Talk:Bishop/@comment-2600:1702:1AD0:9480:10DB:8C32:B181:C423-20181105224550/@comment-1255618-20181106040854

The Bishop, as dispicable as he is, is definitely my favorite character in the series and one of the most interesting. I think he's the embodiment of someone who follows a religion's dogma to the tee but utterly lacks empathy, and the show repeatedly hammers home why and how doing this fundamentally distorts faith into an unempathetic and destructive force rather than one which offers hope and charity to alleviate the world's suffering. To the extent he shows sympathy, such as when he says he'll make a "small" prayer for Lisa, it is because he feels begrudgingly that it is required of him by his God. Likewise, he offers to rescind Trevor's excommunication because he wants him out of town and thinks he may need his services for what he sees as the greater good. Any "kindness" he shows is exclusively done because he thinks it's the bare minimum of what is required of him by God, and he relishes every oppurtunity to use the institution of the Church and the teachings of his religion to condone the destruction of whatever he doesn't like or understand anyway. I've read several comments from Christians and religious persons noting as much, but the Bishop exemplifies the danger of not practicing religion alongside lived experience and understanding; rather than being open to other perspectives and the goodness in others, for the Bishop, everything is all or nothing: one is either a righteous Christian, or a dangerous heretic or pagan (or not real). It's impossible for him to see how his God and good works could manifest through the actions of those he sees as theologically or ethically wrong in some way, or for him to come to know something about his world or faith he doesn't already understand; he only believes in absolutes. Of course, this makes Blue Fangs's humiliating takedown of his character that much more awesome. xD