When I read comics in the sixties, they never seemed religious to me. The Superman comics from the 30s, 40s and 50s that are reprinted and sold as collector's items also don't give off any sort of religious vibes. This reminds me of something I once read online, a blog claiming that Americans are a lot more religious now than they were during most of the twentieth century. I think that is true. When you watch really classic American movies, movies with John Wayne or Clark Gable or Marilyn Monroe or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or almost any big star at all, you never get the feeling that the movies are trying to make a religious point. They never talk about the significance of praying, of having faith in God, of trying to live like a good Christian etc. I don't think there is a single really classic American movie made in 1920-1960 where the closing scene shows us the hero (or heroine) kneeling, praying and thanking God. Back then, no major film stars got involved in movies about Jesus, the way Mel Gibson directed The Passion of the Christ some years ago. And consider Elvis, who died in 1977. It has been pretty well established that there were few things Elvis loved better than relaxing by singing and playing gospel music with his friends. Elvis grew up in the deep South and went to church a lot as a kid. Yet when he was asked, after he had become a star, if he was religious, he never answered with an unequivocal "yes". He only ever admitted that he loved gospel music. I think that if Elvis had been alive today, when it has become so much more important to show one's religious colors in America, he would definitely not have hesitated to call himself religious.
So personally I'm convinced that "classic Superman" - Golden Age Superman from the thirties and forties, Silver Age Superman from the fifties and sixties - was not someone who was "religious" at all. Remember that he was created by two Jewish kids, Siegel and Shuster. Would they have made Superman (or Clark Kent) a church-goer? Hardly.
And have you considered why Siegel and Shuster decided to name Superman's arch-enemy Lex Luthor? Isn't that a strange name? 'Lex' is Latin for 'word', so Lex Luthor can be thought of as 'the word of Luthor'. But then who is Luthor? And what kind of evil word(s) did this Luthor speak?
I googled 'Luthor', and the first ten pages referred exclusively to Superman's arch-enemy (with the possible exception of two weird sites about "Rex Luthor", which I couldn't open). It's not as if "Luthor" seems like a name that Siegel and Shuster would just have picked out of a hat.
However, there is a name that resembles Luthor and is very famous. That is Luther, Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, who indeed spoke (and wrote) a lot of words! Is it even possible that Siegel and Shuster might have been obliquely referring to Martin Luther when they named Lex Luthor? I think it is. Luther was scathing in his criticism of Jews. He claimed that since the Jews received the first Covenant between God and humanity on Mount Sinai, they ought to have been the first to embrace the new Covenant between God and humanity through Jesus Christ. Although Martin Luther was most certainly not a Nazi and arguably not even truly anti-Semitic, some people have claimed that his harsh criticism of the Jews helped create the sort of dislike of Jews in Germany that was necessary to usher in Nazism. What if the Jewish Siegel and Shuster felt that way? What if their paragon of evil, Lex Luthor, has a name that really refers to "the (anti-Semitic) words of Martin Luther"? Remember that Siegel and Shuster created Superman just after Hitler had taken over in Germany, and Lex Luthor made his first appearance about a year after World War II had started. What if "Lex Luthor" aka "(words of) Martin Luther" was a kind of clever way to refer to Adolf Hitler? After all, Hitler certainly also spoke a lot of words!!
I'm definitly not implying that Siegel and Shuster were trying to show that Lex Luthor was in any way like Martin Luther or Adolf Hitler. Classic Lex Luthor was a mad scientist, not a politician or a theologian. And he wasn't much of an orator or a demagogue at all. But names are magic and loaded with connotations. Just the other day I read that there are people in America who can't bring themselves to vote for Barack Obama, because his name reminds them too much of Osama bin Laden! Obama - Osama! And if the connection between Lex Luthor and Martin Luther is in any way true, then that certainly explains why Clark Kent, if he has been thought of as Christian at all, has been assumed to be a Catholic, not a Protestant!
To summarize, I firmly believe that "classic" Superman was not a religious character. Neither was classic Lois Lane or classic Jonathan and Martha Kent. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster would have had no interest in making their hero a Christian, and they could hardly make him popular by turning him into a Jew. Besides, the early and mid 20th century was not a strikingly religious time in America. This was not a time when people fought for school prayer or for the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools. This was not a time when America's future seemed to hinge on its citizen's belief in God. And this was not a time when those who created movies or TV series or comic books or other forms of entertainment sent their heroes to church or made them kneel down in prayer.
Ann
