‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ wants us to heed the threat of ‘Christian Fundamentalism’

CHRISTIANITY TODAY
By S.D. Kelly

Image: Courtesy Hulu

It’s no coincidence that The Handmaid’s Tale, the Hulu original series based on the Margaret Atwood book of the same name, is being released now, more than 30 years after the book’s publication. Capitalizing upon the parallels between its fictional American dystopia and the distress that many people feel at the current state of American politics, The Handmaid’s Tale has been celebrated as a timely entry into the conversation about where we are headed as a nation. The villains of The Handmaid’s Tale are fundamentalist Christians who run a totalitarian theocratic republic—an echo of the Islamic Republic established in Iran. One thing The Handmaid’s Tale gets undeniably right, is this: We do bad stuff, and we need personal, unmediated divine intervention to do otherwise. [More]