The devil all the time may provide the audience with a bad perspective on faith but it by no means says that the faith is bad. Let me explain...there were three visible instances where the faith rather the christian faith of the 20th century was placed on rigorous scrutiny.
Instance one: Faith that feeds on suffering
When Arvin’s (around whom the story revolves around/ the protagonist) mother was dying of cancer, his father made him pray saying that doctors could not save her but the owner of their prayers could, if only they prayed hard enough to receive his kindness. His father, Willard even sacrificed Arvin’s beloved dog for the scripture has said so much of sacrificing the thing you love as the holiest of sacraments but still he lost his wife to the disease and killed himself soon after.
This may show that suffering which is much advocated by faith only brings more suffering and it is almost true but this was the hardest of times of Willard and faith came at a terrible price. Previously the film has glimpsed us on how faith had led him safely through a world war and was used by him as refuge to provide clarity for the welfare of his family up to this point, the goodness of faith even was evident by the nature of his mother who adamant for Willard to marry an orphan girl who lost her family to the fire in return to the fruition of her prayer to bring back Willard from the war unscathed. We should never judge anything when it faulted, forgetting all the time it did not and nor says the film.
Instance Two: Faith that is deceiving.
Preacher Roy who believed that faith takes away fear and pain deluded that he was blessed in a way to heal others and reincarnate the dead, pricked his wife’s neck with a screw-driver and left her dead on the ground. He then prayed for her soul to return to her body with nothing more than scratch but was broken when he saw his beloved cold, crimson and still before his lap.
Instance three: Faith that is out right corrupted!
Years later, Reverend Preston uses his charming speech, scripture and promises of enlightenment to oblige young girls to have his way with them. He even defiled and then denied Roy’s own daughter Lenora, causing her to eventually commit suicide with his baby on her womb.
In both of these instances the failure of the institution of church is highlighted, the former is a portrayal of how an institution long standing such as religious faith that structured human civilization can be strayed off even with the best of its believers, and the latter is a showcase of its outright corruption. In the case of Roy, his absolute passion gave rise to a poisonous idea of an otherwise honest man who refused to be adulterous with a young woman when asked by her husband at gun point which resulted in his own demise. On the other hand Rev. Preston was an evil son of a bitch (like Willard says it) who just used the faith of people for him to prey on young girls.
Bottom-line
It is easy to pass judgement on anything and more so on the controversial topic as faith. But it is important to remember all the times when faith prevented us from being more evil than we were. The Devil all the time by no means tells its audience that faith is bad, the movie just builds upon times it faulted and you can tell it was interesting when you ran through the well over of its two hours of run time with ease. Further the movies should be on watchlist for anyone who is a fan of Cormac McCarthy or John Steinbeck.
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