{"id":41444,"date":"2017-08-04T06:14:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T10:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=41444"},"modified":"2017-08-05T14:59:18","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T18:59:18","slug":"conservative-knee-jerk-reactions-handmaids-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/08\/conservative-knee-jerk-reactions-handmaids-tale.html","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Knee-Jerk Reactions to The Handmaid’s Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nMike Bird complained not long ago about the television series The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u00a0\u2013 my hunch is without having seen it, since he got the name wrong. But he is clearly influenced by a growing tendency in conservative Christian circles for people to talk about the show as an \u201cattack on Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\nAnyone who says that clearly has not seen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2017\/05\/the-handmaids-tale-recap-season-1-episode-7.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">episode 7<\/a>.<\/p>\nI am still getting caught up on watching my way through the first season. But there are clear elements of Christian heroism in the face of the fundamentalist sectarian revolution that creates the new country of Gilead and sends many Americans fleeing to places such as what becomes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvfanatic.com\/2017\/05\/the-handmaids-tale-season-1-episode-7-review-the-other-side\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cLittle America\u201d<\/a> in Canada.<\/p>\nWe encounter a Catholic nun named Christine, played by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kimroberts1\/status\/868980681950539776\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Kim\u00a0Roberts<\/a>. She is traveling with a variety of other people who are on the run from the authorities. We had already\u00a0learned that the troops of Gilead had destroyed cathedrals, and so presumably Catholics and\u00a0Episcopalians were\u00a0sought out. The shot we see of a damaged statue of an angel slightly later in the episode suggests that a radical Protestant\u00a0opposition to statues and images is part of the fundamentalists\u2019 worldview. Christine helps rescue Luke, and prays that the Lord will guide his steps and reunite him with his family.<\/p>\nMore graphic is the moment we are taken inside a church where some people tried to defend the fertile women that were being rounded up for enslavement as handmaids. They were killed and strung up. But, as has often happened in the world, it was the church that was standing between the oppressor and the oppressed, even as another sort of church was not merely standing on the side of the oppressor, but\u00a0was itself<\/em> the oppressor.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s also mention of a safe house run by Quakers in episode 8. And we also see in that episode the extent to which this revolution is not in any straightforward sense simply about \u201cChristianity\u201d or even Christian fundamentalism. It is about the resource of fertility, men seizing and holding on to\u00a0power, and much else, with religion often the means to accomplish an end rather than the primary motivator.<\/p>\nAnd so don\u2019t let anyone tell you that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hulu.com\/the-handmaids-tale\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/a> is an attack on Christianity. It is a <a href=\"https:\/\/australia.thegospelcoalition.org\/article\/when-you-love-the-show-but-the-show-doesnt-love-you\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">protest against fundamentalism<\/a>, Christian or otherwise. And\u00a0if conservatives feel attacked by it, then perhaps they\u00a0are individuals who are standing closer to the Sons of Jacob and Gilead than to Christine. Or perhaps they are disconcerted because they simply aren\u2019t taking a stand at all. But if it is possible to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/comment\/a-handmaids-tale-isnt-science-fiction-its-a-warning-20170721-gxfrut.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">overstate the relevance of the show<\/a>, its contemporary relevance is clear. In episode 7, Luke takes shelter for a while in an abandoned cafe, which has been shot up and smashed. It has the words \u201cGOD HATES FAGS\u201d spraypainted on the front. And that is not some hypothetical slogan from an implausible imagined dystopian future. It is a slogan that exists in our time, and it is one that it is not impossible to imagine significant numbers rallying around.<\/p>\nBecause that is the real message of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale. You don\u2019t have to represent the majority viewpoint in order to cause untold harm to people and society. You just need enough influence and power that you can take control, and have some side with you because of your power, and others remain silent in fear of it.<\/p>\nWe have seen that enough times in history that there is nothing whatsoever that is implausible about it.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-41445\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/08\/Handmaids-Tale-Dont-Fight-Back.png\" alt=\"Handmaid's Tale Don't Fight Back\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Bird complained not long ago about the television series The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u00a0\u2013 my hunch is without having seen it, since he got the name wrong. But he is clearly influenced by a growing tendency in conservative Christian circles for people to talk about the show as an \u201cattack on Christianity.\u201d Anyone who says that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":41445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[3675,14853,6988,7417],"class_list":["post-41444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamentalism-religion","tag-fundamentalism-religion","tag-handmaids-tale","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-mike-bird"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Conservative Knee-Jerk Reactions to The Handmaid's Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mike Bird complained not long ago about the television series The Handmaid's Tale\u00a0- my hunch is without having seen it, since he got the name wrong. 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