🕊️ The Handmaid's Tale Wasn't Just Fiction — It's Becoming Our Reality
- Paula Sadler
- Sep 7
- 4 min read
By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler Universal Rainbow Faith Church September 7, 2025
✨ Prelude Affirmation
I am sacred. My love takes action. My truth cannot be erased. In the face of fear, I rise with faith. In the presence of cruelty, I choose compassion. My identity is not a threat — it is a gift. I walk in divine power, knowing that justice is my birthright, and liberation is my calling.
🙏 Opening Prayer
Divine Spirit of Justice and Mercy, We come before you as a people rising in love and in truth. We ask for the courage to see clearly, the strength to speak boldly, and the wisdom to act righteously. Bless our communities — especially those targeted, erased, and violated. Let our faith be fierce, our hope be holy, and our love be louder than hate. May we never forget: You Walk with us in every storm, and your light cannot be extinguished.
"When I watched The Handmaid’s Tale, I knew. I felt it. It wasn’t just fiction. It was a prophecy."
For many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community, and for women, Black and Brown people, people of faith, and people who believe in justice, watching The Handmaid's Tale isn't entertainment. It's a chilling mirror.
This week, I completed Season 1 and began Season 2 of Hulu's groundbreaking adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (original novel published in 1985). The series was created by Bruce Miller and draws from Atwood's warning of what happens when religious extremism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism go unchecked. Atwood famously said that nothing in the book was made up — it was all drawn from real history.
And now... it's no longer history. It's becoming current events.
🔍 Real-World Parallels to Gilead
Here are just a few of the comparisons we can make today between the fictional world of Gilead and the United States in 2025:
⚡️ The Soul Crisis We Face
This isn’t just a political crisis. It’s a spiritual crisis.
We are facing the unchecked spread of:
Hatred disguised as holiness
Patriarchy masked as "family values"
White Christian nationalism parading as patriotism
Fear-based theology weaponized to dehumanize others
This is not Christianity. It is not faith. It is spiritual violence.
And when people call trans people "demonic" while cheering the forced birth of children from brain-dead mothers, we must call it what it is: evil.
📆 How Long Would It Take to Reach Full Gilead?
We are already in the early chapters. If nothing changes, full descent into a Gilead-style society could take less than a decade.
Especially if:
The 2026 midterms bring a far-right majority
Trump or an equivalent figure wins the 2028 presidency
Supreme Court decisions roll back marriage equality, interracial marriage, and bodily autonomy
Militias and extremist churches continue to be given free rein
🔥 What Can We Do Right Now?
1. Speak out before it's too late. Silence is complicity. Use your voice.
2. Vote like your life depends on it. It does. Organize local voter drives and educate on state-level laws.
3. Protect vulnerable communities. Donate, show up, and share resources.
4. Refuse to normalize extremism. Call it what it is. Don't debate hate.
5. Create and support affirming spaces. Churches, schools, community centers that celebrate LGBTQIA+ people, women, people of color, disabled voices, and reproductive rights.
6. Stay rooted in compassion and courage. This is not the time to spiritually dissociate. It is the time to rise.
📖 Learn from Atwood & Miller
Margaret Atwood was inspired by real-world regimes: Puritan New England, Nazi Germany, and modern theocratic states.
Bruce Miller, the showrunner, helped visually translate Atwood’s text into a contemporary dystopia, but always said the goal was to warn, not predict.
They gave us the map. Now it’s our job to stop the destination.
🔥 New URF Worship Song: “My Love Takes Action”
This week’s original song was born from this very urgency. It’s not enough to say we love — we must show it, live it, defend it.
🎵 “My love takes action / My faith stands tall / My voice won’t waver / I answer the call...”
In a world that tells us to shrink, to hide, to conform — this song is a spiritual anthem of sacred resistance.
🕯️ Watch the live premiere and sing with us during our September 7 service at 5:30 PM PT.
✨ Final Word
If you think it can't happen here, it's already happening. If you think you're safe, remember: every regime began with denial.
We are not helpless. We are not voiceless. We are not alone.
But we must act now.
🕊️ Ending Proclamation – A Spiritual War Cry
We proclaim:
We are not afraid. We are not giving up. We are not alone.
We stand with all those the empire tried to erase. We speak for the voiceless. We remember our ancestors. We call upon angels, guides, and sacred ancestors to walk with us now.
May every attempt to erase our light ignite a thousand more. May every injustice awaken a deeper wave of sacred resistance.
We close this reflection with power:
“No one owns my body. No one owns my spirit. No one owns my future. I rise in justice, in love, and in holy fire.”
You are not just surviving this moment.
You are transforming it.
🌈 Learn More & Join the Movement
📣 Hashtags
#NoToGilead, #StopChristianNationalism, #ProtectTransLives, #BansOffOurBodies, #FaithInAction, #LGBTQFaith, #CompassionIsResistance, #RiseUpNow, #HandmaidsTale, #SacredResistance
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