Really interesting question, although I think I'm interpreting what you're asking differently than most of the responses I'm seeing.
They obviously haven't internalized the messages of peace and tolerance and humility that Jesus preached, which I think is what a lot of folks are saying here.
But, to respond to what it seems to me that you're actually asking, I do think it's a bit strange that they're not performatively Christian. As in, they don't refer to Jesus or attend church or, I think, quote from the New Testament at all. No priests. In today's America, the hypocrites who use religion as a tool to punish (in direct conflict with their supposed beliefs), do pretend to have those beliefs in the first place. Gilead doesn't seem to. Someone else said they're fundamentalists, which, yes, but fundamentalist what? There's a lot of Old Testament stuff (the Commander reads from the Old Testament prior to the Ceremony, a lot of quoting, etc) but aside from turning the Washington Monument in to a cross I tend to think they are more or less a new, fourth Abrahamic monotheistic religion (the current major ones being Christianity, Islam, and Judaism).
Okay I'm warming to this now and damn guys, it's literally in the name! Traditionally Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, represent the ancestry of the Jewish and Muslim faiths (Christianity comes later). Jacob was Isaac's son and also considered a patriarch of Judaism. So the name "Sons of Jacob" seem to identify them as reverting to pre-Christian Abrahamic beliefs (although admittedly they don't identify as Jewish either). So no, they're not Christians at all. They're Jacobites I guess you might say (although that term currently refers to something else, in British history).
The Sons of Jacob aren't and don't pretend to be Christian. They're Jacobites.
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u/trackipedia 4d ago
Really interesting question, although I think I'm interpreting what you're asking differently than most of the responses I'm seeing.
They obviously haven't internalized the messages of peace and tolerance and humility that Jesus preached, which I think is what a lot of folks are saying here.
But, to respond to what it seems to me that you're actually asking, I do think it's a bit strange that they're not performatively Christian. As in, they don't refer to Jesus or attend church or, I think, quote from the New Testament at all. No priests. In today's America, the hypocrites who use religion as a tool to punish (in direct conflict with their supposed beliefs), do pretend to have those beliefs in the first place. Gilead doesn't seem to. Someone else said they're fundamentalists, which, yes, but fundamentalist what? There's a lot of Old Testament stuff (the Commander reads from the Old Testament prior to the Ceremony, a lot of quoting, etc) but aside from turning the Washington Monument in to a cross I tend to think they are more or less a new, fourth Abrahamic monotheistic religion (the current major ones being Christianity, Islam, and Judaism).
Okay I'm warming to this now and damn guys, it's literally in the name! Traditionally Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, represent the ancestry of the Jewish and Muslim faiths (Christianity comes later). Jacob was Isaac's son and also considered a patriarch of Judaism. So the name "Sons of Jacob" seem to identify them as reverting to pre-Christian Abrahamic beliefs (although admittedly they don't identify as Jewish either). So no, they're not Christians at all. They're Jacobites I guess you might say (although that term currently refers to something else, in British history).
The Sons of Jacob aren't and don't pretend to be Christian. They're Jacobites.