BLESSED BE THE FIGHT
For characters in The Handmaid's Tale, rebellion makes all the difference in whether they live or die. Each season brings hope that an end to Gilead will finally come. Rebellion is tricky and, should it fail, will cost characters their life. However, this is a risk many are willing to take--a risk they need to take.
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The theme of rebellion serves as perhaps the greatest warning sign in the show. The rising of power of Gilead is felt across the country: "women are denied the right to own property, have money, maintain a job--or even read" [8]. Despite seeing their democracy be dismantled before them, there are no protests. Gilead originates from a group of radicals, hungry for power and is given the ability to grow from a country full of people who are too complacent to try and stop them.
Those that decide to rebel put themselves in a very dangerous situation. In order to create a successful rebellion, "conditions must be favourable" [16] which becomes increasingly difficult in a dystopian world. Gilead reserves their harshest punishments for rebels in order to deter them from emerging.
While the Commanders are in fact the ones initiating violence, they tell the people of Gilead that the people they need to worry the most about are the rebels. The elite are selective about who in their society is allowed to be vocal and violent. For them, they exercise this "right" by using religion to provide "regulation for social life" [15]. In the case of rebels, the Commanders classify them as extremists and anti-Christian as they are seemingly protesting against the word of God and the Bible.
While the argument can be made that the act of rebelling against Gilead represents one rebelling against Christianity as a whole, it is important to note that it is possible to replace Christianity with any other religion [3]. In addition, Margaret Atwood herself has stated that the show does not include events that haven't "happened somewhere in the world already" [1].
With this in mind, it becomes easier to see that the rebellion in The Handmaid's Tale is not against Christianity or the ideas presented in the Bible. Instead, it shows a very bleak version of what the future may hold should people become too complacent. Especially after the election of Donald Trump in 2016 "the parallels between the current rapid militarisation of the US and Gilead are undeniable" [14].