Quote Originally Posted by Le Messor View Post
Also, I'm afraid that saying 'Christians are the default' (btw, the editor-in-chief I mentioned, who I'm beginning to think wasn't the editor-in-chief, said pretty much the same thing) is kind of like saying "nowhere in X-Men #1 did anyone say Beast isn't blue, so all those issues that portray blue people as the worst evil of the world are completely negated.
I don't see how. Whenever colour casually comes up, characters don't casually mention that they're blue a large majority of the time the way they do with religion and Christianity. Sticking to the X-Men (since that's just what I know best), off the top of my head, Cyclops, Havok, Karma, Gambit, Banshee, Siryn, Dazzler are all established Christians, and that's just off the top of my head (and mostly Catholics, since that's what I am and so I guess they stick in my memory more). Comics are filled with positive Christian portrayals, it's the characters who aren't Christian who tend to be the exceptions.

As for the depiction of Christians, I think when you see ones like the purifiers and Stryker, it's an attempt to show the real life, ultra hardcore Christian groups. The kind that go around with the "God hates fags" signs promoting hate for various sections of society. I don't think any good comic writer would depict all Christians in that way.

I think most people forget that (superhero) comic books are filled with metaphors, some subtle most not. If a character or group is made to look stereotyped, it's probably because the writer is trying to fit a lot of information into a small space to get his/her point across to a vast readership, many of which won't grasp subtler undertones and will therefore miss the message.
See, I agree entirely with the first half of this, but the second part doesn't sit right, mostly just because there are skeezballs like Stryker out there. The story wasn't about painting all Christians as evil, intolerant scum, just these ones, whether Nightcrawler mentions his own faith or not.

As for Kurt at the time, if his Catholicism was established (I think it was at least in passing, but don't quote me on that), it definitely wasn't played as a huge part of his character yet and wouldn't have had much meaning either way.