Religion in the Handmaid's Tale

[vlyons]

As I wrote in a previous post, I'm wading thru the TV version of the Handmaid's Tale. Let me state up front that I am a long time student of Buddhism. There is no creator god in Buddhism.

I know that Handmaid's Tale is fiction, but good grief, it so parallels what we see in real life. Margaret Atwood has said that she combed thru pages and pages of newspapers and found examples in real life somewhere of everything she depicts in her book. So there's that.

But what strikes me as so horrendous in this people in Gilead quote the old testament at every turn. Old testament verses are used to justify every act of cruelty, slavery, and oppression of women. Men who are not the patrician elites are oppressed too.

There is never a quote or reference to the New Testament. No do unto others, no blessed are the peacemakers, no don't throw the first stone, no feed and care for the poor, no good samaritans. Just a never ending succession of vengefully cruel and barbaric punishments for infractions large and small.

Did today's RW Christo-Fascists read this book as a prescription and guide book?

This TV series has affected me deeply. Very difficult to watch, but I'm committed to seeing every bit of it. Make no mistake, the RW Christo-Fascists in our midst want to take over and impose their dystopian vision on us.

[Dorian Gray]

1. While Margaret Atwood is a great writer

and while there are elements of that book that speak to what is happening now, I find the television show to be HORROR porn. It's so bleak and horrifying. No hope.

Life now isn't like that. There is hope in our lives, and we can grasp onto it and work toward things. We still have freedom to fight here, and we should fight.

I find when people make comparisons to the Handmaid's tale, it's a cry of hopelessness, and that makes me very uncomfortable. I understand the parallels, but the bleakness of it all feels (to me) hopeless. And I personally have a problem with a message of hopelessness.

[vercetti2021]

3. We win in real life

It won't be like that from the show or book. We will beat these fucks into the ground.

[Dorian Gray]

7. From your mouth

to earth's ears.

[iemanja]

9. The book is FAR less so

Far less disturbing in that way and far less graphic.

[vercetti2021]

2. That's a show

This is real life. In the show, the christo-fascists win. They won't win in any war they try. They will lose like all fascists do in the end.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. You'll like the 4th. Season the best. I was bored with part of

Season 2 and 3, where the story line seemed to repeat itself.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes. The Old Testament Is a Great Source for

mean and hateful people. The New Testament? Not so much.

What is really strange is how often the fundamentalists who quote the Old Testament are also anti-Semitic. 'Tis a puzzlement...

[BarackTheVote]

10. I once asked a Fundie about this

The answer I got was that, once Jesus ascended into Heaven, all one needed to follow him was to embrace him in their heart as their personal Lord and Savior, and that was it. All the moral and philosophical teachings of Christ in the Gospels? All that stuff was just applicable for the brief three years of his public ministry and can now be dismissed as he has “fulfilled the Gospel.” Why that means the Old Testament is still applicable, search me

But, yeah, basically, that’s their excuse for clinging to all the bad stuff and practicing none of the good. Far from the old school Red Letter Bibles of back in the day where the words of Christ were so important they deserved a unique and eye-catching setting.

[The Jungle 1]

6. The right refuses to help the poor

They hate welfare. Which is why we have so many children living below the poverty line.
They refuse to provide healthcare. Which is why so many Americans go healthcare bankrupt.
The right loves corporate welfare but will not help young people drowning in college debt.
We don't need no stinking minimum wage. Although wages are now going up.

[iemanja]

8. You should read the book

It's fairly different from the TV show.
Atwood set her book in Cambridge, MA.