History Main / AgainstMyReligion

* The Creator/SidneySheldon novel ''Nothing Lasts Forever'' has a Jehovah's Witness refusing to sign a consent form for his son to have surgery or receive a blood transfusion and the doctor in question forging his signature to go ahead. Once again, this distorts the truth--people can refuse for themselves but not their children, which means that the doctor could have found a legal means to sidestep his objections. Additionally, while Jehovah's Witnesses will refuse to receive transfusions and transplants, they are not opposed to receiving medical care, meaning that the man would probably have consented to the surgery even if adamant that his son not receive blood.

* The Ian [=McEwan=] novel ''The Children Act'' is about a judge who is trying to decide whether a boy with leukaemia should be forced to undergo a blood transfusion which is necessary to save his life, but which he is refusing: he's a Jehovah's Witness, and it's against his religion.

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* In ''ComicBook/DemonKnights'', the Muslim scientist Al-Jabr is sent to Hell thanks to yet another of Etrigan's betrayals. His version of Hell is a vast desert with a blazing sun, and the only thing available to quench his thirst is a canteen full of alcohol... which is, of course, against his religion.
** Since alcohol can make you thirstier, he's possibly better off without drinking it anyways. However, the demon in question also implies that any water he might come across could magically be transformed into alcohol when he drinks it, which leads to Al-Jabr refusing to drink anything at all while he's in the confines of Hell, even after his tormentor is apparently no longer paying attention to him. It's possible the demon specifically chose this as a double-edged torment of both the body and the mind for Al-Jabr, being already aware of his faith.

* In ''Literature/{{Everworld}},'' April, whose Catholicism is regularly mentioned, refuses to make a sacrifice to the {{Physical God}}s of [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Everworld-Africa]]. In an interesting twist, atheist Jalil joins her protest on the same logic. (Eventually, David and Christopher side with them, though more on the grounds of "screw these guys trying to tell us what to do" than anything.) [[TokenEvilTeammate Senna]] is [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech disgusted]] by all of them, but more because they are putting HonorBeforeReason than anything. (She, after all, [[AGodAmI wants to]] ''[[AGodAmI replace]]'' [[AGodAmI the gods]].)

* Medical dramas like this one too.

In case of extrovert SeriousBusiness, see instead WindmillCrusader, SoulsavingCrusader, HeteronormativeCrusader, MoralGuardians and/or ActivistFundamentalistAntics. See also CultureJustifiesAnything.

* In ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', someone gets sick in Fowler's hat, and Fowler absentmindedly puts it on. When his superior shows up and want to know why Fowler isn't taking his hat off in respect, he claims to be a Sikh who is forbidden to bare his head.

** Toofer, Frank and Lutz get out of Kenneth's confusing and boring Secret Santa project by pretending to be part of the religion of Verdukianism.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': During negotiations, the Jawas demand the Mandalorian put down his weapons. He claims that his weapons are a part of his religion; he grudgingly relents, but is soon revealed to have kept his wrist-mounted flamethrower. Even better, since Mandalorians are a ProudWarriorRace, it is quite possible that he was being perfectly honest. His armor is ''definitely'' part of his religion, and when the Jawas try to buy it off him this deal is dismissed outright.
* Most series of ''Series/BigBrother'' acknowledge this passively. Whenever the houseguests are put under a dietary restriction (Such as slop in the American and Canadian editions) they always make sure that any person with religion-based dietary restrictions are accommodated for. This was especially the case in season 20 of the American edition - one houseguest Faysal (who is muslim) selected the "Hamazon" punishment, which would require the person receiving it to eat all the ham on a plate that was delivered to him. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Big Brother Has Standards]] though - they instead provided him with a vegetarian substitute.

* After becoming a born-again Christian, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels would tread carefully when he was part of the WWE's more risque skits. Sometimes they would have fun with this... Wrestling/TripleH blindfolding him before bringing out cheerleaders, being distracted away from girls, reluctantly going through the women's locker room and Wrestling/EricBischoff mocking his refusal to do stuff like Katie Vick as against his religion.

* U.S. employment discrimination law [[http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_religion.html more or less requires]] employers to believe (or at least act like they believe) employee claims about religious doctrines and practices. Employers should accept all claims as valid regardless of whether the practice or the religion itself is new, or uncommon, or seemingly nonsensical; including practices shared by few or no other members of the same religion. However, employers are only required to make accommodations that are compatible with the basic duties of the job and can be provided with minimal (more than just trivial) cost. For example, a toll booth operator whose religious beliefs prohibit handling money on Wednesdays should be able to request Wednesdays off; but an operator who believes it is sinful to exchange money with mixed gender groups can be denied a request for a dedicated lane and signage directing such groups away.

* In ''Series/TheThinBlueLine'', someone gets sick in Fowler's hat, and Fowler absentmindedly puts it on. When his superior shows up and want to know why Fowler isn't taking his hat off in respect, he claims to be a Sihk who is forbidden to bare his head.

Being tolerant of one another's religious beliefs is very important (in many 20th & 21st century cultures, at least — and let's just [[Administrivia.RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment exercise discretion]] towards historical and current exceptions). In works created by people from those cultures, if someone says something is against their religion, other characters think they can't make them do it. Now that person might be telling BlatantLies to get out of doing that thing, but it might be the truth. Other characters are likely not going to press that character about it.

* The PoliceProcedural nowadays often run into various religious groups who want to have a non-cut-up-body for burial. Depending on the religion and which {{Anvilicious}} AuthorTract the writer wants to give this time, results will vary.

* The Satanic Temple has used this a few times to protest laws that they believe unethical or in violation of the separation of church and state.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' -- ironically, the episode where Homer decides to quit going to church -- he calls into work in one scene to get the day off by claiming it's a religious holiday: "the Feast of [[LineOfSightName Maximum Occupancy]]."

** In ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', the Auditors are disguised as humans and avoid being forced to drink tea (because they're not used to having bodies, things like eating are harmful to them) with this trope. The Auditors have noted that people will justify the most extreme behavior on the same basis, so by comparison refusing to drink tea shouldn't raise any eyebrows.
** Moist von Lipwig uses it in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' to avoid getting his picture taken, out of fear his un-memorable appearance, and through it the secret of his criminal past, won't survive a picture. ''Discworld/MakingMoney'' proves him right.

** Subverted with Mr. Dorfl. Normally golems like him take one day off a month because it is a "holy day", although they work 24/8 all other times. After gaining his freedom in ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Dorfl becomes an atheist and gives up this practice because he has decided that "either all days are holy or none are".

** In Discworld/MonstrousRegiment the insane[[spoiler:/dead]] god Nuggan has banned things like the color blue, garlic, and ''babies'', among other things. New Abominations appear in his holy book daily.

** There are also many people who claim religious opposition to vaccination despite not actually belonging to any of those faiths. They just don't want to vaccinate their children. This works because no one ever questions it when someone claims religious objection.

* Toofer, Frank and Lutz from ''Series/ThirtyRock'' get out of Kenneth's confusing and boring Secret Santa project by pretending to be part of the religion of Verdukianism.

-->'''Jack:''' That's Republican! We count those!

Being tolerant of one another's religious beliefs is very important (in many 20th & 21st century cultures, at least -- and let's just [[Administrivia.RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment exercise discretion]] towards historical and current exceptions). In works created by people from those cultures, if someone says something is against their religion, other characters think they can't make them do it. Now that person might be telling BlatantLies to get out of doing that thing, but it might be the truth. Other characters are likely not going to press that character about it.

!!Examples

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* One ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip has Calvin jotting down in his quiz that he couldn't answer a question because it's against his religion (see the page pic).
** He's also a "math atheist" and refuses to do his homework because he cannot accept "on faith" that combining 2 and 2 makes 4 -- and in the public schools, no less.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'':
** In [[http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2000-12-07/ this]] comic, Dilbert is summoned to jury duty, and one of the potential jurors claims he cannot serve because it's against his religion, as "only God may judge". This is played for humor when another juror, realizing he can get out of jury duty, quickly claims to have just switched religions (and the first guy calls him a jerk).
** Another strip has Dilbert's co-worker refusing to go out with him over religious differences. When Dilbert offers to change his religion, he discovers that there is an entire religion based on 'not dating Dilbert'.
--->'''Dogbert:''' Where do you think I go every Sunday?
* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'' has a recurring joke where Bucky Katt uses this excuse. His owner then asks what Bucky's religion ''is''. No points for guessing why Bucky won't tell him...
* In one ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' story, Bob and Dave declare that their characters are disguising themselves as priests of a local temple so they can sneak in and rob it. In response to a suspicious guard's questions: [[ImmediateSelfContradiction "I tell him]] [[BlatantLies I've taken a vow of silence"]].
* One of the story arcs in ''ComicStrip/NonSequitur'' was about Danae creating her own religion to prevent anybody from making her do anything she didn't want to do.
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[[folder:Theater]]
* Near the end of ''ATunaChristmas'', Bertha attempts (unsuccessfully) to avoid drinking this way. [[SubvertedTrope Humorously, Arles then starts talking about how he used to lie about his religion so that he could drink.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

''[[DescribeTopicHere Describing Against My Religion Here, unless describing tropes is forbidden by your creed.]]''

* This is why the Cassandra Cain, who converted to Catholicism in ''Fanfic/AngelOfTheBat'' refuses to have premarital sex in its sequel. Indeed, intercourse out of wedlock is sinful in Catholicism [[spoiler:but her girlfriend points out that's kind of a hypocritical stance for someone in a lesbian relationship.]]