They Were a Cult, Rainn
So The Office star Rainn Wilson decided to talk about HBO’s The Last of Us, particularly the character of David and his cult. In the midst of his odd Twitter rantings about an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood that doesn’t exist, Wilson brought up the episode wherein Ellie is captured by David and his team as a way of talking about how Christians are portrayed in media.
“I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood. As soon as the David character in ‘The Last of Us’ started reading from the Bible I knew that he was going to be a horrific villain. Could there be a Bible-reading preacher on a show who is actually loving and kind?” Wilson wrote, and the reality is that the scene wasn’t a knock against Christianity. It was a knock against men like David.
The scene that Wilson is talking about features David reading a passage before telling a family that they cannot bury their dead family member because the ground is frozen. The reality is that they need food and are going to eat this man and lie to their entire group about it. But more than that, the entire sequence is highlighting the cult-like qualities of David and his people. So, if Wilson thinks that it’s a depiction of Christianity as a whole, that’s on Wilson and not the show.
The most the show does to denounce Christianity is have Ellie (Bella Ramsey) question why David believes in it in the midst of the apocalypse. Which is fine! And maybe it’s because I’ve never been a particularly religious person, but this just feels like a big ol’ projection on Wilson’s part. My guy, it as a cult and David ate people.
They were cannibals, my guy!
The show doesn’t make grand gestures to talk about religion. If anything, the David storyline is about what man is willing to do to survive and how he’ll hurt anyone who threatens that to keep it. I wouldn’t instantly grab on to the Christianity of it all, but if Rainn Wilson wants to, okay then! David is a cult leader who would rather eat people than figure out how to plan for feeding those in his cult.
And yes, sorry Wilson, there are Christian cults out there. So, David representing those while also being a villain towards Ellie isn’t about his religion! I’m sorry if you want a post -apocalyptic Christian show; I’m sure there are plenty available for you on like Lifetime or something like that. You guys have a new movie about how Jesus brought a kid out of a lake every other month, and I don’t know, maybe people feel more comfortable making fictional religious cults Christian because every non-Christian religion is persecuted in this country to varying degrees, and people don’t want to further stigmatize them.
It was one specific story in a show about survival and it was about a cult. Like please, be for real. So no, there’s no bias in The Last of Us towards Christians. I’m sure my Catholic grandparents would not have taken offense to a cannibal because they can … recognize what isn’t about them! But maybe that’s just them!
(featured image: HBO)
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