Religion in the X-Files by Brendan O'Regan

The X-Files is quality award-winning television. Fine attention is paid to mood, music, plot, and most especially character. The relationship between the main characters is a very positive reinforcement of the value of friendship. It also has the virtue that it takes religion seriously.
Despite its popularity it has its faults - many of the episodes are more gruesome than the story requires, there is an occasional touch of sleaze and a tendency to concentrate on freaky and twisted characters, but more seriously it continually has shadowy government agents perpetrating all sorts of nasty deeds.
Now this could be close enough to the truth, but this kind of paranoia fiction can lead to a cynicism about government that damages faith in democracy. Carter is reported as saying that the show is partly about faith, though not necessarily about any particular faith. Its key slogan "The Truth is Out There" seems bland compared to "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" or "The Truth shall set you free", but it does imply a refreshing suggestion of objectivity in our relativistic times. With its dogged search for The Truth it refuses to take a fashionable smart alec approach to everything. It may be cynical about a particular government as indicated, but it believes tenaciously in values like Truth, Friendship and Loyalty.
Religious influences can also be seen in the titles of some episodes even when some of these have no religious themes - Lazarus, Eve, Born Again, Apopcrypha, Signs and Wonders. While Christian references abound, they are not the only religious traditions mined for themes and metaphors. In The Blessing Way, for example, Native American healing rituals are used to bring the hero back from death's doorway; in Genderbender there is a sect modelled, at least superficially, on the Amish.
Some episodes, while not overtly focusing on religion, have interesting scenes and themes. Conduit ends with Mulder apparently praying in a church, in desperation and frustration at the possible alien abduction of his sister. In One Breath, where Scully is in a life-threatening coma, an angel guardian-like figure watches protectively over her. And there is that beautiful heavenly vision of happy children in the next life in Closure from the seventh season.
A few episodes are meatier when it comes to religious themes. The last episode of the third season features a Christ-like figure, Jeremiah Smith, who can heal people with a touch of his hand, can pass through a crowd unnoticed and has a calming presence. It seems however that he is an alien, perhaps the original of a group of clones. He has a brief but interesting discussion about religion with the villain of the series, The Cigarette Smoking Man, which has echoes of Christ's discussion with Pilate. This episode is called Talitha Cumi, Christ's words to the dead girl he brought back to life in Mark 5:41.
Another Christ figure appears in Miracle Man from the first season. Here, the son of a Bible Belt preacher has miraculous healing powers, including, it appears the ability to bring someone back from the dead. However this is a show meant to scare rather than to uplift, and a deformed person who would rather have been left for dead starts murdering those on whom the son lays his hands, plunging him into self-doubt. The son is murdered but the episode ends with rumours of him having been seen alive again.
Whether these uses of elements of Christ's story are respectful or not is a moot point. The shows don't seem anti-religious, and those who bemoan the godless nature of much of the secular media may be glad to see spiritual matters get some recognition. Interestingly one of the show's regular writers Glen Morgan, speaking of the Miracle Man episode, expressed reservations about that show not showing enough respect for people of faith. Indeed there is at times an overdose of wacky and weird religious types that would give religion a bad name - e.g. in Orison a hypnotising demon fighting, the snake handlers in Signs and Wonders and the wacky missionaries of Fight Club, all from the uneven seventh season. And cults figure in several episodes, from the weird vegetarian cult in Red Museum, to the Satanic cult that is the board of a high school (!) in Die Hand Die Verletz. One of the most intriguing 'religious' shows was Revelations from the third season. A serial killer is wiping out people with stigmata, and in a reversal of the usual roles Mulder is sceptical while Scully, a lapsed Catholic, feels a call to be protector of a stigmatic young boy who is under threat. Again the show goes for gruesome and has a grotesque but saint-like character Owen also out to protect the boy. This is also the show where St Ignatius is credited with being in the Bible! It ends in a striking manner with Scully in a confession box expressing her concern that God may be speaking to us but with people not listening.
The fourth season has a wealth of well-crafted episodes especially in relation to character development and the recurring alien theme. The religious elements are not that strong, but there is an episode about reincarnation, another that draws on Jewish lore and in the rivetting season finale Gethsemane, a frosty meeting between Scully and the family priest. This story strand is continued in the fifth season opener Redux, which must be must be something of a landmark. It includes in its stunning climactic sequence emotionally moving shots of female lead Scully saying the Rosary with the same priest! And there's not a hint of irony or mockery. When did we last see a young, attractive lead character in a popular TV drama series saying their prayers, let alone the Rosary? An artificially induced cancer (a recurring metaphor in the show) has brought Scully to the brink of death which makes her radically reassess her life. In one of the most touching scenes in the whole series she breaks down in tears in her mother's arms. Shortly after Scully is saying her Rosary with the priest she had gently rebuffed at the family gathering. (Mulder is too preoccupied to take much interest, but as the priest replaces him at Scully's hospital bedside he lovingly asks her to say "a few Hail Mulders" for him!).
Unfortunately for those interested in X-Files episodes with a religious theme, the writers didn't revisit this new-found faith of Scully's until well into the fifth season, when the stylish but tasteless All Souls sees her going to Church, back in the Confession box, and mixing with some very weird angels, again showing the tendency of the show to inspire and infuriate, sometimes within the same show.
In the eighth season, the opening sequence of one episode was comprised entirely of that familiar footage of the baby in the womb, film you usually see only at pro-life meetings. The context was the reflections of Mulder (recently returned after three months in the grave!) on the beginnings of life, cloning, the soul and God - sparked by the mysterious pregnancy of his friend Scully (she who was barren). Later in the show we learned that Scully's unborn baby was under threat from sinister forces as it was supposed to be an extra special human being who might be vital to the human race in its struggle against alien forces. Sound familiar?
The nativity theme was taken up again when the eighth season came to an end with a particularly intriguing episode. There was the birth of a child about whom there were great expectations, resulting from a mysterious conception; the baby was born in rather poor surroundings; evil plotters were out to kill or steal the baby; for one particular group the baby was not what they expected and they lost interest; there was a strange star in the sky which provided direction to the place and finally, when the baby was born, three of the wisest regular characters brought gifts for the new-born.
It shows how potent the Jesus story still is, even in popular culture. It could be homage, but I suppose others might accuse writer Chris Carter of plagiarism at best or blasphemy at worst. Of course blasphemy is notoriously hard to pin down (which is not a reason for not trying). Some things are obviously blasphemous, some obviously respectful, and in between there's a wide spectrum, especially when it comes to artistic expression. So, should we err on the side of freedom or respect, or is it even that simple?