Hiding Behind Religion



"Lucideus: Have you been hurting your fellow mortals?

Priest: Oh, certainly not. All that we do is for their own good.

(beat)

Lucideus: Let me ask this way: Are you setting people on fire?

Priest: On fire for God!

Lucideus: I think we need to talk about this."

- True Magic

Religion is often associated with virtue, for various reasons from the incentives the former is often perceived to have for the latter, to simply the belief that virtuous minds accept religion in the first place.

In turn, this also creates an incentive, in a character who wants to be seen as more virtuous than they really are, for hiding behind religion.

Not to be confused with The Fundamentalist, who really DOES believe in said fanatically religious ideas, hiding behind religion implies some level of insincerity. One CAN be both, however; one can be a fundamentalist while not being QUITE as religious as one pretends to be.

Not to be confused with the Sinister Minister either, as one can hide behind religion without being a minister at all, and one can be a Sinister Minister without it being because they are hiding behind religion, such as if said Sinister Minister is a genuine fundamentalist, for instance.

A Sub-Trope of Hypocrite. See also Light Is Not Good, which can be this on a more fantastical level.

Note: Who may be considered to be doing this fallacy in Real Life often relies on personal interpretation which can result in heated arguments. As such, No Real Life Examples, Please.

Anime and Manga

 * Father Cornello of Fullmetal Alchemist.
 * In season 2 of To Aru Majutsu no Index, Vento of the Front uses the Catholic Church's warlike policies as an excuse for her vendetta against science

Comic Books

 * Cardinal Trebaldi from Le Scorpion. He doesn't even believe in God but plots to become Pope because the Vatican's position will give him a stranglehold on power in Europe.

Film

 * Prison warden Samuel Norton from The Shawshank Redemption uses religion as a means to appear virtuous.
 * Most of the characters from the film, Saved.
 * Judge Claude Frollo from the Disney adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is initially Holier Than Thou, until his lust for Esmeralda becomes an obsession, and he decides forcing her into a "be mine or you will burn" Scarpia Ultimatum would be worth going to hell over. In public, he still maintains a Knight Templar image, and uses that to try to achieve his goals.
 * The self-help preachy guy from Donnie Darko who turned out to possess child porn.

Literature
""Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite."
 * Vorbis from Small Gods: a Complete Monster who justifies himself as doing the will of the Great God Om... but Om knows there's only one person left who even believes he exists, and it's not Vorbis.
 * Vorbis is debatable: he isn't consciously hypocritical. He truly believes, but not in Om.
 * The secondary antagonist of Making Money is a Con Artist who intends to blackmail Lipwig, and assumes the persona of a priest of Om while he's in town.
 * Alec D'Ubervilles is hinted to be this from Tess of the D'Ubervilles.
 * Mr. Brocklehurst from Jane Eyes. He tries to teach his school humility by starving them and providing them with low quality clothing as his daughters and wife stand by wearing silk finery.
 * Machiavelli recommends this in The Prince.

Play By Post Roleplaying Games

 * Reverend Noah Howerton from Honorable Hogwarts -- an Omnicidal Maniac who is using religion to make his followers help him eliminate all other magic-users so that he's the only wizard left and no others can challenge him. He doesn't really believe in God.

Music

 * The song "Jesus He Knows Me" by Genesis is a Take That to people like this. Specifically, those who use religion for self-enrichment.

Theatre

 * Tartuffe of Moliere's homonymous play is one of the most famous example in francophone country, in which his name is a synonym for that trope; practically equivalent to being a Trope Namer.
 * The inkeeper and his wife in Les Misérables are prime examples.
 * Generally unsympathetic Mormon closet case Joe Pitt in Angels in America. Specifically, when he tries to draw attention away from his "failings" by putting the blame on his addict agoraphobic wife Harper for not being the ideal Mormon wife (i.e., he would prefer her to be a Stepford Smiler).

Video Games

 * The church in Breath of Fire 2. They were affiliated with the Big Bad, and led your hometown to make everyone think the prologue never happened and get you thrown out.
 * "His Holiness" Sanctus from Devil May Cry 4, who is anything but a devout worshipper of Sparda, and mainly wants his power. It's noted that his aim is something Sparda would very much have opposed were he still alive.
 * Rodrigo Borgia (aka Alexander VI) from Assassin's Creed II
 * However, he did  believe the vault to house a living god.
 * More than a few templars do this to further their goals.
 * Done literally in Mass Effect 3;

Western Animation

 * Reverend Lovejoy from The Simpsons. Though he is the local reverend, he seems to be faking his religious beliefs. When the Movementarians gain popular momentum, Lovejoy is so quick to give up on trying to promote Christianity that when Marge shows up at his church, he is soaking it in gasoline. He also seems not to be that good at preaching moral decency to his own family, if his gossipy wife and manipulative daughter are anything to go by. (When the latter reminds him of past misdeeds of her own, he just plugs his ears and pretends not to hear anything.)
 * Lovejoy is genuine, he is just fairly miserable. He blames it on years of having to put up with Ned Flanders, but this put him off his job more than off his faith. The church was pretty much empty because the Movementarians had stolen all of the Christians and he was probably going to burn it down as an act of insurance fraud, but that was more a sign of his desperation. While he's not as religious as he used to be, or would like to be, he still acts like a proper minister more often than not.
 * Still not exactly a virtuous reaction to such circumstances, though.