At least they tried to toe it carefully. However, I think the path they took for VV4 was in the right direction in the sense that it was spiritual rather than outright religious.

Really though,it's the whole deal with the heathens and the conversions that just rings christianity that people aren't liking.

If they want to keep the temple (I didn't think the hand statue was really a problem) with the devotion points and god powers, it's fine with me since that kind of resource building and powers is a staple of some strategy games, although I think the potions and alchemy from back in VV3 was better.

Edit: As for the Golden Child, it was more of a 'chosen one' thing than anything to do with Jesus, and from what I heard, the Golden Child was basically a spoiled brat who just happened to be the child emperor of the island. I don't really remember VV1 that much.