Real Men Love Jesus

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"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."

—Lieutenant John Kendrick, A Few Good Men

This character is a total Badass and doesn't seem to answer to anyone. Oh, but he does. He devoutly follows none other than the Big Man himself with 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 of Real Men Love Jesus include:

Anime and Manga

  • 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.

Film

  • The Blues Brothers are on a Mission from God.
  • 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.
  • The McManus Brothers from The Boondock Saints are amazingly devout Irish-Catholics. They also assassinate drug lords, mafiosos, and other stupidly-dangerous criminals, some in broad daylight and once in a court of law that was currently in session. In the sequel, mob bosses talk about how heart-attackingly scared they are of these men, not to mention their dad.
  • 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. Many folks would 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.
  • Gunnery Sergeant Hartman 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.
  • In The Avengers, Black Widow advises Captain America to stay out of a fight between Thor and Loki, on account of their being "pretty much gods." Cap jumps in anyway:

Captain America: There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that.

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.
  • Father Callahan of The Dark Tower series and 'Salem's Lot.
  • 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."

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • 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. Jesus himself may have worked as a carpenter for most of his life before starting the Messiah gig, considering what Joseph did for a living.
  • Saints who were soldiers or warlords in life, with St. George as the most iconic example.

Video Games

  • Diablo II: The Paladins of The Church of Light. At least until the entire church was corrupted by evil, anyway.
  • 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. (Note: I mean the spiritual afterlife...Not the club in Omega called "Afterlife.".)
    • 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.
  • 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.

Western Animation

  • 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 1990s X-Men series.

Real Life

  • Charles XII of the Swedish Empire.
  • Chuck Norris.
  • Starting fairly recently[when?], Sylvester Stallone. The missionary plot of the recent[when?] Rambo movie[context?] 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 Badass 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.
    • And also believed in reincarnation.
  • Dave Mustaine of Megadeth
  • 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."
    • Arguably he is simply an example of rising to the level of incompetence. He seems to have been an excellent special forces officer but started to lose his touch on handling large numbers of troops.
  • Johnny Cash. "I've been down on bended knee, talking to the Man from Galilee..."
  • Robin Lee Graham, the boy who sailed round the world, wasn't this when he set out but became an enthusiastic Christian on his return.
  • Alfred the Great was a Warrior Prince , a scholar , a codifier of laws and customs, and was nominated for Sainthood.
  • Don't mess with these guys.
  • 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.
  • Many professional wrestlers, from the Born Again Shawn Michaels to the lifelong devout Chris Jericho (really!)
  • Promise Keepers runs on this trope.
  • Salah-ad-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub the Great was the Muslim version of this. As were many Muslim commanders of the Crusades and onwards.
  • Most, if not all, Muslim military personnel are the Islamic version of this trope.
  • Khalid Ibn 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.[1]
  • British Prime Minister William Gladstone.
  • Famous film actor Toshiro Mifune.
  1. ↑ Which annoys Christians who take to heart Jesus' condemnation of those who make a big show of demonstrating their faith in public.
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