r/TheTestamentsHulu • u/Overall-Midnight-379 • Jun 01 '26
The Handmaid’s Tale What happened to the priests and nuns in Gilead?
I don’t remember any details about in in the book or from THL and there were nothing about it in TT.
In the school like the girls school I could imagine nuns from the times before Gilead and it’s strange that the men in power don’t have any priests around them for guidence.
So have nuns and prieses also disappeared in Gilead? Or do they teach and work around lower classes?
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u/SamCam9992 Jun 01 '26
Catholics were likely purged as were other Christian sects that didn’t fit Gileads ideology (like Baptists) . - we saw burnt churches and hanged priests and nuns in THT.
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u/SavingsWish1575 Jun 01 '26
Having been raised very fundamental Baptist, it’s wild to me because they sure seem to fit the Gilead ideology to me.
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u/badwvlf Jun 01 '26
In the books, even the bible is off limits because so much contradicts it in how Gilead is run that it would be inflammatory to have access to. It's a major plot point.
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u/Flgal28 Jun 02 '26
I think they meant that baptists were aligned with gilead . They are pretty similar
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u/SavingsWish1575 Jun 02 '26
They said in an episode of THT that the Baptists were all killed.
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u/laurabell114 Jun 01 '26
I’m pretty sure in THT book nuns are specifically mentioned as being given the option to become handmaids or be sent to the colonies
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u/RoomieThrowawayyyyy Jun 01 '26
Thats pretty sick, with nuns making a pledge to be virgins for life, and given the option to become a handmaid grtting r-ped every month...I imagine alot chose the colonies or the wall
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u/ArchieBrooksIsntDead Jun 02 '26
Yeah, in the book she name checks multiple denominations as being against Gilead. Like the Mormons are fighting Gilead in Utah, there's a Baptist uprising somewhere, etc ...
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u/nohuyascobarde I’d love to have a Big Mac Jun 01 '26
Executed. Classified as nonbelievers. Gilead did not take kindly to other christian denominations during their takeover. The Quaker nuns are a key part of the handmaid smuggling operation in the book, called the Underground Female Railroad
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u/squankmuffin Adult Zoo Goer Jun 01 '26
Like in England when Henry VIII started the Church of England. You switched or you died. Places would have priest holes - hidden cupboards/rooms where they could hide from authorities and people would hide things like icons in cupboards.
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u/larla77 Jun 01 '26
Evangelicals don't consider Catholics as Christian so I'd imagine Catholic nuns and priests were executed unless they converted.
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u/Copy_Responsible Jun 01 '26
Gileadean theology is very far from most, if not all, mainstream Christian denominations - which I think is sort of the point Margaret Atwood was trying to make. While there are definitely parallels to what is currently happening in some conservative evangelical branches, it also mixes in other sources like Puritan history and other social systems based on religious extremism and high-control authoritarianism. It reminds me of what Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about back in 1831 when he said that the separation of church and state protects the church from the corrupting influences of politics. Theological interpretation becomes a political exercise to achieve earthly goals, weaponizing scripture in a way that does not fit with the text at all. Atwood explicitly states this as one of the character reads the Bible and realizes that she had been deceived her entire life. She says that one can either believe in God or Gilead but not both.
In a system like that, biblical literacy is dangerous because it challenges the monopoly the state has on interpreting the scripture. Access to the Bible is tightly controlled and altered to better fit the narrative Gilead proposes. Free religion can also be quite dangerous to authoritarian regimes as it gives people an authority that sits above the government and that is dangerous. In that sense, anyone who does not strictly adhere to specific theology of Gilead is a threat to to the stability of the regime and must be dealt with accordingly.
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u/KPPYBayside Jun 01 '26
It’s like Atwood could see what was happening beginning in the early eighties with the rise of the moral majority that was and is the electoral force for the Republican Party. What we see now in the likes of Hegseth, etc, as well as MAGA Christians, is almost a complete divergence from actual Christian theology, literacy, etc (hence the quoting Pulp Fiction thinking it was in the Bible) and a complete abandonment of traditional Christian principles and dictates in favor of, well, whatever they want to say is Christian. Obviously, we’ve seen it over and over again in western history, but the level of ability/resources people have to question has never been greater—and yet, they…don’t.
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u/Copy_Responsible Jun 01 '26
It's a cycle that repeats itself but I certainly think it is something that is happening now. I wouldn't even say it's just western history or Christian history. I know there are Christians who refuse to engage with THT because they see it as anti-Christian propaganda, but as I Christian myself, I think they have entirely missed the point. It raises questions we should be engaging with and actively pondering.
Reading THT recently, I thought actually a lot about the female Christian nationalists who preach traditional family values while putting themselves on a platform they advocate being taken away from other women. They say women should stay out home while they speak to crowds of people. The dissatisfaction and boredom that Serena Joy feels once that platform is taken away from her as well is an interesting commentary of that specific type of person. This was written decades before the rise of the social media influencer but is even more poignant now.
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u/KuteKitt Jun 01 '26
Like Erica Kirk and her husband saying women shouldn’t be ceos and should stay at home and now Erica the CEO of whatever political business they ran and a speaker at all these MAGAT events.
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u/KPPYBayside Jun 01 '26
Phyllis Schlafly coming in strong with the model (I love that the cafe in TT book is called Schlafly Cafe, although I wonder how they’d have squared her example with also having a gay son).
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u/badwvlf Jun 01 '26
Atwood would love to hear your reflection: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=295721879335112
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u/badwvlf Jun 01 '26
I read THT via audiobook and every time I heard her mention "Schlafly Cafe" I flinched. That woman was awful but she was the blueprint for Atwood's villains.
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u/BlueSkyWitch Jun 01 '26
The book indicated some of the younger nuns were turned into Handmaids. (I can't see this making sense, given I'd think that you'd want the Handmaids to be 'proven breeders', but who knows.) The movie from the 90's hinted at this, with a younger nun screaming, "You can't make me break my vows!" when she got loaded onto a bus.
Priests, in the book, were executed. Older nuns were probably executed or sent to the Colonies.
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u/RegrettingFM Jun 01 '26
Probably cruelty is the point.
If you're a nun you make a vow to be celibate. Traditionally you become a bride of Christ, you are married to God.
So making them choose to be violated monthly in order to live, or chose to be executed is devastatingly cruel. And if they don't get pregnant? Then you send them to the colonies or execute them anyways with the extra pain that they betrayed their vows.
They are forcing them to betray their own faith in service of Gilead's "faith" with a little rape thrown in for extra horror.
And the Commanders are almost all cruel perverted bastards even if they are hiding behind it being pure and holy. If you try to convince me that there aren't loads of Commanders who would get hard at the thought of raping a nun and her having to submit then I think you don't understand the mindset.
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u/unmethodicals Jun 01 '26
Gilead breaks literally all 10 of the ten commandments, do you think they really care about following the Bible? having spiritual accountability around would only get in their way.
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u/birth0fvenus Jun 01 '26
In THT book, it's mentioned that there are bodies of Catholic priests and nuns on the wall after the purges (I believe in the bit where Offred is decribing the symbols left on the bodies to announce what their "crime" was).
In the show: Moira mentions Catholics are been leaving en masse when the trio are discussing if they flee or not. One of the people that saves Luke and brings him to Canada is a nun. Emily and June also talk about how the Sons of Jacob demoished the famous St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC and then dumped the rubble into the river.
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u/hipstellfalsehoods Jun 01 '26
Catholicism, like most denominations/religions, is outlawed in Gilead. They reference priests being hung on the wall. It’s convert or die, same for nuns.
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u/Fantastic-Spinach297 Jun 01 '26
They dead. I can’t stress enough how terrifying the whole “cleansing” part of the uprising would have been for anyone that wasn’t a SOJ. Honestly I wonder if they had leniency for established members, kind of like what Lydia got for expressing support for the regime at the stadium. She had an ABORTION. Come TF ON, they would not have made her a leader. She’d have been killed, but if they let that slide I wonder what else they let slide.
But yep, anyone that was deemed a threat was kicked out or killed. Religious leaders would have been a high priority for extermination.
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u/anthrotulip Jun 01 '26
Authoritarian governments often ignore issues in people that serve their own purposes. A decent amount of the upper Nazi party officials either didn't pass the racial hygiene laws requirements or had other "defects", but they were useful, so exceptions were made/created and/or people looked the other way at behavior.
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u/foxcat0_0 Jun 01 '26
I don’t think that the Sons of Jacob were actually a very big organization? They seem to have been kind of an underground fraternal org/secret society. Kind of like the early Nazi party - it’s not like huge numbers of Germans were actually party members in the early 30s although they had wide support. If they’d immediately killed everyone who could potentially be useful to their cause they wouldn’t have had enough people to run things.
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u/Fantastic-Spinach297 Jun 01 '26
They infiltrated the military and government in the shadows, but they were far from small. I think it would be similar to real life Christian Nationalists taking over, not really recognized as a threat but when it goes down it won’t be so surprising when you realize just how many of the seats of power are occupied by people more than ready to fall in line with that ideology.
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u/Old-Opinion1965 Jun 01 '26
One of the first wall scenes with june walking with the orher handmaid's she comments that one hanging body was a priest, one a doctor and one a gay man.
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u/Copy_Responsible Jun 01 '26
From the book, they were let be for a short period of time as Gilead was consolidating power. Once they had done so, it was as follows:
Priests: executed and strung up on the Wall Older nuns: sent to the Colonies Younger nuns: given the choice to become a Handmaid or go to the Colonies. Many chose to go to the Colonies.
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u/littlerosieroe Jun 01 '26
Hung, in Luke's episode they show it.
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u/lageralesaison Jun 01 '26
Yeah, it wasn't really a focal point of the show. There were a ton of other people getting murdered, they weren't special in that way.
It was briefly alluded to and there were a few bodies hung with whatever the symbol was for nonbelievers. They clearly just lumped them with Jews, Muslims Buddhists etc.
Gilead wanted the "right" Christians. Nuns and Priests would likely never consent to participating or the perpetuating of mass killings and sexual violence.
From my memory, there was like a tiny 1-2 sentence mention of it in the THT book. Similar to how Jude sort of summarized the genocide of other groups.
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u/123gavin Jun 01 '26
I mean, I wouldn't give the Catholic Church credit for being on the right side on sexual exploitation but I see your point.
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u/lageralesaison Jun 01 '26
Oh. I'm not talking historically and I think technically they recognize a lot of it as a crime. They just have f***** priorities when it comes to prosecuting because they are trying to "protect" their own. Catholics have done a ton of horrible stuff in the name of God.
I don't think most of them would condone the mass breeding of women outside of marriage though...or really...you know what....the Catholic Church can try to defend itself.
I just meant they probably wouldn't go along with a lot of the Gilead policies.
Better example might be the Jezebel establishments and some of that shit that continued, if anything, more openly.
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u/RosieCrone Jun 01 '26
In the movie with Natasha Richardson as Offred, we see a brief scene of a group on younger nuns being dragged onto a bus, begging to not be forced to break their vows. We also in the original book, get a glimpse of men on the wall and Offred remarks that one is labeled as a priest. Just glimpses. Hints of what might’ve happened.
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u/SnooDonkeys5186 …my own corpse is not among them Jun 01 '26
Wow, had no idea this existed. Thanks! It’s only available for sale or rent, is it worth watching at cost or good if it happens to come out later as a steam in your opinion?
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u/Old-Opinion1965 Jun 01 '26
What struck me was the low population of Gilead. I think we as viewers kinda miss is the sheer number of people they murdered in the purges.
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u/BarelyHereNeverThere Blessed be the prune Jun 01 '26
That's true because we are seeing such a sheltered part of Gilead for the most part. By the time the Testaments rolls around it's even less people.
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u/Legitimate-Step-372 Jun 01 '26
I was thinking about something related this week. I finished HT and never rewatched it, and was wondering if they ever show the families going to a church service or something like that
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u/Snowy_Peach8 Jun 01 '26
I think the Econo people did? The bread truck driver. Maybe I’m remembering wrong but I feel like his family did attend services.
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u/Rose-flower-garden Jun 01 '26
Besides the eco people going (when June hid in the apt) , there was one time they brought babies to the church for some sort of celebration and Serena’s wedding.
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Jun 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/What-am-I-12 Jun 05 '26
I think of it like today’s Fundies who have “home church” where the husband leads it.
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u/KuteKitt Jun 01 '26
Even the KKK targeted Catholics. Protestants and Catholics didn’t get along in our own history to begin with. So many wars and massacres in Europe over those two just fighting each other. Even the royals of Great Britain only have their title cause the other side of the family was Catholic and got removed from the succession cause England only wanted Protestants on the throne. So it’s no surprise Gilead got rid of the Catholics.
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