What are Don Draper's Religious Views?

If anyone knows about resurrection, it's Don Draper

Today is Easter, a celebration of resurrection and return.

S2 E12 “The Mountain King (© AMC)

S2 E12 “The Mountain King (© AMC)

For Don Draper, resurrection happens often. From drunken benders or sudden abandonment, he returns to those who follow him.

I’m not going to call Don Draper a Jesus figure (though it does seem that he was 33 years old at the time of the pilot, the age of Jesus Christ at the Crucifixion) but the presence of Christianity in his upbringing is important in understanding him. On the day of his birth, his stepmother was told that God brought him to her.

She never loved him.

S3 E1 “Out of Town” (© AMC)

S3 E1 “Out of Town” (© AMC)

Outside of Peggy, you mostly do not see these characters talking about church or their beliefs. Even Peggy is very hesitant when it comes to discussing her Catholic faith. Don is clearly not religious as an adult, but religion does influence the way he talks and thinks. Take this famous line from “The Suitcase.”

S4 E7 “The Suitcase” (© AMC)

S4 E7 “The Suitcase” (© AMC)

S4 E7 “The Suitcase” (© AMC)

This is how Don was spoken to as a child living a tough life that he never felt grateful for. The adults around him brought God into everything, be it the farmhouse or the whorehouse he was raised in.

S6 E13 “In Care Of” (© AMC)

S6 E13 “In Care Of” (© AMC)

The language remains in adulthood even though he has formed his own beliefs.

Don returns to religious themes and language often. He evokes Jesus during a Belle Jolie Lipstick pitch that would sound insane coming from anyone else.

S1 E8 “The Hobo Code” (© AMC)

S1 E8 “The Hobo Code” (© AMC)

In another life, Dick Whitman could have made a hell of a preacher. He understands religion in the same way that he understands advertising, both are selling comfort.

S1 E4 “New Amsterdam” Don’s pitch for Bethlehem Steel. (© AMC)

The characters of Mad Men are known for living for today rather than tomorrow so religion is of no concern to them. Why dwell on eternity when you have a reservation at Lutèce with your young secretary tonight? Religion and faith offer more shame to these characters, Peggy is pushed away from Father John Gill after he directly tells her she will be going to Hell if she does not repent for abandoning her child.

She doesn’t believe that God works that way.

An important, unspoken bonding point between Peggy and Don is that both have a religious shadow in their lives. The lessons they took from sermons were not in how to save souls but in how to speak to others and sell to them.