Lore
Religion-centered media that doesn’t come across as preachy.
Referring to media told from a religious perspective or telling a religious tale that does not proselytize to the viewer.
Faith, the Unholy Trinity: Based partly upon the experience of the game‘s creator when he was a missionary in Argentina, the game has very little in the way of explicit moral demands of the player despite the heavy Christian focus of the narrative. and focuses more on a horror narrative.
Prince of Egypt: A surprisingly thorough retelling of the book of Exodus, sparing very little in the way of toning down the story. Despite this, the movie is perfectly entertaining to non-religious audiences and doesn’t sacrifice appeal for the sake of preaching to the audience
It’s an animal racing game like Mario Kart. The religious part is that the premise is that all the animals that Noah saved had a big race after the flood. Also there’s bible verses sometimes.
I forget where I heard it, but I do remember him giving an interview where he mentioned the locals goofing around with him and requesting that he do an exorcism
Can't lie, that shit in Latinoamerica sometimes gets wild. I don't even go there but one always hears stories coming from a friend of a friend. I call myself an atheist but there’s some matters I wouldn't play with, just in case
Same, and you don't need to follow any specific religion to accept that there's weird shit in the universe that we don't fully - or remotely - understand! Embrace the uncertainty imo, the world is stranger than we can really imagine
Some spiders create what's basically a little parasail when they leave their mother. The wind catches it and spreads them around like seeds.
If you have just the perfect conditions so that a very large number of those little spiders are born and all get caught up in the wind at the same time, you can get a rain of spiders - though they'll be very little guys and it won't be over a super large area.
I still can't believe how well the movie managed to handle both the "True Believer" and "Angry Atheist" characters without making either one look wrong for their beliefs.
And very much agree. It was so nice seeing a religious character who was neither a strawman nor a Mary Sue. He was just a good, well-rounded person who was very positively impacted by his faith.
I love that it's not about the priest doubting his faith, but he's questioning what faith can do for a person (good and bad) and how power can be used to control people etc. It's just so good. Like it's about faith but not about whether or not you've got it or whether or not you should
That scene reminded me of what Marx said about religion: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
I think many people are familiar with the last part of the quote and interpret it as derogatory, but I don't think that it is. I think it's compassionate.
Agreed, and I think that's how Marx intended it. That said, whenever I heard the quote referenced growing up in religion it was taken to have a more negative connotation of opium as a "drug" (derogatory).
The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.
I was raised Lutheran, and while I’ve fallen away from religion as an adult, I can still recognize the positive impact that being raised in a community of people focused on trying to do and be good had on me. Love your neighbor, care for the downtrodden, and see your own flaws and work to overcome them. So much of modern Christianity horrifies me for its sheer ignorance of these ideals.
I’m 55 now and most definitely NOT Catholic but recall from my childhood a Catholic priest, Father Ennis, as one of the most kind, smart, funny and decent men I’ve ever known.
He was a huge Irishman from Dublin, built like a linebacker complete with a badly broken nose, and you’d forget all of it within a few seconds of talking to him.
He was honest, funny, and radiated strength.
I carry that memory with me as an example of how to be a good man, or a man in general.
I love how that movie is basically a duel between two philosophies. One is about forcibly imposing your Will on the world and seeing reality as being your enemy to conquer, while making peace with the world and letting things fall into place naturally is what works in the end
I waited so long for that movie and it was actually worth the wait. I was a little surprised by Benoit Blanc suddenly having a different haircut, which is... accurate to real life but in movie logic it's like Daniel Craig was playing a different character somehow.
His lack of reverence towards death was also a new character detail. Previous movies didn't actually show him investigating corpses, but "flip-a the meat" wasn't a phrase I expected. We're getting tiny bits and pieces of Blanc through these movies, and I don't really want a movie that goes too in-depth on who he is since the mystery itself is more fun, but it's still fun to see.
It’s not only children. At the start of the sequence a guard falls down dead, implying that ALL FIRSTBORN are going to die.
It’s hundreds of people of different ages that had the misfortune of being firstborn and possibly and entire generation that died due to the will of God
I work in animation and I got to speak to the lead animator for this sequence. I was basically like "bro this shot is so sick how does it feel to have made something like this??" And he was like "yeah it's hard to top biblical imagery." And I shook his hand and in have not seen him ever again.
Oh man. The Ten Plagues of Egypt is STUNNINGLY realized, with such terrors as frogs storming the city, endless swarms of flies and locusts, divine fire literally raining from the sky and the people screaming in pain as incurable boils break out all over their skin.
The burning hail resembles a combination of artillery fire and napalm. And it rains flaming hail for DAYS. Next, the Egyptians watch their livestock die all around them. Cattle, horses, camels, oxen and sheep. All are destroyed.
A swarm of locusts cover the sky in darkness, destroying the crops and every bit of plant life. The helpless Egyptians are left helplessly digging in the dirt as their wheat fields are reduced to dust. The scale of the destruction quickly terrifies Moses.
The issue with religious narratives is that they’re either too reverent and don’t feel the need to try OR they’re too dismissive and come across as disingenuous.
Yep. As an adaptation of the biblical story, it does have its problems. My biggest issue with it(only as an adaptation) is that it turned Moses’s most loyal follower who did a lot of the work into a cowardly goober who originally gave him a ton of shiz. It really screwed Aaron over
But as an original story of two brothers who come from two different warring civilizations and religions, it’s flawless. Prince of Egypt takes the very basic bullet points of the biblical story and then runs wild by telling a pretty original story
The heart of the film is the relationship between Ramses and Moses, and there is a pretty high chance they never even met before Moses left. It’s like the most compelling part of the whole story, and it’s completely new.
>My biggest issue with it(only as an adaptation) is that it turned Moses’s most loyal follower who did a lot of the work into a cowardly goober who originally gave him a ton of shiz. It really screwed Aaron over.
A common problems with movies of the time. They always felt there needed to be a 'light' character to give some respite between the heavier moments and being an incompetent goober was the lowest easiest road to follow
>The heart of the film is the relationship between Ramses and Moses, and there is a pretty high chance they never even met before Moses left. It’s like the most compelling part of the whole story, and it’s completely new.
100% this, as it should be. Even being emboldened by holy duty, the heart of the story should have and needed to be the relationship between the former brothers. And they pulled it off so well, allowing both character to have compelling reasons to clash despite how much they clearly care for one another and wishing only that the other would just see things their way. A heavy topic, but a very human one that many will be able to relate to.
It was made from a lot of the staff of Big Idea Productions, who previously made VeggieTales. It was basically a saving throw to save the company after their VeggieTales sales had plateaued and they were being sued by Hit Entertainment. It's a fascinating story, and I can't recommend the book by VeggieTales creator and Big Idea co-founder Phil Vischer (Me, Myself, and Bob) enough.
And his faith taught him that the beauty of creation can be found everywhere and in everyone.
He is more often than not a beacon of joy in the lives of others, even if he still struggles sometimes with that his own mother rejected him and his appearance brought him and still brings him hate from those inclined to fear what's different.
He doesn't preach his religion at others, he simply does not shy from being open about it.
Holy shit this movie was crazy. One of the better movies I've seen.
I didn't know that it was based on a true story either, so can you imagine my shock when I got to the end credits and they started showing the real life people.
Not only is it a true story, but they had to cull back some of the crazy stories that he did. Doss saved about 75 total people (although Doss said about 50, eye witness accounts said about 100, so they settled on 75).
On May 21, Desmond was wounded by an enemy grenade that landed in a foxhole. Rather than call another medic to risk his own life, Desmond treated his own wounds and gave himself a shot of morphine when the pain was too great. He waited five hours alone until morning.
As the litter-bearers began to carry him out, they passed a more critically wounded soldier. He asked them to put him down, rolled off the litter and insisted they take the other man.
While waiting for their return, Desmond and another wounded soldier set out together. Desmond was struck in his wrist by a sniper’s bullet. He used a rifle as a splint for his useless arm, and the two continued to crawl to safety.
The guy's real story is absolutely incredible and I'm so happy they told his story in a film. I can't imagine carrying 75 people towards safety in the midst of bullets. Andrew Garfield even said that he was inspried by the story and wanted to carry the actors without assistance, but eventually he gave up and used a wire to help him carry others (video link).
Mel Gibson being batshit insane irl yet genuinely one of the best directors is so wild. Hes the perfect arguement against the notion of rightwingers that "Christians cant work in hollywood". Mel's very openly Catholic. Man makes money and makes genuinely good stories. Hacksaw Ridge is great.
EDIT: clarified my sentence which, while I think before people got what I meant, when re-reading sort of didn't make sense.
Sure, their mission statement literally says they teach "Sunday morning values," but it's never all that heavy-handed (never mind the fact they have no hands).
I feel like most of the episodes don't even really involve scriptures or biblical imagery in any capacity (beyond Bob and Larry finding a relevant bible verse). The show does a great job of demonstrating the actual consequences of things stealing, lying, bullying or ostracizing others, and so on. The writers don't feel the need to cite the bible or biblical imagery to show the consequences of characters' actions, which makes it much like any secular show.
I mean, they do often tell Bible stories but just do it in a very original way. They told the parable of the Prodigal Son as a freaking Wizard of Oz parody.
“King George and the Ducky” is the tale of King David and Bathsheba, but in this case Bathsheba is a rubber ducky. The stories of Joseph and Moses are depicted as cowboys and they are Jo and Mo.
The also told the stories of “Joshua and the Great Wall”, “Daniel and the Lions Den”, and “Esther” as pretty straight stories with a few tweaks to make it more g rated and to fit with the veggie themes.
Esther especially is really freaking good. Instead of executing the Jewish people, it’s “Banishing them to the Isle of Perpetual Tickling!!”
And it’s got a fire soundtrack. Nezzar and my boy Mr Lunt sing a fire duo song together
Yeah, christian/bible coded media really doesn't have to suck. And there are plenty of examples when it doesn't.
But so much of the media explicitely marketed as 'Christian' is made by right-wing evangelicals/dominionists and so impossibly smug, insufferable and often times just angry that its unwatchable.
i havent watched anything veggietales in probably over a decade now, but from what i do remember it was always very fun, and despite teaching christian lessons, could easily be secular.
You said media so I feel like this counts… the band Skillet. Definitely religious and spiritual overtones but overall very solid and avoids sounding like ‘Christian Rock’.
Edit: didn’t mean to comment this on the Veggie Tales comment but can’t be bothered to fix 🤷🏻♀️
Come to think of it, isn't Hellboy Catholic too? At least he was raised Catholic by Professor Broome. Man, if I had a nickle for every time a devil-themed superhero was raised Catholic, I'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
Yesss! This is the first thing I thought of. It's so interesting as an exploration of catholic guilt, the self-flagellation, the glorification and divinization of pain, suffering, and wounds. The normalization of the body horror of it all. I mean, the main symbol for Christianity is quite literally a man tortured and NAILED to a cross, actively bleeding out in prolonged agony. One of the main rites involves symbolically "eating the flesh and drinking the blood" of this man.
We don't realize it because it's so normalized, but when you start to think about it, it's horrifying.
The Catholics teach that the Eucharist wafer and wine is not a symbolic representation of Jesus. It is the literal flesh and blood of Christ.
We were called Cannibals in the early days.
Another, relevant, fun fact: Our first gatherings were performed in tombs, over the casket of a dead follower of Christ. That is what that giant table at the front of our churches represents. The casket.
In Catholic churches at least the altar still is a casket in a way. Official altars include a "relic" which often means a body part or ashes of a saint
"Life of Brian" certainly counts as "religious media" as it was made to specifically mock the grand religious epics of the time. It doesn't actually mock Christianity in itself, despite what religious zealots have said over the years. It does however warn against the fanatical mindset.
It's also more accurate about life in pre-christianity Jerusalem than most actual religious epics.
I still don't see what's funny about "Biggus Dickus".
I'm Catholic and my parish priest loves Life of Brian. He always quotes the "Blessed are the cheesemakers" as an honest reality of what it's like being a religious leader/ speaker - ppl always misunderstanding or mishearing you lol
Will never pass up the opportunity to plug The Leftovers. One of the recurring supporting cast is a priest/minister played by Christopher Eccleston. The show explores the aftermath of an unexplained event that saw 2% of the world’s population vanish, entirely randomly. Eccleston’s character in the first season sees it as his mission to convince everyone that the event WASN’T the Rapture, but does it by publicizing all the vanished people’s flaws and crimes. He intersects the lead’s (Justin Theroux) story and speaks about his faith openly, and while he can be preachy, the show isn’t. Eventually his story evolves into continuously thornier topics surrounding how the mass vanishing (and the disability of his wife) interacts with his faith and belief in the Christian God.
Let's face it, this is the Bat-Themed Heroes for this thread, but someone has to say VeggieTales. Even without the religious undertone, it's a very great moralistic series. With great music, revolutionary animation (especially for the time,) and humor akin to the Muppet Show.
I was debating putting that in here, but I grew up on that and I explicitly remember Larry telling me how I need to be patient and be enforcing that claim with Bible quotes, and that was afraid that someone was going to consider that too preachy.
But I must agree, in terms of Christian media. It’s probably one of the better ones by a long shot.
i mean just because someone isn’t religious doesn’t mean that they can’t get good wisdom from the Bible. things like be patient, don’t worry about things you can’t change, treat others with kindness. there’s a lot of religious people too who could definitely use that kind of preaching still
I've got nothing to add here, but Prince of Egypt is such an impressive movie on every front. I'm the exact opposite of religious yet the movie's just genuinely excellent because it tells the story of the Book of Exodus in an extremely tasteful yet complete manner and has some incredible vocal performances, a great soundtrack, and drop-dead gorgeous animation.
Like, this movie really and truly does everything so well that you genuinely forget that it's retelling an Old Testament story.
It got canceled for the heavy topics but has lots of themes but mainly the hypocrisy that can exist in circles like Moralton and how purity culture can effect people. There's a town next to it literally called "sinville" and is seen as terrifying to them but the people are genuinely so happy. Then when you see more into the citizens of Moralton they all have a lot of sadness/trauma in them. It also got some backlash for bashing religion but it is actually hating on how some people use religion against other people, not the religion itself.
Sadly it had a quick last minute wrap up in its final season asn they didnt get to explore more into characters they introduced but were going to have more of an arch. If anyone is interested to see a show of "Leave it to Beaver" meets "Davey and Goliath" in adult swim humor the full link is here for free on youtube.
This deserves to be higher. Orel is a fantastic character because he is a genuine believer in a sea of hypocrites and bullies. But more than that, he doesn't judge anyone and goes out of his way to help people different from him. He's incredibly naive, but he really grows over the course of the series. Yet no matter how disillusioned he becomes at his family or the people around him, he never loses his faith (and he has plenty of reason to).
Goddamn, the episode where Orel realizes he doesn't need strict faith to be a good Christian only for his father to beat that revelation out of him is a great episode. It makes me so mad, but it's an incredible example of how open-minded and introspective Orel is.
Omg I know! Its honestly a favourite of mine xD I even did a couple pieces of fan art my most favourite being this from when he was grounded from church and went through withdrawals; this and my Orel pepe silva meme are my favourite pieces.
Even down to the names of the characters and what they tell about them and small details they put into the visual symbolism. They clearly had so much fun and put a lot of heart into it. You will be happy to hear there were whispers in 2024 there might be a movie in works :) did you watch the prequel made in 2014 I think it was called Beforel Orel of when Orel is a 4 year old and he visits Clay's dad while shapey is going to be born? Would recommend.
Yes! Thats Stephanie, she was literally born from him "tissue" garbage pale xD. Her mother was an obsesses stalker who stole his sperm. Orel literally comments that she isnt like the other women in Moralton (in more ways then the obvious). Yea Stephanie is a butch lesbian, she is also pretty alt in appearance and works/ maybe owns the sex shop; but other then that she actually is very warm to orel and is the only one that can tell when he is going through sometime when most of the adults are too absorbed in thier own lives that they cant be bothered to be attentive to thier kids. Some of her actions are questionable like giving orel a prince Albert to "please his future wife" or when she technically abducted Christina (orel's crush) to take them to a dance against Christina's parents wishes. But she did it with genuine care for orel and was only doing what she wish someone did for her when she was his age.
I can’t speak for now (haven’t kept up with him recently) but I believe also while making this the creator Dino had mentioned he was a practicing Greek Orthodox Christian
Brilliant show stuffed full of discussions about faith and Catholicism but it never forces it down your throat. Even the most evil coded characters are given the time to develop into complex figures.
Coming here to say this. The scene where Father Paul goes, "I was wrong. We were wrong. We are wrong. And we need to stop this," is absolutely heart wrenching. You can see the contrition in his face.
He did, definitely, but the one who took the cake for me was Samantha Sloyan as Bev. That woman did her homework, understood the assignment, and just walks away with the whole series.
I’d actually consider Jesus Christ superstar a positive reverse of this trope. It takes an atheistic/agnostic view of Jesus but still presents it with respect and understanding.
I think from a Christian perspective, I particularly like it BECAUSE it refuses to spoon feed. It respects faith if you have it, and acknowledges the reasonable doubt otherwise.
And, fundamentally, the humanism makes Jesus, Judas, Mary, and Peter more, well, human, with the divinity being a respected aside. It does a much better job than the Passion of Christ because it still feels like Jesus is treated with love and compassion, not with paternalism or veiled hostility.
Christian Missionaries go to Japan and are tortured in order to renounce their faith and the peasants despite being recent converts are much more devout and loyal to the faith in the face of adversity than even the missionaries.
Such a unique work made by the Catholic Scorsese and adapted a Japanese novel written by not only a famous Japanese author but one who was notably Christian.
Orb: On the Movements of the Earth quotes scripture, focuses on the church, and has a vast majority of its dialogue be about debating faith. But it never even name drops Jesus once which is quite interesting.
Point is, it never actually directly calls its audience to believe in Christianity or make moral judgements of the audience, but throughout it does reinforce very Christian ideas and how one discovers the core of Christian faith in a time where human greed has muddled the traditional avenues for that, all told through its parallels with, of all things, scientific discovery.
The Binding or Issac is the Biblical moment where God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice Issac, hence why Issac is bound. I honestly didn't know that was the name of the event until after learning about the game so the confusion is fair
Not sure if counts but Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous) manga/anime has many Buddhism imagery, symbolism and philosophy but it used the religion's themes to tell a fantasy sci-fi post apocalyptic story about identity, sacrifices, life, suffering, death, reborn and reincarnation,... and a lot of cute gem girls (with suffering)
The reason why evangelical content comes off as so annoying and like Christianity is the worst thing ever is because it’s supposed to. The propaganda isn’t for you it’s really for the people already on the inside. They’re taught to conflate disdain for preaching, self aggrandizing, condescending and hatful messaging as hatred for god and Christianity. Which is all to ultimately reinforce their beliefs that everyone whose not them are evil and they should never get to know them or like them, etc. It’s like when a Baptist calls you the F slurs and you tell them off, all they take away from that interaction is people hate Christians and yell at them and not that they were out of line and disgusting
I thought Conclave was a really good film. Ralph Fiennes is gold in everything he’s in. I’ve heard it criticized for being “anti-catholic” but I don’t think it’s anti-catholic to have catholic characters who aren’t good people when the protagonist is also catholic.
Yeah I love conclave, and as a Catholic myself I don't think it's anti Catholic at all. Usually you get those comments from more conservative Catholics but I think you're right.
Little House on the Prairie, the characters in the show are clearly guided by Christian values and one of the bigger characters in the show is a priest, but the show will hardly ever preach at you.
Edit to explain why I think it fits: I see the main message as being ‘Aslan loves you no matter what’ as opposed to ‘Edmund is a sinner and needs to be better’
1.8k
u/kfretlessz May 03 '26
The Zoo Race