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‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and Christian Privilege: This Exact Attitude Is Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Exists

The show is NOT anti-Christianity, it's anti-extremism.

By CD TurnerPublished 5 years ago 7 min read
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Blessed be the fight. 

Mike Pence has once announced, without irony, that “Christians are the most persecuted people in the world.” While I could write a 5000-word article on how much utter nonsense that statement is, this is not the subject of the article you’re reading now. Even now I must put bridles on the controversial things I want to say, because I bet many of the readers here are Christians. But am I going to promise that you are not going to be offended by the arguments I write? No. That would not be an honest partaking of such sensitive topics.

The Handmaid’s Tale has been unironically touted as “offensive” by evangelical Christians who couldn’t have missed the point more if both their eyes were taken out. The Handmaid’s Tale is a story of a conspiratorial group of Christian extremists staging a coup, and turning America into the Republic of Gilead. Birth rates have fallen to catastrophic levels, and this new regime intervenes by enslaving fertile women, taking their children, and subjecting them to ritualized rape ‘Ceremonies’ in order to conceive children for elite families.

I find it incredible that evangelicals still can’t understand what the real message of the show is, right in the middle of an America that’s turning back the clock of women’s rights state by state. So, you’re insulted because The Handmaid’s Tale portrays an extremist group of religious fundamentalists as misogynistic, holier-than-thou, sadistic hypocrites?

GOOD.

Some anvils need to be dropped in this country and such is not done with the pretense of walking on eggshells. The Handmaid’s Tale is not a commentary against Christianity as a whole, it’s a warning against tyranny under the guise of religion. Margaret Atwood’s intentions for the novel the show’s based on are to show how fundamentalist religions condemn women to servitude and child-bearing.

This type of situation has happened before. Iran used to be considerably progressive in 1970 before the Iranian Revolution took over and stripped women of their rights. If anything, it's getting worse, because the Islamic State is hellbent on the persecution of those who are not concordant with their extremist sect of Islam. Just recently, Saudi Arabia allowed women to drive cars again, though they are still restricted to ridiculously stringent dress codes. If anything, Atwood's novel was a commentary on Islamic fundamentalism; the only reason Atwood adapted Gilead to be an extremist Christian theocracy is because Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the Americas.

A particular article on christiantoday.com caught my eye researching for this post, "The Handmaid's Tale is ugly and anti-Christian. We have a better story to tell” by David Robertson. Evidently Robertson hasn’t seen the show, because he would learn that nearly all of the characters portrayed are some type of Christian, rebel, or Gilead elite. June Osbourne and Luke Bankole are giving their newborn daughter a Catholic baptism in the latest episode (S3E4) in juxtaposition to the dedication ceremony in Gilead. Also, do tell me about this story that is “better,” I’m all ears. Well, eyes.

The liberal metro-elites love it because it portrays their nightmare—a United States run by religious fundamentalists, in which women are oppressed and treated as a subservient class.

The hell is a metro-elite? Oh, evidently it’s the right-wing term for “university educated, politically correct, metropolitan and immature elite” according to this The Guardian article. “University-educated” is apparently an insult now. Also, when did we achieve “elite” status? I can barely get a damn job in the podunk town I live in.

So let's return to reality. There are countries where religious fundamentalists are stoning people to death. But none of them are ones where Christians have taken control.

HOHO, that’s where you’re wrong, my friend. Regardless of whether you acknowledge the Catholic Church as “Christian,” The Vatican in Italy is still a theocratic city-state. And Pope Francis is still under fire for hiding away accounts of child molestation. You know who else likes to cover up child abuse? Evangelical Christians. Extreme sects of Christianity even claim that a Bible verse is telling them to beat their children. And who can ever forget Oliver Cromwell, who penalized followers of Roman Catholicism, as he was a stalwart Protestant during his reign as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Then there’s the ultimate hypocrisy: The Bible features mentions of mass genocide, rape, slavery, war, destruction, child-killing, and many other crimes you claim to condemn. All in the name of God. Have you ever truly read the Bible cover to cover, word for word? Do it sometime. No, don’t listen it to being filtered through a preacher, read it for yourself. I did this back when I was a Christian, and quite ironically, it turned me into an atheist!

Of course you could not have a major network portraying a dystopian future where America has become an Islamic republic. That would be Islamophobic! But Christian fundamentalists are fair game—Christophobic isn't really a term that has caught on yet.

Oh, you poor sweet summer child. You might actually care to know some facts. Such as: “Fifty-six percent of domestic terrorist attacks and plots in the US since 1995 have been perpetrated by right-wing extremists, as compared to 30 percent by ecoterrorists, and 12 percent by Islamic extremists. Right-wing extremism has been responsible for the greatest number of terrorist incidents in the US in 13 of the 17 years since the Oklahoma City bombing” (source). Need more? Okay, how about: “Terrorist attacks by right-wing extremists in the United States have increased. Between 2007 and 2011, the number of such attacks was five or less per year. They then rose to 14 in 2012; continued at a similar level between 2012 and 2016, with a mean of 11 attacks, and a median of 13 attacks; and then jumped to 31 in 2017.7 FBI arrests of right-wing extremists also increased in 2018” (source).

The hypocrisy of conservative fundamentalists preaching religious morality while engaging in sexual immorality is matched only by the hypocrisy of liberal fundamentalists preaching woman's rights while engaging in sexual abuse.

Liberal fundamentalist. Classic. Also… who are the liberal fundamentalists engaging in sexual abuse? So far I’ve only seen Commanders raping Handmaids, which are the archetypal far-right extremists. “Despite the constant citation of Scripture, the portrayal of Christianity in the drama is the antithesis of what real Christianity is. Real Christianity is not religious hypocrites enforcing their perverted teachings through the barrel of a gun.” And again, you're missing the point. The Republic of Gilead are NOT “real Christians.” Have you noticed that they hardly mention anything about Jesus Christ or the story of him “dying the cross for all sins?” Sure, they throw in New Testament verses and some teachings of Jesus, but they are all cherry-picked and out of context. You know, like some infamous fundamentalist groups tend to do when they want scripture to support their agendas. Now to get to the real meat of the toxicity of Christian privilege.

While in the West we are nowhere near the level of persecution that Christians in many countries face, I'm still not a big fan of encouraging people to hate us on the basis of a distorted and perverse view of the Christian faith.” I don’t hate you. I think you’re misinformed and entirely wrong about the basis of your own faith, but I don’t hate you. I don’t hate Christians. I don’t hate Muslims. I don’t hate people on the pretense of them believing in a religion.

I hate injustice. I hate misogyny. I especially hate those two things when they are being used to force a religious agenda upon society.

Christian privilege is toxic because it’s telling people that Christians are the most persecuted people in the world. Yes, Christians are assassinated in Middle Eastern countries and unlawfully detained because of their faith. But certain prevalent evangelical Christians are also the ones eroding the last fifty years of women’s rights in America by outlawing abortion, stigmatizing rape, victim-blaming, and being bigoted to transgender communities.

I want to ask you, not out of malice, to do something for me. I want you to read sources about the Holocaust. Go to the Holocaust Museum so you can understand what persecution is. If you are a person living in America right now who has clean water, a roof over their head, a bed to sleep in, and a well-paying job, you are doing a hell of lot better than the disadvantaged and homeless. You aren’t being held in cages like sick dogs destined for slaughter. Your family isn’t being taken from you. Your country isn’t being besieged by bombs and death squads.

I want you think of the women sitting at home right now, pregnant with a baby they didn’t want and can’t afford in a state that won’t allow them to terminate their pregnancies. I want you to think of the families torn apart by gun violence. Think of the desperate migrants hiding in fear of being discovered by ICE, their children stuck in cages, not knowing if they’ll ever see their parents again. Think of the peaceful Muslims terrified of going to their place of worship for fear of extremists, the Muslim children being teased mercilessly for wearing burqas.

I do not write this article with the pretense of mindless insults or hate-speech. If anything, I would like to convince you. Not convert, convince. I've learned not too long ago that pointless fights full of name-calling and argumentative fallacies are not at all beneficial to curbing misinformation. It was not my intention to malign anyone just because they are a Christian. I can only hope to be honored with the same courtesy.

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About the Creator

CD Turner

I write stories and articles. Sometimes they're good.

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