In The Handmaid’s Tale, Christians are the Good Guys (mostly)
Extremely pro-life Christians are, mostly, among the good guys in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
Baptists, Catholics, and Quakers are the specific groups named in the book as part of the underground resistance movement. They fight, risk their lives, and die helping the women victimized in Gilead. They each fight in their own ways, which for those who know Baptists, Catholics, and Quakers seem very in character and consistent with history. The Baptists are rebels in the woods, engaging in armed guerrilla warfare with government forces. The Catholics and Quakers take a more pacifist route, attacking the false theology and running underground resistance organizations to help people escape.
Christians (following a twisted form of Christianity) are also among the bad guys. These people perpetuate the cult-like government of Gilead. Many of them are either duped by or directly complicit with the power structures of Gilead. Those in power in Gilead took power by purposely manipulating and rewriting the teachings of Christianity. If QAnon has revealed any truth, it is that there are huge numbers of Christians, and not a few pastors, foolish enough to be duped by ludicrous claims.
There are few “true believers”, as Offred calls them, in Gilead and the ones who are true believers are in the lower ranks of power. The leaders of Gilead don’t believe in or follow Christian teachings or the Bible. They only use them to maintain control and manipulate the marginally religious. They manipulated the Bible so much that it must be kept locked up so no one can read it and be freed from their false interpretations. They ban other theological works such as “Amazing Grace” and other hymns which speak of freedom. Offred describes these songs as belonging to “banned sects.”
Gilead isn’t the United States — at least not all of it. We don’t have all the details because the book doesn’t lay them out, but it is clear that Gilead is a fragment of territory, left over from a war of some kind in which the country broke up into regional factions. This is not to say that something like this can’t happen or won’t happen. This actually makes it more likely. A civil war is exactly how to make something like The Handmaid’s Tale real.
What can we learn?
There is not one, simple “lesson” from the book that can be isolated from the text and used as a political weapon against the left or the right. (That’s how Gileadite leaders use the Bible, BTW) As in most great works of fiction, Atwood has created a world of complexity with difficult and complex problems, few untainted heroes, and no easy answers.
Christians need to realize that there will always be powerful people who feign faith to gain our support. There will always be authoritarians whose only religion is gaining power. There will always be fellow Christians who are taken in by these powerful deceptions.
But one of the deeper truths of the book is that there will always be Christians willing to resist and possibly die for their own freedoms and the freedoms of others. There will always be Christians who see through theological/political manipulation. There will always be resistance movements and rebellions against unjust governments and unjust practices with Christians leading the way.
The Christian “heroes,” if they can be called that, in Atwood’s book are not ones who seize power but ones who resist it.
Resist Gilead.
How do we resist Gilead now? Here’s a few ideas in no particular order except the first one. That one is the most important of all.
Read the Bible for yourself: Resist by reading the Bible. It can be a weapon used to forge chains or strike them off. Don’t let it be locked up and owned only by the few. Read it. Know it. Study it.
Choose healthy skepticism over unswerving loyalty: Resist by being skeptical of leaders feigning religion with no visible practice or history of discipleship. Resist by questioning leaders in your own tribe and demanding accountability and transparency.
Choose freedom over control: Resist by refusing to surrender freedoms to gain power and refusing to oppress others’ freedoms to advance your beliefs.
Choose coalition over division: Resist by standing with those whose theology or philosophy might not perfectly align with yours. (Quakers, Catholics, and Baptists have a lot of theological disagreements, but in the book stand united against Gilead.)
Choose hope instead of despair and faith instead of fatalism: Resist through hope. Offred demonstrates this gift, showing us how difficult but life sustaining hope is. Resist through prayer. Offred prays a beautiful, achingly honest prayer in the book. It’s too long to quote here. Look it up.
Gilead can happen. Some would foolishly welcome it. But there will always be true believers who resist it.
