A lot of people in this comment section have no idea what Christians are lol
Gilead is Christian, they use quotes from the Christian Bible to support their beliefs, they made a whole government based on biblical principles. They quote and reference both the new and Old Testament.
Just because you are a Christian and personally feel they are unjust, immoral, or interpreting the Bible in a way you don’t like, doesn’t mean they’re not Christian.
In the real world, Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Jehovas witnesses, Mormons, KKK members, quakers, Amish, Prosperity gospel preachers,etc. will all readily point at each other and say “they aren’t real Christians” when to everyone else it’s apparent.
Gilead is Christian like the Westboro Baptist Church, The KKK, the original Nazi party, Maga cults, many small white supremacy groups, The American Family Association, etc. are all explicitly christian. Their individual beliefs and interpretations likely differ from yours, but you are all working from the same source material.
It’s not really a debate. Whether you disagree with their interpretations is irrelevant. Gilead is a Christo fascist nation.
They quote the bible, so what? You can quote whatever the heck you want, it doesn’t mean that thing you quoted is now synonymous with whatever you believe. I can tell you I’m Muslim and quote the Quaran, but if I eat pork, drink alcohol, wear bikinis and don’t believe in the basic tenants of Islam, that doesn’t mean that it’s Islamic to eat pork, drink alcohol, wear bikinis and not believe in the basic tenants of Islam; I haven’t invented a new sect of Islam, I’m just not muslim.
But my opinions aside, Gilead is literally not christian. It’s a major plot point that they aren’t true believers, they’re just power hungry old men twisting reality to fit their needs.
“It came as a painful shock: kind, helpful Aunt Estée had lied to us [about what the bible said].. as I discovered what had been changed by Gilead, what had been added, and what had been omitted, I feared I might lose my faith.”
“God isn’t what [Gilead says]…. you could believe in Gilead or you could believe in God, but not both.”
Have you not met Jewish or Muslim people before? I’ve met plenty of them who don’t eat kosher/halal, drink, etc.
I’ve also met plenty of Christians who will quote Leviticus to justify their hatred of queer people while eating a plate of shrimp.
Are you under the impression that Christian’s don’t Cherry pick the Bible? Protestants have 39 books in the Old Testament, Catholics have 46, other denomination families have different numbers. Then there are the verses that are taught and the verses that are ignored by worshippers.
There are also way too many rich preachers for people to believe that christian leadership are “true believers” camel through the needles eye and all that.
I don’t remember psalm 137 being read in church
“Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.”
Or the story of the concubine being raped then left for dead by her master, then her master cutting her body into pieces to justify genocide (Judges 19)
Then there are the number of verses about how women need to be subservient.
1 Corinthians 11:3 “the head of a wife is her husband”
1 Corinthians 14:34 “the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but ashould be in submission, as the Law also says.”
Ephesians 5:22-24
Colossians 3:18
1 Timothy 2:11-12
Titus 2:5
1 Peter 3:1
There’s also a lot of verses condoning the murder of non believers (including children), condoning and encouraging slavery, not allowing disabled people to worship, etc.
To be honest, Gilead is probably more in line with the Bible as a whole than a lot of modern worshippers. People just like to ignore the inconvenient parts and only read the handful of love thy neighbor stuff.
Right, and again, people’s misuse of something doesn’t change the actual meaning. And your intentional misunderstanding of me doesn’t make you correct.
A muslim is someone who follows Islam and believes in the basic tenants of Islam. If I don’t believe in the basic tenants of Islam but I say that I’m a Muslim, am I Muslim? Have I forced the definition of the word “muslim” to include someone who doesn’t believe in Islam, simply because I used the word?
You ever watched a reality show where 2 girls who just met the day before hug and say “I love you girl, we gotta stick together”? Tell me, when you hear people use love in that context, does what it means to love someone change? Does your concept of love change? I bet it doesn’t.
You just quoted a bunch of bible versions - are you a christian now, even though you don’t believe in those verses, even though you took them out of context and pretended that they meant what you thought would prove your point best? That’s exactly what Gilead did.
The bible is not in line with Gilead, and the fact that you think that suggests to me that you really need to look closer at what you’re saying instead of just accepting things at face value whenever they seem to confirm your pre-existing beliefs.
edit: I thought of a simpler explanation after I typed that, so here it is. tldr I suppose.
Eating halal foods is an important aspect of Islam. If I eat halal, am I muslim? The answer is no, because while halal is part of Islam, it’s a detail; it’s not included in the definition of what it means to be muslim. The same applies to Gilead - they follow out of context details in the bible, but they are not christian because the definition of any religion does not boil down to a diet or a dress code or a how well you do (or don’t) follow a single verse.
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u/Dorianscale 4d ago
A lot of people in this comment section have no idea what Christians are lol
Gilead is Christian, they use quotes from the Christian Bible to support their beliefs, they made a whole government based on biblical principles. They quote and reference both the new and Old Testament.
Just because you are a Christian and personally feel they are unjust, immoral, or interpreting the Bible in a way you don’t like, doesn’t mean they’re not Christian.
In the real world, Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Jehovas witnesses, Mormons, KKK members, quakers, Amish, Prosperity gospel preachers,etc. will all readily point at each other and say “they aren’t real Christians” when to everyone else it’s apparent.
Gilead is Christian like the Westboro Baptist Church, The KKK, the original Nazi party, Maga cults, many small white supremacy groups, The American Family Association, etc. are all explicitly christian. Their individual beliefs and interpretations likely differ from yours, but you are all working from the same source material.
It’s not really a debate. Whether you disagree with their interpretations is irrelevant. Gilead is a Christo fascist nation.