History Main / ChurchgoingVillain

* Edward Wilson from ''The Good Shepherd'' is an AntiHero version of this. He is a practicing Christian who has verses from TheBible inscribed on the walls of the CIA. He is also willing to drug, torture, and kill people. He's also a NobleBigotWithABadge.

* Cardinal Richelieu from TheThreeMusketeers. First off, he tried to become the Queen's lover. Not only is this adultery (She is married) but, as a Catholic priest, Richelieu is supposed to remain celibate. When she rejects him, he plots to turn the King against her by exposing her affair with the Duke of Buckingham. He also wants to start a war between England and France.
* Big Jim Rennie in UnderTheDome by StephenKing. Many of King's novels have a bad guy fall under this trope, but Big Jim is one of the best examples.

* A common target of Jesus in TheBible.

* Cardinal Richelieu from TheThreeMusketeers.

Finally, this might be done simply for the sake of realism as a ''vast'' majority of the human race belongs to some religion.

As most of the human race belongs to some religion, this is of course TruthInTelevision. That said, NoRealLifeExamplesPlease.

* Shows up a few times in ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. A few victims of the week were active at their churches, and the BigBad of season 4, the Trinity Killer, was a very religious man. The BigBad of season 6 staged crime scenes based on the bible, though he did not see it as a "family value."

See also: StraightEdgeEvil, FamilyValuesVillain, PunchClockVillain, and RaisedCatholic.

This trope does not include religious extremists. Religious extremists do evil ''because'' of their religious beliefs. Churchgoing Villains are religious but their evil acts are not connected to their beliefs in any way. It also does not include people who are members of a ReligionOfEvil.

* Angelica from ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: On Stranger Tides''. She refuses to let her father Blackbeard kill a clergyman captured in a raid. However, she's still very much a pirate and perfectly willing to lie, steal, and kill.

* Moses from ''Beyond {{Reanimator}}'', a religious prisoner who nonetheless succumbs to his cannibalistic urges from time to time.

* In TheWire, the most of the criminals honor the "Sunday Truce". This is apparently so that they can go to church with their family without those outside "The Game" getting shot at.

* Derek Sagan is from the ''Literature/TheStarOfTheGuardians'' series by MargaretWeis.

* Derek Sagan is from the ''TheStarOfTheGuardians'' series by MargaretWeis.

* Robert Hanssen in ''Breach''.

* In the TV show OZ, most of the Christian gang is this, especially William Cudney and Timmy Kirk. One is a vindictive child murderer, the other is a complete monster and ex-Irish gangster.

* Frollo in ''TheHunchbackOfNotreDame''. A religious official, he is still governed by his lusts, hatred, prejudice, and revenge and driven to attempted kidnapping and murder. In the original story he is also an alchemist and sorcerer.

He'll go to church on Sunday and rob a bank on Monday. This is a character who identifies with a religion and participates in religious rituals but also commits crimes in his everyday life. Basically, a FamilyValuesVillain if the "family value" is going to church.

* Robert Hanssen in ''Breach''

* [[{{Batman}} Scarecrow]]'s Great Grandmother.

* The Corleones and other crime families in ''TheGodfather'' were pretty devout Catholics, and ruthless racketeers.

* Mr. Rooney, the villain of ''RoadToPerdition''. He's a gangster but frequently prays in church and realizes that he will not go to Heaven.

* Lt. Kendrick in AFewGoodMen.
* Bill the Butcher in GangsOfNewYork, or for that matter most of the characters, in one way or another, such as Bill's Irish Catholic underlings who stab Amsterdam in the back.
* John Doe in {{Se7en}}.
* Warden Norton in TheShawshankRedemption.

This is a character who identifies with a religion and participates in religious rituals but also commits crimes in his everyday life. Basically, a FamilyValuesVillain if the "family value" is going to church.

This is a character who identifies with a religion and participates in religious rituals but also commits crimes in his everyday life.

This is a character who goes to church on Sunday but commits immoral acts every other day of the week. This is a person who follows the rituals of religion but performs acts that are clearly against that religion.

* In ''NunsOnTheRun'' Charlie is a practicing Catholic. Not sure how "evil" that is though; he's a low-level mook in a criminal organization.

* Mr. Rooney, the villain of \'\'RoadToPerdition\'\'. He\'s a gangster but frequently prays in church and realizes that he will not go to Heaven.
* Moses from \'\'Beyond {{Reanimator}}\'\', a religious prisoner who nonetheless succumbs to his cannibalistic urges from time to time.

* Bill the Butcher in GangsOfNewYork, or for that matter most of the characters, in one way or another, such as Bill\'s Irish Catholic underlings who stab Amsterdam in the back.

* Frollo in \'\'TheHunchbackOfNotreDame\'\'. A religious official, he is still governed by his lusts, hatred, prejudice, and revenge and driven to attempted kidnapping and murder. In the original story he is also an alchemist and sorcerer.

* In the LupinTheThird movies \'\'Castle of Cagliostro\'\', one of the Count\'s henchmen is moved to cross himself when he sees a Catholic church official arriving.

* \'\'TheAuthority\'\': During the False Authority arc, Chaplain Action, \"He-Man of the Cloth\", is somewhere between here and SinisterMinister.

* The Corleones and other crime families in \'\'TheGodfather\'\' were pretty devout Catholics, and ruthless racketeers.
* Frank Lucas in \'\'AmericanGangster\'\'. He\'s a drug dealer, gangster, and murderer but takes his [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas mother]] to church every Sunday.
* The gangster villains in \'\'TheBoondockSaints\'\', who are Catholic and disgusted at the murder of a priest.