April Novel: The Handmaid's Tale

First and foremost, you should know that I am a little biased when it comes to Margaret Atwood. The first book of hers that I read was The Blind Assassin for a course I took on contemporary literature, which I absolutely loved (both the novel and the class). Since that time I have read two more of her novels, not including this one, and own three of her collections of poetry. I am a huge fan of her writing and included her on my 2011 reading list as an excuse to read more of her work.

I chose The Handmaid's Tale because of it's popularity and the fact that the description on the back of the book made absolutely no sense. Offred? The Republic of Gilead? I love reading books that I am intrigued and confused by. As with the other books I've read so far, I made a point not to research it or read any reviews before reading it, so that I can experience it without any preconceptions.

As I started reading, I found myself in the not-too-distant future, where society is structured much like that of the Biblical Old Testament - patriarchal, with women reduced to a status significantly lower than their male counterparts. In the new Republic of Gilead, where the novel takes place, men are employed in a military-style hierarchy ranging from lowly servant types to powerful commanders. Women are categorized by the role they are expected to fill, including Wives (those technically married to the men), Marthas (serving women), Handmaids (young women whose sole job is to reproduce), and Aunts (women who teach the Handmaids). This bizarre reorganization of societal roles emphasizes the new mentality that life is only rules and regulations; no longer are emotions and individual thoughts important. It reminded me a lot of The Giver, the young adult novel where villagers must get permits to have children, jobs and marriages are assigned, and only one person in each generation can see color.

Blue Jesus

Lately Christianity has been pissing me off.

I'm not trying to offend anyone by saying that; its just how I feel right now. I consider myself a Christian, I go to church every Sunday, I attend a Christian university - understand that I am not saying any of this out of spite or ignorance, I am saying this out of experience. 

Anymore when I look around me all I see is superficial religiosity. I see Christianity that has evolved from being about Jesus to being about replacing 'secular' music with 'Christian' music, pushing beliefs onto others, and tattoos in Hebrew that prove you are a 'trendy' Christian. I hate it. I hate the fakey, gimmicky, materialist version of Christianity that is popular in the US today. The profound love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus have been cheapened by WWJD? bracelets and ScriptureMints and horrible paintings of Jesus taking the shot of heroin so that the addict doesn't have to.

What has our faith come to? It is no wonder that Christianity has replaced sex as the taboo in literature today. A religion that used to be known for its genuine love, unconditional acceptance, and eagerness to help the downtrodden has disintegrated into a cult for the goody-two-shoes. It is as if we think so highly of ourselves that we believe Jesus must love us. He's going to forgive us anyway, so we may as well have fun while we can. 

And as if to top off my annoyment with Christian merchandise, at the drug store today, while I was waiting for a friend to fill a prescription, I found a book in the "Inspirational" section about Christian pirates. Pirates! I couldn't make this up.  Amazon has the whole series. It just baffles me where we will strategically stick the name of God in order to convert people. Not only that, but we have the audacity to change Him into whatever is the most comfortable. Trying to reach the teenage punk scene? Shirts pop up saying "Jesus Loves Me And My Tattoos". The aspiring business men? Say the Prayer of Jabez and "enlarge your territory". Kids into action figures? Buy them the new plastic Resurrection Playset. I could go on. 

I'm reading Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children for my Contemporary Lit class right now. It's a fantastic book, and one of the scenes that I cannot seem to get out my head is when one of the Indian women (the book is set when India gets its independence) asks a priest what color skin Jesus has, pink like the Westerners or dark like hers? He answers as he as been taught: blue. "All available evidence, my daughter, suggests that Our Lord Jesus Christ was the most beauteous, crystal shade of pale blue sky," he tells her. The idea is that God is love, and the Hindu god of love, Krishna, is blue, so to make things easier Jesus is blue. 

To make things easier. Christianity isn't supposed to be easy to swallow. It's radical, and crazy, and seems unreasonable. People like Stephen (Acts 6) didn't die so that we could tell people Jesus was blue.