James Gunn, the director best known for his work with films involving the DC Comics universe, has no problems putting an orgy scene into a superhero show that ties into the Superman franchise.

But we’ve found something he does find so deeply odious that he’ll take a stand against it in his creative work: Jesus! No, I didn’t mean that as taking the Lord’s name in vain for effect; I meant that he really finds Jesus so offensive that his latest work literally equates Nazism with a love of Jesus Christ.

You probably know James Gunn best as the director of the three “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and the latest “Superman” reboot and, aside from that, from being the brother of the dude who played Kirk on “Gilmore Girls.”

If you don’t know him, don’t feel the need to catch up on his oeuvre. Some of his writing is clever, but his direction inexplicably looks like one of those action film directors from the 1990s — I’m thinking Renny Harlin as the beau ideal of this sort of tyro, but throw a dart at a board of movies that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, and you’ll probably hit a film helmed by a director of this type at least 50 percent of the time — who merely pointed his camera toward an expensive actor and expensive effects and considered his work done.

I say this is inexplicable because most of Gunn’s work is done via CGI, which means he can make it look like a video game if he wants, and it still comes across about as inartful as Harlin’s “Deep Blue Sea.”

Anyway, Gunn’s politics lean left, which shouldn’t surprise anybody. Most recently, he was seen blaming Donald Trump for the somewhat disappointing box-office performance of “Superman.” (A desultory analysis of the numbers proved this was rubbish, but Gunn apparently knows about as much regarding his own industry as he does the Beltway’s.)

After “Superman,” Gunn’s latest project has been Season 2 of “Peacemaker,” starring John Cena in a very TV-MA version of a Superman-adjacent DC Comics character streaming on HBO Max and produced by Warner Bros. The second season made headlines by starting off with an episode where Peacemaker — despondent about being rejected from a Justice League-esque superhero group — gets stoned and coked up, then has a superhero orgy in his living room. That’s not a euphemism for anything; he really does have an orgy that involves superheroes in his living room.

You’d hope this would be the nadir of the season, sociopolitically, and you’d be wrong. As Variety noted, Season 2 has been marked by a series of plot twists, which involve the Nazis winning World War II in the alternate Earth it takes place on.

“We got a lot of pushback from various sources within the structure, on this episode in particular, and we’re like, ‘Let’s not be bashful about this. Let’s just do the story that we want to do, and I don’t want to have to pull punches with it,’” Gunn told GQ.

“I have a few racists that have called me polarizing, but I’m OK with being polarizing and letting racists fall to the wayside.”

What kind of racists? Well, if one is to guess by this bigoted joke, Christians:

This scene from Peacemaker claims Nazis love Jesus. Is it true? pic.twitter.com/4yic9bEGBr

— GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT (@GFRobot) October 3, 2025

Yes, it’s a bit of a throwaway line. And yes, the turnabout game can feel a bit overused. But the reason it feels that way is because sometimes it’s the only thing that fits: If a mainstream series made this joke about any other major religious group (save probably the Jewish people, who are also personas non grata in progressive circles these days), would James Gunn still have a job?

The equation of Nazism and Christianity is one of the oldest feints in the leftist book, and one of the most debunked. First, historians — led by British socialist academic A.J.P. Taylor with his 1945 tome “The Course of German History” — tied the German people’s embrace of autocracy in general and the NSDAP in particular to a cultural strain that ran all the way back to Martin Luther. Then, other historians claimed that the Nazis were aided and abetted by the Vatican and loved them some Catholicism, another equally specious claim.

So, take your pick — it was either the Reformation or the Rome that was responsible for the swastika-peddlers. Anti-Christian progressive zealots have got most of the bases covered with those two.

Nowadays, the spurious connection is even less well-defended, intellectually; the meaningless catch-all term “Christian nationalism” (which doesn’t discriminate between any flavor of Jesus-believer so long as they are sincere, patriotic, and conservative enough) is basically synonymous with fascism and, therefore, Nazism for the average progressive American, although don’t dare ask them to explain the connection or what the term means — because not only do they not have the answer, merely asking means you’re one of them.

Naturally, this is all false in regards to how the Nazis felt about religiosity, particularly of the Judeo-Christian variety; any faith but faith in the führer was viewed as a threat to the state — especially Judaism, but also Christianity. To the extent there was any religious element in the Third Reich, it was a kind of völkisch paganism, although this is a dubious assertion, too; in reality the only religion the Nazis held to was the worship of power (their own) and evil (that which they perpetrated). This is beyond debate 80 years on from the collapse of Hitler’s empire — and it’s still beyond the realm of humor, unless one wishes to provoke one’s enemies at the expense of truth, human dignity, and basic decency.

Which is precisely what Gunn wants to do, from all appearances. From what I have seen, “Peacemaker” does not contain any of his usual flourishes of clever writing and — this being a streaming series — there’s not enough money to throw at the screen to make his usual green-screen Renny Harlin spectacles look quite so passable.

But there are orgies! And jokes about how there are a lot of Nazis! And how Nazis love Jesus, which also basically means Jesus-lovers love Nazis!

There’s a sad irony here: Sociologically, charges of Nazism are designed to dehumanize your opponent. And what tends to follow dehumanization? Eradication. Why do the Nazis still remain so rebarbative 80 years after World War II ended? See the last answer.

Perhaps this kind of dehumanization comforts whatever #TheResistance faithful might still be left over 10 years after Donald Trump rode down the golden escalator. I’d argue it makes James Gunn look like an even more desperate jerk. But I doubt it’ll lose him any fans. If a graphic superhero swingers party isn’t a dealbreaker for you, odds are you don’t feel that strongly about Jesus to care about Gunn’s casual, mephitic bigotry.

But you’re supposed to watch it anyway. The series, in case you didn’t know, is supposed to be critical viewing if you’re going to see the next Superman movie.

And who will be going to that? Children.

Warner Bros. knows kids will be watching this sick show, and they couldn’t care less. This is why Hollywood is dying.

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