Token Religious Teammate

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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 militant, expect them to be a Badass Preacher, 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.

Contrast with Secular Hero.

Examples of Token Religious Teammate include:

Anime

• Sister Eda of Black Lagoon. Also, Claude Weaver from the Greenback Jane arc.
• Gundam AGE has Max Hartway, a pilot for Woolf's squadron who always prays to God for strength prior to battle.
• Seikai, one of the Brave 10, left the Izumo temple to pursue his own brand of Buddhism.
• Yukariko of the Mai-HiME anime, as she is a nun.

Comic Books

• Nightcrawler from X-Men.
• Wolfsbane in New Mutants and later in X Factor.

Film

• In Waterloo, Private Tomlinson (Oleg Vidov).
• In Cowboys and Aliens, Meacham.
• Major League has Eddie Harris, the stock hypocritical Protestant, and Pedro Cerrano, the voodoo practitioner, who are often in conflict.
  • 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: Marauder. In addition to Little, Sky Marshal Omar Anoke was also revealed to be religious but he was 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.

Literature

• 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.
• Constable Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets is this for the Watch in Discworld.
• While in the Elenium most of the main characters are Church Knights, Bevier the Cyrinic knight is the most pious, stern and religious of the bunch, almost ending up in the Lawful Stupid ground. The other Church Knights in the group tend to have a much more pragmatic approach.
• April in Everworld.
  • 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.
• I, Robot features the experimental robot Cutie, who attempts to make sense of the world around him (really little more than a space station one mile across) by turning to religious faith.
• 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.

Live Action TV

• Lourdes from Falling Skies.
• 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.
• In MASH, Father Mulcahy.
• Major Kira on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the begining until Worf joins the crew. Worf himself was the token religious teammate for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • And Chakotay in Star Trek: Voyager.
• Hershel from The Walking Dead. He seems to be the only character on the show so far with any serious religiosity.
• Shirley from Community.

Tabletop Games

• In D&D, there is a general trend for the party's Cleric or Paladin to be the religious, pious member of the party.

Video Games

• William McCall from Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. He also doubles as the Token Good Teammate.
• Leliana from Dragon Age Origins and Sebastian Vael from Dragon Age II.
• Rival Schools: of the three Pacific Highschool students, Boman is said to be a devout Christian.
• Vanilla H from Galaxy Angel is the only member of the team for whom religion is really important (superficial resemblance to Catholicism plus vegetarianism).
• Mass Effect has a few Religious Bruiser teammates, but Thane Krios from Mass Effect 2 is the most devotedly religious. He's introduced killing a Corrupt Corporate Executive and then saying a "prayer for the wicked" - meaning himself.

Web Comics

• Chirinide from Drowtales.
• Durkon from Order of the Stick. Although this is a world that has been created by gods, and the gods play a somewhat-active role in everyday lives, and many of the team members follow a religious deity, Durkon is the team's Cleric. Therefore he is the token religious teammate.
• Fletcher Emerson (AKA Pardus) is the only overtly religious member of Panthera.
• Reverend Theo Fobius in Schlock Mercenary.

Web Original

• 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.

Western Animation

• Referenced in The Simpsons, "Lemons of Troy", when Bart is assigning identities to his squad. Todd Flanders is "the religious guy who goes crazy."
  • Marge Simpson. She's 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 none of the other family members would go to church unless Marge made them do so.
• On South Park, both Kyle (Jewish) or Butters (Christian) get played this way in some episodes, though not as heavily as most examples.
• Tim in The Cleveland Show.