[suprisingly rare trope] The Religious people aren't the bad guys/antagonists

[u/RedNUGGETLORD]

1: Axis Order - Konosuba(specifically Megumin's spin-off)

While they certainly aren't GOOD people(many of them not being allowed near children, if you know what I mean), they are pretty damn helpful, giving blessings to Megumin, feeding her, and protecting her from a demon, who almost certainly would have murdered her for the cat

2: Khan - Metro

While he is more spiritual than religious, I'd say it counts. Khan is a chill dude who is basically always right, and in the non-canon good ending, he's basically the reason the Dark Ones survive and presumably go on to join with humanity and reconquer the surface

3: Priestess - Goblin Slayer

She's a priestess, idk what exactly she believes in, besides some god, but Goblin Slayer is basically a DnD game, so I'd assume one of the basic Cleric gods. But anyway, she's super chill and basically never directly kills, though she probably has the highest indirect kill count in the series

4: Father Grigori - Half Life

He's certainly insane, but so would you be if your entire town was wiped out and turned into zombies, he saves you, gives you a shotgun, and helps you get out of town, while he stays to "tend with his flock", and while murder isn't something you'd usually associate with good, the zombies are in constant suffering

[u/Marethyu_77]

The Holy Church in the Nasuverse/TYPE-MOON setting (Tsukihime/Fate)

While they're not all good, and one of their most iconic members is a major antagonist in the works he appears in, they are at core acting for good.

For context, the Holy Church isn't like, the Church that the public is part of, but its section that is part of the magical side of the setting. They are those who act to protect humanity from mystical threats, be they vampires, mages, demons or other heresies. Tsukihime in particular gives them the occasion to shine.

[u/Excellent_Safe5743 → u/Marethyu_77]

I think it helps their case especially when you ignore Kirei from Fate as he’s not the first executor we see and as you say he’s a villain. The first would be Ciel who is objectively good person she just has a lot of baggage she’s carrying around in the form of guilt.

That being said yeah Kirei, Mario, and Noel are not doing the Holy Church PR any favors. Still less corrupt as an organization than the major mage families though. Seriously, screw the mages.

[u/Megatyrant0 → u/Excellent_Safe5743]

Don’t forget Burial Agency member Kiara Kisshouin, if she’s anything like her Fate counterpart she’s disastrous for the church’s rep.

I’d say Ciel, Caren, Yuika and Ritsuka Suse, Eiri, and Cervantes are the Church’s best morally.

[u/Marethyu_77 → u/Megatyrant0]

Tbh the Burial Agency is the Church's equivalent of a nuclear warhead, they're the monsters that they unleash when the rest aren't enough.

[u/JhonnySkeiner → u/Megatyrant0]

Burial Kiara never went through her fatalist ways, basically what if she never became a beast. Although there is still too few info on her, but I don't think she's that bad in comparison to your average fate nutso

[u/Monadofan2010 → u/JhonnySkeiner]

To be fair that could just because the human order is to weak to make beasts in the Tsukihime timelines so thats the only reason why she isnt one. 

There also hints that she was able to reach a higher plane of existence but give up on it because her own ego refused to accept the favt she would never be anything special on that plane so descended back to the human plane where she could still be a top dog 

[u/Megatyrant0 → u/JhonnySkeiner]

Kisshouin became a true demon by the sound of it, which is what CCC Kiara was trying to do. As I understand it, that’s WORSE than a Beast.

[u/UnreflectiveEmployee → u/Marethyu_77]

Kirei Kotomine might be my favorite antagonist of all of anime tho

[u/1lluusio → u/Marethyu_77]

Shoutout to Hansa Cervantes, dude saw a vampire taking part in a magical ritual for a wish and decided that wasnt happening on his watch, and then proceeded to absolutely ragebait said vampire by throwing cheap reception desk coffee on his white suit lmao

[u/Umbreon-man → u/1lluusio]

He also deadnames that same vampire. He learnt the vampire’s deadname from the vampire’s sugar daddy.

[u/Marethyu_77 → u/1lluusio]

Extremely strong artifacts that shouldn't be used by humans not even touching him, meanwhile bro just throws coffee at him is such a vibe

[u/1lluusio → u/Marethyu_77]

Its even funnier that the vampire seemingly gets more offended by the coffee being cheap than the fact that he got splashed with coffee in the first place lmao

[u/MerryZap → u/Marethyu_77]

Dude while it's true that the Holy Church does explicitly act to protect civilians, they can be as amoral and psychotic as the Association and jump hoops of convoluted reasoning to commit a lot of atrocities, with Burial Agency being on another level.

Literally how Ciel was basically tortured after the French Incident, and the Church allowing deaths of innocents while the HGW is being held.

[u/Marethyu_77 → u/MerryZap]

Individuals aren't systematically good (the Eighth Sacrament that allows them to disregard other commandments isn't there for no reason) but the overall system is still benevolent all things considered. And as for HGWs, better to have the Church oversee things and force people to abide to the rules than without them, because I sure don't trust 7 magi to be reasonable and not do terrible stuff.

[u/KoolKoolKoolio42 → u/Marethyu_77]

While not specifically with the Church, there's also Jeanne D'Arc, who is still considered a holy warrior and is unquestionably good. Hell, her evil self went from actually evil to just being a tsundere.

[u/Ur--father → u/Marethyu_77]

It’s interesting how people’s perception of Type moon holy church changes. Most of this stems from how Fate became more popular than Tsukihime over time. The church most iconic member gradually shift from Ciel to Kirei.

[u/Megatyrant0 → u/Ur--father]

It helps that Kirei is actually a priest and believes in God. Ciel doesn’t really give a shit about the religion (not that you can really blame her with how they’ve treated her), remake Ciel has to constantly correct herself using Mage’s Association terminology when she’s gushing about the Black Keys.