Actor Rainn Wilson in a tweet last weekend criticized what he calls Hollywood’s “anti Christian bias”. Wilson best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office, for which he earned three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Wilson’s tweet was in response to a depiction of a cannibalistic Christian preacher in a new episode of HBO’s popular zombie series “The Last of Us,” starring Pedro Pascal.
“I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood,” Wilson said. “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 asked.
Based on an award-winning video game of the same name, “The Last of Us” depicts a post-apocalyptic world in which the main characters are constantly on the run from hordes of zombies and crazed villains.
In one of the latest episodes, a Christian cult led by a preacher named David quotes Scripture to justify their cannibalism.
David the preacher also attempts to rape the show’s main female character, Ellie, who is 14.
Other Twitter users commenting on Wilson’s tweet pointed out that the show changed the character of David from the video game, intentionally making him a preacher to bash Christianity.
“As SOON as the pastor started reading from the Bible I knew he was going to be awful. I was like ‘watch that guy be David the creepy cannibal from the video game.’ And then it was David. Shocked. Surprised. Never seen it before. He wasn’t a pastor in the video game,” one Twitter user responded.
As one of TV’s best-known actors, Wilson’s comments came as a surprise to many who are used to Hollywood’s attacks on Christianity. Wilson is a member of the Baha’i faith and describes himself as a “spiritual being.”
In response to his tweet, a user wrote, “Defamation of Christianity has become the most unoriginal and tired cliches in movie/TV series storylines. Its prevalence is much more than a bias against an entire people, it is meant to undermine faith and position the secular-minded as only ones with altruistic intentions,” another user responded to Wilson’s tweet.
