Are My Teachings Similar to The Handmaid’s Tale?
People who are blinded to the ways of the Lord have accused me of teaching things that are similar to those in The Handmaid’s Tale. I had never heard of this movie before so I read what it was about on Wikipedia and this is a portion of what it said:
“The authorities take Kate to a training facility with several other women, where she and her companions receive training to become Handmaids—concubines for one of the privileged but barren couples who run the country’s religious fundamentalist regime. Although she resists being indoctrinated into the cult of the Handmaids, which mixes Old Testament orthodoxy with 12-step scripted group chanting and ritualized violence.”
First of all, I am not a part of a “religious fundamentalist regime.” I am a born-again Christian who believes in the Bible which is the inspired Word of God. We are not forced to do anything and I do not force anyone to obey what I teach. We have freedom in Christ but our freedom is to be used to bring glory to the Lord in all that we do. The Bible is His Word and has everything in it that we need for life and godliness.
We are not a part of a cult. A cult is typically run by a man who abuses his power and makes people worship him and make him their idol. The only One we worship is the God of the universe. He demands nothing of us unless we claim to be His child. He has given us free will since He wants us to chose to love and obey Him. Love is not love if it is forced. Once we believe in Him, He adopts us into His family and we become His children, then we WANT to live in obedience to what He has commanded since His ways are good, right, holy, and pure.
We are living in the Church age so we are no longer under the Old Testament Law, thankfully. The Law was a cruel taskmaster since it exposed our sin, yet gave us no power to live righteous lives (Galatians 3:24, 25). This is why we needed a Savior, Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the Law perfectly for us, took the penalty for our guilt (for breaking the Law) as a sacrificial lamb, and was crucified for our transgressions. Now, all who believe in Him become new creatures in Christ and are given His Holy Spirit that lives in and through us. We will enjoy an eternity with Him where there will be no more pain, suffering, or sorrow. What a God we serve!
In Christianity, there is no “12-step scripted group chanting” or anything like this. We don’t need to do this since we have God’s Word that we can read, study, and be transformed by since it is living and active. It, along with His Spirit working mightily within us, makes us kinder, gentler, more loving, more sacrificial, and more like Christ. God doesn’t want us to have repetitive prayers (Matthew 6:7). He wants us to speak to Him in prayer as a Father who loves and cares about everything in our lives.
There is no “ritualized violence” in Christianity. The Handmaid’s Tale is a work of Satan, not God. The only ritualized violence I see is coming from those who are not Christians, like millions of babies being brutally murdered in the womb, other religions who believe they are rewarded in their false heaven for murdering people, and other horrible things like this. No, God condemns this kind of violence. Yes, He will have the last word on Satan and those who follow him but it will be in His timing and in His way. (Read the book of Revelation.) We are all promised that we will reap what we sow (Galatians 6:8).
I teach NOTHING even closely similar to The Handmaid’s Tale. Willingly choosing to NOT deprive our husbands of sex is not rape. Willingly choosing to submit to our husband’s leadership doesn’t cause abuse. Willingly choosing to be keepers at home instead of career women is a choice we are thankful to make since we love being home with our children and making our homes places of peace and beauty for our families. We much prefer this to fighting traffic, working in submission to a boss all day long, the stress of meeting deadlines, and being exhausted by the day’s end. No, thank you. We love what the Lord has called us to do. His ways are perfect.
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:13, 14
20 thoughts on “Are My Teachings Similar to The Handmaid’s Tale?”
Amen and amen!
If more of your readers would read their Bible, they would know you are speaking TRUTH. Thank you for your encouraging messages.
Amen, perfectly put! The key word you touched on throughout your post is “willingly.” Anything we do for God we are doing out of a love for him and WANTING to obey him to bring him the glory. Sharing opinions on God’s ways is not “forcing” anyone to do anything, but we know that God’s ways and anyone following or teaching them are despised by this world and the god of this world. Keep up the great work!
Actually, a great deal of cults were started by women. Otherwise, i agree with you. What a silly accusation!
Yes, I understand this but their cults became false religions as far as I know. They can’t use power and force to make people do as they say like men can do simply because of how much stronger men are than women.
Far too many Christians fail to ever open their Bibles, Wendy. You are so right!
Thank you, David. Yes, we serve an awesome God!
Well written Lori.
So you are saying women tend to use mental strength, where as men use mental, sexual and physical strength to intimidate and thats why they are harder to break free from?
I love this SO much! I cannot believe people said this to you, but then again with the world we live in these days, I shouldn’t be surprised. Keep fighting the good fight Lori 🙂
Blessings from,
A wife who submits to her husband 🙂
I’ve read “The Handmaid’s Tale” and watched the series, and I don’t think they are similar at all with what you teach. The “handmaid” scripture references Rachel and Bilhah in Genesis 30:1-3, and then there’s an interesting ritual. The setting is where women are infertile by reason of environmental forces, and the handmaids, in theory, solve that. That’s a high level overview.
That said, I’m fairly liberal, but I don’t agree with the likenings that are brought forth. Any female role in “The Handmaid’s Tale” was government enforced and by complete male authority, whereas, you teach submission and obedience to the husband, but still a wife makes her choice.
Agreed Wendy Lough!! 🙂
The people who make the false silly and offensive accusations know full well what you teach and simply do not like it. They are often cyber bullies who hide behind their monikers spewing out falsehoods and nastiness, all because they will not reason with the Biblical positions you espouse on this blog. No one is forcing them to read the blog posts, nor coercing anyone to believe what you write without checking it out in the annals of Christian Biblical history and much proven by modern day findings, that God’s design for male and female roles in marriage protect the marriage, and the wife. They do not harm her in any way.
The Handmaid’s Tale is designed to be a slam against Biblical principles and especially headship of the husband by creating a caricature in which women are used as incubators to create children for infertile couples and pushed into this dehumanizing situation by an overbearing theocracy that tells them this is their purpose and they are just there to be used. It’s not exactly a surprise that someone would level this accusation against someone who teaches Biblical submission since that’s exactly what the book and tv series was designed to mock. But the depiction they have is not at all accurate of what the Bible teaches and Christians today would be opposed to the structure they show that forces women into positions of being used by powerful men.
Something similar (mockery/strawman of Christianity) was done in the movie V for Vendetta where Christians were portrayed as power-hungry control-freaks who rounded up homosexuals to torture and imprison, but who were fine with letting the powerful religious leaders abuse children as long as it was a man with a little girl.
Again, real Christians would be opposed to such a structure in society and would be actively fighting such violations of humans rights as were done by the fictitious government in that movie. But it doesn’t stop leftists and anti-Christians from pretending Christianity is all about controlling the lives of everyone and setting up a restrictive theocracy to enforce Biblical morality and church attendance on everyone. It’s how they justify not only ignoring the message of the gospel, but demonizing and persecuting Christians.
Always enjoy hearing from you Lindsay. ?
You’re so right, just like we were talking about yesterday; men (husband’s) are for women’s (their wife’s) protection!
Yes, because they hate God and His ways. They are being deceived by Satan just as Eve was and they are on the broad path that leads to destruction.
Here is another way the Bible uses the word handmaid: And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. (Luke 1:38)
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a handmaid for the Lord because she was willing to do whatever He asked of her (bear the Christ child). All those who love the Lord should be handmaids for the Lord and willing to do as He has clearly commanded in His Word.
Praise God for your ability to explain who our God is, and how we choose to serve him ! I am blessed to look after my beloved husband and my children all for God’s glory.
Your message is so pure, I sincerely wish more people would take the time to read their bibles as well! They are missing so much beauty and awe in their lives!
“Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse.” (1 Peter 2:18)
1st Samuel 6:19 in the King James Version: “And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men (50,070)”.
Amen Lori!