's an Omnian (a religion unusal for monotheism in a world where most people believe in many gods) and as his name indicates, is often Knocking on Heathens' Door. Most of the rest of the Watch ignore his religious tendencies as long as he's good at his job, but Dorfl sometimes has theological debates with him.
  • The Dresden Files: There are some religious guys among Harry's friends, but the most devout one is Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross who wields the Holy Sword Amoracchius. Try to find one line in his conversations with Harry where he is not speaking about faith and God.
  • In The Elenium most of the main characters are Church Knights, but Bevier the Cyrinic knight is the most pious, stern, and religious of the bunch, almost ending up in the Lawful Stupid area. The other Church Knights in the group tend to have a much more pragmatic approach.
  • Everworld.
    • April, who's devoutly Catholic.
    • Jalil is an inversion as the only explicitly atheist (and anti-religious) member of the group. This had an interesting result when the gods of Everworld-Africa ordered the team to make a sacrifice to them, as Jalil and April actually teamed up in refusing.
  • Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating: Hani is a practicing Muslim while the rest of her friends are irreligious, as is her girlfriend Ishu. Even mentioning anything religious causes discomfort for her friends, and so Hani doesn't much. Ishu though is respectful of her religion, getting Hani halal food.
  • Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Samirah al-Abbas, a devout Muslim, is the only major character in the series (and possibly the entire Rick Riordan universe) who's explicitly stated to follow a faith other than whatever pantheon that the series is focused on.
  • The Martian:
    • The Hermes crew has Rick Martinez. He has a Mexican origin and he is Catholic.
    • Venkat (Vincent in the film) Kapoor from the ground crew. He is Hindu.
  • Nowhere Stars: Shona is a Downplayed example: despite all Keepers being supposedly empowered by the goddess Claiasya, she's the only member of the main cast who actually believes in the Claiasyan religion and respects the church. The others believe Claiasya exists, if only because their Mentor Mascots have confirmed it and their magic must come from somewhere, but aren't particularly devout; Liadain and Mide seem mostly ambivalent, and Aisling openly distrusts the church and its associated Keepers. Even Shona doesn't bring it up much, except to disagree with Aisling.
  • In Our Wives Under the Sea, the practicing Catholic Jelka is the only character to have religion be a major part of their personality. She's the only one to not make it back from the expedition.
  • In The Red Tent, Zilpah is the most religious out of Jacob's wives.
  • Grace from The Stranger Times is a devout Christian, in contrast to her secular-minded colleagues. She prays, mentions going to church, and even tries to save a vampire through evangelism.
  • Robyn Mathers from Tomorrow: When the War Began. She isn't the only Christian in the group, but she's the most devout, even having a Thou Shalt Not Kill code. She eventually breaks it.
  • In the Venus Prime series, Sparta's former classmate Khalid Sayeed is a devout Shiite Muslim.
  • Villains by Necessity: Kaylana is the only member of the protagonists who's shown as really religious (she's a druid, thus a cleric herself), though her religion worships Nature rather than the gods, and seeks to keep its balance in the universe, because otherwise the world will be destroyed. The others invoke the gods occasionally and pray when a friend of Arcie's dies, though otherwise they don't display religious sentiments.
  • Inverted in Warrior Cats. Out of the over a thousand cats, only a handful don't believe in StarClan: Cloudtail, Mothwing, and Sleekwhisker.
  • In The Witchlands, while most characters don't place much importance on their faith, Monk Evraine is religious to the point of mild fanaticism.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Lourdes from Falling Skies, who practices Roman Catholicism.
  • Zhaan from Farscape was a Delvian Pa'u or priest(ess). At one point she committed acts of violence so repugnant to her own sense of morality that she renounced her status and spent about half a season reattaining it. She was the spiritual heart of the show up until her death in early Season 3. Stark and Noranti were similarly spiritual characters.
  • Shepherd Derrial Book from Firefly is a Badass Preacher from a fictional Christian denomination (named the Order of Shepherds in the RPG). He doesn't push his beliefs on the crew (which includes at least one Buddhist and an unapologetic Hollywood Atheist, while the other crew members' preferences aren't known) unless they ask for it, but he practices what he preaches and follows the Ten Commandments to the letter. We should note here that, while The Bible is quite specific that Thou Shalt Not Kill, "it is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."
  • In M*A*S*H, Father Mulcahy, the camp chaplain, is, as befits his position, the most devoutly religious member of the staff at the 4077th, dividing his time between giving religious guidance to the other personnel and the wounded soldiers passing through the camp (even those who are not Catholic or even Christian) and performing charitable works for local orphans. Many other characters have some religious faith, but they are not as overt about it (except when Major Burns' religious hypocrisy is being mined for laughs).
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Worf, of a sort. He doesn't actually actively worship anything but is knowledgeable about Klingon mythology, which is heavily Norse-influenced and actually misotheistic (in Deep Space Nine it's mentioned a couple times that ancient Klingon warriors killed their gods).
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
      • Major Kira in the beginning until Worf joins the crew. She's Bajoran, whose primary hat is being one of the few species in the galaxy that still has a majority of outspokenly religious citizens. They worship the Prophets, which in the series premiere turn out to be a race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that inhabit a wormhole between the outer Bajoran system and the Gamma Quadrant. She also grows to see Commander (later Captain) Sisko as the prophesied Emissary.
      • In a meta sense, DS9 is this to the other Star Trek series; while the others mostly run on the idea that mankind has Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions, DS9 takes the Bajoran religion seriously and questions where the line between "Sufficiently Advanced Alien" and "god" really is. Sisko (who himself becomes more religious as he comes to accept his role as Emissary) even explains to his son Jake that it's all open to interpretation; even if The Federation categorizes the Prophets among other super-powered entities, it's not unreasonable for the Bajorans to worship them as gods and they shouldn't be thought of any less for doing so.
    • Star Trek: Voyager: Chakotay follows a bizarre mishmash of various Native American religious beliefs, which in real life was due to the show's so-called Native American adviser, Jamake Highwater, being an infamous fraud with no actual Cherokee ancestry (as he claimed).
    • Captain Pike is a downplayed example on Star Trek: Discovery. While there's no indication that he's actually religious, he understands Earth religions better than the rest of his crew.
  • SeaQuest DSV has Communications Officer Lt. Tim O'Neill, whose devout Catholicism is singled out as a plot point in a few episodes.
  • In Bones, Arastoo is the only member of the Squints to voice a religious belief (Islam). While he never tries to hide this aspect of himself, he did attempt to put on a fake accent in hopes of making the others think that he was newly immigrated to the country and would thus not give him a hard time about it. Angela is the only other Squint that shows spiritual leanings, although she seems more spiritual than religious about the matter. The only other character to emphasize a religious preference is Booth, who rarely lets an episode pass without reminding everyone that he is Catholic.
  • In the BBC's The Musketeers, Catholicism is the national religion, but (somewhat ironically) the Chivalrous Pervert Aramis is the only one amongst the Musketeers who seems to embrace it.
  • On Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Elliot Stabler is a somewhat devout Catholic and is the only member of the SVU whose religious views get any significant mention. After he leaves the show, he is replaced by Sonny Carisi, who is a much more openly devout Catholic.
  • On The Mindy Project, Danny Castellano is a devout Catholic. When he and Mindy first discuss dating, he refuses because she has a boyfriend and it would be adultery. Mindy points out that not only is he divorced, he also had sex before marriage.
  • Among the National Service aircraftmen in Get Some In!, vicar's son Matthew Lilley is by far the most overt when it comes to living life according to religious guidelines. He makes a point of attending church services every week, has religious iconography on his notice board instead of the pin-ups most of his fellow aircraftmen have, ascribes unexpected good fortune to divine intervention, regards using even mild profanity such as "Blimey" as blasphemous, and plans to follow his father into the clergy after finishing his National Service. His fellow aircraftmen may not share his religious convictions, but they do respect them, unlike their Drill Instructor, Corporal Marsh, who never misses an opportunity to insult Matthew for his devotion to his faith.
  • On Scrubs, Turk is a fairly devout Christian, although not a regular churchgoer. The religious beliefs of the rest of the cast aren't really discussed, except Dr. Cox (who is a Hollywood Atheist) and Laverne (who is The Fundamentalist).
  • Rembrandt on Sliders. He frequently mentions God and openly says he's Christian. Quinn and Arturo are agnostics whilst Wade has some New Age beliefs but is never shown to be actually active in any religion.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has Mac, a Catholic with some fundamentalist leanings. This does not make him a better person.
  • Camelot: While the characters are probably all Christians (or pagans in some cases maybe) except Merlin, only Leontes is portrayed actually praying and expressing religious sentiments regularly.
  • Manifest: Michaela initially is the only member of the cast who has a religious bent, and alone suggests the force behind the callings was God. She's also seen praying for guidance. Later though a passenger sets up a church based on the idea they are divine chosen ones, which Olive gets interested in.
  • Survivors: In the 2008 series, Naj is the only member of the main group who's shown to be religious (he's devoutly Muslim-he was praying at the mosque as the virus struck, with everyone else inside dying).
  • Stargirl (2020): Yolanda's the only member of the new JSA who is shown to be religious (she's Catholic), and seen praying either for herself or others a couple times. Yolanda also later goes to confession after having killed Brainwave, but she initially can't tell her priest (who is very understanding).
  • Hanna: Sandy's cover is from a Christian family, so like the rest of it she embraces this (however, it's unclear how much she gets about religion). She's the only character seen with any religious sentiments though.
  • A French Village: While other characters mention believing in God or otherwise holding some religious beliefs, Lucienne is really the only one who's shown to be a believer, praying and confessing her sins as a very devoted Roman Catholic.
  • The Outer Limits (1995): In "Abduction" Brianna is a devout Christian, the sole religious member of the group.
  • The Wilds: Shelby is the only girl among the nine to be vocally religious, speaking about her Christian beliefs frequently early on. She noticeably maintains her devout beliefs even after accepting being a lesbian and openly getting involved in a relationship with Toni once she's overcome a Crisis of Faith.
  • The Society:
    • Helena, a Christian girl who even tries to recreate religion in the new society.
    • Bean to a lesser extent—she's a Muslim who wears the hijab, prays, and is vegetarian, but her religious beliefs aren't brought to the forefront at any point.
  • Resident Alien:
    • Dan's the only adult who really expresses religious beliefs, telling Asta she should perform mourning rituals in Sam's honor as he believes Sam's spirit will linger otherwise.
    • Pre-teen Sahar is a practicing Muslimah. She wears hijab, occasionally apologizes to Allah, and abstains from haram practices such as looking at her friend Max's bare back.
  • S.W.A.T. (2017): Deacon's the only member of the team who is shown to be religious.
  • Lucifer (2016): Ella Lopez is the only member of the cast who's openly and explicitly religious, wearing a cross necklace and dragging Lucifer to a church service. This adds an extra layer of irony to the fact that for most of the series she was one of the only characters who is unaware that Lucifer, Amenadiel and Maze are all divine beings. She eventually works out the truth in the sixth season and is furious that her friends kept her in the dark as they knew she already believed in these things.
  • La Brea: Veronica believes in God, insisting on finding her father's body (who was killed by a dire wolf in the first episode) and giving him a proper burial since she says it's what God commands. Nobody else so far expresses religious beliefs.
  • Yellowjackets:
    • Laura Lee leads the team into prayer before practice. She's the only who seemed to really be religious, talking of her faith a lot, but unlike some other examples of the trope, her teammates are generally accepting and supportive of her faith and willingly join her in prayer regardless of their own beliefs. Her faith plays an important role in inspiring Lottie to see her hallucinations as divine prophecy. She conveniently dies before Lottie's role in the group becomes overtly heretical.
    • Van appears to take up this role after Laura Lee's death, particularly after her second near-death experience and the events of Doomcoming. She asks the group to say grace, turns to Lottie for guidance and prays before a shrine along with Misty as one of the first members of Lottie's new cult.
  • The L Word: Jenny was Jewish and Bette is a Buddhist, but it didn't come up a lot. The issue of religion within the LGBT+ community is raised and discussed in Generation Q, which introduced the recurring character Rebecca Dowery, who briefly sees new main character Finley who's thrown after learning she's a minister. Rebecca, it turns out, is with the Los Angeles MCC (Multicultural Community Churchnote ), an LGBT+ affirming denomination. She notes that she's much more closeted about being a Christian than queer as many LGBT+ people have very painful histories with Christianity (like Finley, who'd been raised Catholic and kicked out by her parents). After realizing that Finley is dealing with deep-seated issues over this and can't see religious people (let alone clergy) without anxiety over them, Rebecca breaks things off, expressing her hope that she'll work through them and maybe find another faith in the future.
  • In From the Cold: Inés Calero is the character who's shown as the most religious, as a devout Catholic frequently shown praying in church, although her family invoke God a couple times too.
  • Abbott Elementary: Veteran teacher Barbara Howard is a Christian woman who regularly attends church, is the most moralistic of her coworkers, and openly calls out to the Good Lord and his son during times of crisis.

    Podcasts 
  • Dr. Rosa de la Torres from The White Vault was raised Catholic, and is the only member of the team to make a mention of her religious beliefs at all. It doesn't come up often, but she's devout enough to pray for safety, and for the fate of Graham's soul just after he dies, which surprises Jónas. He expresses doubt that prayer can help their current situation, but she responds that, since they're now facing what she assumes to be a demon from Hell, she wants to believe there's a Heaven, too.

    Roleplay 
  • Surprisingly for an RPG on a board that usually frowns on religious discussion, Dino Attack RPG got two spiritual characters. The first was Commander Pharisee, who believes he has a divinely inspired right to impart justice on others. The second is Dr. Noomi Shaw, who despite being a capable surgeon tries to use prayer as a source of comfort.

    Tabletop Games 
  • In Dungeons & Dragons, there is a general trend for the party's Cleric or Paladin to be the lone religious, pious member of the party.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • Lorgar (and by extension the entire Word Bearers Legion) was this for the Primarchs, which led to his downfall. Lorgar and his legion made very little progress during the reunification of the galaxy since they kept building churches and presenting the (very much atheist) Emperor as, well, God-Emperor. The Emperor humiliated Lorgar and his entire legion for his worship, so when it turned out there were actual gods in the Warp more than willing to be prayed to, Lorgar jumped ship.
    • Ollanius Pius is apparently a Christian (sorry, Catheric) despite being, among other things, immortal, living millennia after the only religions are the Imperial creed and the Chaos gods, and having met the Emperor.

    Theatre 
  • Scripps in The History Boys.
  • Six: The Musical: While historically, the rest of the queens were also some amount of religious, Catherine of Aragon is the only one who is characterised by it in the show itself — to the point where Katherine Howard has to tell her to tone it down.

    Video Games 
  • William McCall from Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. He also doubles as the Token Good Teammate.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins is a former spy / assassin who found religion while in hiding. In later installments, she becomes the Left Hand (i.e. personal spymaster) of the incumbent Divine and, potentially, the next Divine herself.
    • Sebastian Vael from Dragon Age II is a Former Teen Rebel whose parents shipped him off to the Kirkwall Chantry to prevent him from further embarrassing them. Bethany Hawke from the same game also is shown to be very religious, despite the Chantry's official position that free mages like her are Always Chaotic Evil.
    • Of the companions in Dragon Age: Inquisition, Cassandra Pentaghast is easily the most devout Andrastean—understandable, as she has served as the Right Hand (i.e. personal enforcer) of the Divine for most of her life (and can also become the next Divine in the ending.) In fact, she is the closest thing this series thus far has to The Paladin.
  • Of the three Pacific High School students in Rival Schools, Boman is described as a devout Christian*, with the title of "Fighting Preacher". His character-specific ending in the first game even showed him staying behind in Japan as a missionary...and somehow managing to drag Edge and Gan from Gedo High along with him on his charity fundraisers!
  • Vanilla H from Galaxy Angel is the only member of the team for whom religion is really important (superficial resemblance to Catholicism plus vegetarianism). It's revealed on her route that she was raised by a nun named Sister Beryl, whose grave she later visits on Galaxy Angel II to pray for her protection of her friends.
  • Mass Effect has a few Religious Bruiser teammates:
    • Ashley Williams is eventually revealed to be this in Mass Effect. She reports having faced some prejudice for her beliefs, giving Shepard the option to say that s/he is religious, too.
    • Thane Krios from Mass Effect 2 is the most obviously religious teammate. He's introduced killing a Corrupt Corporate Executive and then saying a "prayer for the wicked"—referring to himself.
    • Though those two are the most devoted, all of the various alien characters generally believe in whatever religion their society developed. Garrus prays to the spirits in Mass Effect 3. In the same game, Liara is seething with anger when Javik tells her that her goddess was actually the Protheans. Ironic, as she had spent her life looking to the Protheans for answers.
  • Story of Seasons:
  • Novitiate nun Erica Fontaine in Sakura Wars.
  • In Project × Zone, Erica Fontaine is the token Catholic, with Felicia added to the mix in 2.
  • Night in the Woods has Beatrice who at times indicates ambiguously towards having religious leanings. She prays before going into the woods at the game's climax.
  • Deltarune: While Kris also comes from a religious household, Noelle Holiday is the much more outwardly religious of the two. In addition to her very blatant Christmas motifs in both her outfit and name, her father, Rudy, tells her when she visits him in the hospital that he hopes to see her in church on Sunday.

    Visual Novel 
  • Angie Yonaga from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is an overly religious girl who kept on talking about her God (named "Atua" in the localization) throughout the game before her death and after every culprit's execution, she always talks that she will pray for them.

    Web Original 
  • Empires SMP: Among the Season 2 cast, Mythical Sausage is the only mortal character with an explicit religious affiliation, being the champion of a deified close friend from a past life. That is, of course, excluding Joel the resident Physical God, hence the 'mortal' clarification.
  • The Road to Hell... has Umburk, one of the councilors within King Chorn Torgash's government. He's the only member of the council who's openly religious and wants churches to be built in Kosslivo so other orcs can pray to their god Lusagger.
  • Tyrian Callows from RWBY is a particularly twisted villainous example. While most of Salem's followers regard her with fear and respect, Tyrian practically worships her as a goddess and "divine savior" and is absolutely devoted to her.
  • Sailor Moon Abridged: Like her manga and Crystal counterparts and unlike her anime counterpart, Raye/Sailor Mars is the only religious member of the main characters. Note that this series abridges the 90s anime and completely changes her religion altogether. Here Raye is a devout Satanist instead of a devout Shintoist. Who attends a Catholic school (this doesn't cause problems like you would think).
  • Whateley Universe: Phase of Team Kimba and Loophole of the Whitman Lit Chix. They even have a talk about their faith in a Loophole story with Phase revealing that he is having a crisis of faith since he has lost everything: his family, his old friends, his wealth and power and protection, his long-held anti-mutant beliefs, his identity, and even his gender.

    Webcomics 
  • Crimson Dark: Daniel is a Christian missionary who leads Bible studies sometimes and gets called a "Bible basher", though he doesn't actually push it on anyone. The author said he added this because he's a Christian as well and wanted to counter the idea that religion would have died out in the future.
  • When Dumbing of Age premiered, some felt that Joyce was becoming this. As Dumbing of Age features characters re-imagined from his previous works, like Roomies!, It's Walky!, Joyce and Walky!, and Shortpacked!, where Joyce's faith wasn't so often commented upon, some felt that this was flanderization or inconsistency of her character. Later David Willis clarified that when he first created many of his characters, he was a Christian fundamentalist and therefore made most of his characters the same as a default, inverting this trope.
  • Homestuck: Kurloz Makara, of the Pre-Scratch Trolls, is a devout follower. His particular Religion of Evil worships Big Bad Lord English and the Cherub species in general.
  • The Order of the Stick: Clerics are a class where the character gains powerful spells due to their commitment to religion and devotion to their god specifically.
    • The Order of the Stick has Durkon on their team, a Dwarven cleric of Thor. The second-to-last book focuses on Durkon's character arc, and he gets plenty of face-time with Thor, learning about the investment that the gods have in the Order's quest to defeat Xykon. The team also adds Minrah, a Fighter-Cleric multiclass, who joined the party while they sought a way to restore Durkon to life.
    • "Team Evil", a nickname for Xykon and his minions, has Redcloak, the goblin High Priest of the Dark One. He is a divine caster in contrast to his arcane master, and is planning to use the gates for his god's goal, which is a betrayal of Xykon.
    • The Linear Guild, the Psycho Rangers contrast to the Order of the Stick, mirrors Durkon's presence with Hilgya, dwarven cleric of Loki. She follows his teachings because she was born into a life and family that controlled her because of honor and duty, which she sought to break free from. She also once used her divinely-granted abilities to control evil salamanders into obeying her.
    • The Western Continent had a team that Elan's father claims to have been leader of. On that team was Malack, a lizardfolk cleric of Nergal. He wanted to turn the entire continent into an ongoing ritual of death in service to his god. When Tarquin found out, he naturally was fine with the goal, but demanded a bigger statue to recognize his contribution.
  • Reverend Theo Fobius in Schlock Mercenary is a multi-disciplinary chaplain for a company of mercenaries, most of whom actively avoid anything regarding religion as much as possible. He often acts as the company counselor more than a spiritual guide.
  • In Rhapsodies the staff of Lysistrata has hijab-wearing good girl Suma and Blossom who, while not remotely as overt, is very active in her coven.

    Western Animation 
  • Justice League: Wonder Woman was the only team member who was overtly religious with her faith in the Greek pantheonnote . Hawkgirl was openly an atheist, but the others appeared to be simply nonreligious. Superman was clearly raised Christian (most likely specifically Lutheran) and Batman was occasionally implied to be a lapsed Catholic.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Mentioned in "Lemon of Troy", when Bart is assigning stock war movie archetypes to his band of friends. Todd Flanders is "the quiet, religious guy who ends up going crazy." Todd, Rod, and their dad Ned are devout Christians (who range from being shown as nice, annoying, or pushy fundamentalists over the years).
    • Marge Simpson is clearly more involved in the church than the rest of the family. And while for example "Homer the Heretic" focuses on Homer's dwindling faith, it's obvious on several occasions that the kids wouldn't go to church unless Marge made them.
    • In the thirteenth-season episode "She Of Little Faith," Lisa converts to Buddhism and seems at least as serious about it as Marge is about Christianity... when the writers remember to reference it, anyway.
    • Apu seems to be a faithful Hindu, but it doesn't get much focus.
  • On South Park, both Kyle (Jewish) and Butters (Christian) get played this way in some episodes, though not as heavily as most examples. Basically, the entire town aside from the Broflovskis are Catholic but it usually only comes up when it's relevant to the plot.
    • While Kyle is sent to "Jew camp" in an early episode, we only see him in a synagogue in "The Passion of the Jew" and he's definitely not there to worship. His family being Jewish mostly comes up in Christmas episodes where they celebrate Hanukkah instead; other than that, they don't seem to be religious. If it wasn't for Cartman ripping on Kyle and his family all the time for being Jewish, the audience would probably never know (his dad always wears a yarmulke however).
    • The episode "All About the Mormons" introduced the most faithful family in all of South Park, though they're only mentioned in that episode. Of course, they were Mormons.
    • A truly disturbing example are the Woodland Critters from "Woodland Critter Christmas". They're just as passionate about their faith as the Mormon family above. Unfortunately they're Satanists. Fortunately, they turn out to just be fictional characters in a Christmas story Cartman wrote for class. But then the Imaginationland trilogy came and there was the real possibility they could hurt people IRL if they were to escape to reality.


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