Many of us who watch QL have personal baggage and historical grievances with Christianity, so I hope we watch Ticket to Heaven with added awareness. My expectation from the trailers and based on the previous work of writers Aof Noppharnach and Best Kittisak is that Ticket to Heaven will not outright condemn Christianity, but will instead attempt to offer nuanced acceptance to Christianity alongside a rejection of dualist thinking often espoused as Christian theology and dualist thinking about the religion itself. If you’re looking for a history of Christianity’s evils or an argument against the faith, I could be wrong, but I don’t think this will be the series for you.
This is also a time to remember that there are many different forms of Christianity based on denomination, region, and even just personal practices. I don’t know much about Thai Catholicism, but Aof Noppharnach was raised by his father within it and began writing the series in the wake of his passing. Because less than 1% of the Thai population is Christian, the people in power are nearly all Buddhist, and the institutions that have influence on politics and people are mainly Buddhist, (Theravada to be specific), P’Aof and other Thais do not have the same relationship to Christianity and the Church as a pervasive, world-shaping belief-system. Buddhists have been the one’s enacting conservative policies for them. In South Korea, for comparison, Christianity actually emerged as a counter-revolutionary religion against their occupiers. It’s quite possible for Thai individuals to see Christianity and its beliefs as a respite or alternative to more conservative approaches to Buddhism that plenty of Thais promote (kathoey or lower class people being reborn in that position as a punishment for their past life, for example). However, criticisms of Christian dogma toward same-sex attraction have also been a persistent part of Thai BL from its inception with Love of Siam, one of the most influential works to Aof Noppharnach. He references it pretty directly for subtextual commentary about Christianity in Bad Buddy.
We’ll see what the series depicts, but be prepared for critiques or conclusions that differ from your own. And if you can’t handle that, consider how much you want to express that online while you watch, or whether you’re really ready to engage with the work and its roots. You don’t have to keep up with everything that comes out. Maybe there will be one day down the road where you can watch with more generosity and sensitivity to the series context.
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