How Charismatic Catholic Groups Like Amy Coney Barrett’s People of Praise Inspired “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Amy Coney Barrett, favorite to be President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court candidate to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is affiliated with a type of Christian religious group that inspired Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Barrett, a devout Catholic, and her husband both belong to the People of Praise group, current and former members said, according to The New York Times. Their fathers served as leaders in the group.

The church’s charismatic Christian organization, which was founded in South Bend, Indiana in 1971, teaches that men have authority over their wives. Members take a lifelong loyalty oath and are expected to donate at least 5 percent of their income to the group.

How Charismatic Catholic Groups Inspired “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Members of People of Praise were assigned to personal same-sex advisers, called “boss” for men and “towel” for women, until the rise in popularity of Atwood’s novel and television series based on it forces a change in the latter. .

Atwood herself has previously referred to the practices of a charismatic Catholic group motivating her to write. The Handmaid’s Tale, set in the fictional Gilead, where women’s bodies are ruled and treated as state property under theocratic rule.

“I delayed writing for about three years after I got the idea because I thought it was too crazy,” Atwood said. The New York Times Book Review in 1986.

“Then two things happened. I started to notice that a lot of things that I more or less thought I was making were happening now, and in fact, more of them have happened since the book was published. “

She added: “There is now a sect, a Catholic charismatic derivative sect, which calls on female servants. They do not practice polygamy like this but they threaten female servants according to the Bible verse I use in the book— Sit down and shut up. “

Although Atwood did not specify which sect she was referring to, a New York profile of the author in 2017 mentions that in a box of newspaper clippings the author gathered while writing the novel, there is “an Associated Press article reported on a Catholic congregation in New Jersey being picked up by a fundamentalist sect in which women were called ‘towels’, a word Atwood had underlined.”

The cut includes a spokesperson for the Newark, New Jersey-based People of Hope sect, saying, “We are all Roman Catholics. We differ in that we are a charismatic group, which would mean that we have prayer meetings, where there is raising of hands, chanting, and speaking in tongues. “

People of Praise has never been present in the state of New Jersey.

What do people praise?

People of Praise does not describe itself as a church, but as a “charismatic Christian community” on its website. The group has about 1,700 members in 22 cities across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, according to the website.

The covenant community is one of many that formed across the United States in the 1970s as part of the Charismatic Renewal movement in American Christianity, which emphasizes direct personal experience. of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Craig Lent, the group’s general coordinator, said The South Bend Tribune in 2018 that the organization is officially ecumenical, but its members are predominantly Catholic.

He also insisted in several interviews that the group is not a cult, but about building community and friendships, with members with varying political views.

But some former members have described how “chefs” and “towels” – now known as “chefs” – can play a huge role in members’ lives, for example in guiding their choice of mate, where to go. residence and the way they raise their children.

Former member Emily DeClerq Flannery said The gallery that she was kicked out of the group for dating a male member.

She also said she got into trouble with the group for drinking alcohol and women at a group meeting denounced her when she spoke about her acceptance of her sexuality.

“They are very attentive to their people. They will point you out if they see you doing things that you are not supposed to do. It’s really like Big Brother,” she said.

Lent says The gallery that anyone who admits to homosexual activity or any other “continuous, willful and unrepentant wrongdoing” would be expelled.

People of Praise believe that only married couples should have sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman, Lent added.

Amy Coney Barrett’s connection to People of Praise

While he declined to comment on Barrett in 2018, who at the time was in contention to be chosen as Trump’s candidate before Brett Kavanaugh was ultimately chosen, Lent said the group remained out of politics (well that he said he was opposed to abortion) and not to attempt to influence the professional lives of its members.

Nonetheless, concerns have been expressed that Barrett’s ties to the group could influence his Supreme Court rulings.

“These groups can become so absorbing that it is difficult for a person to maintain individual judgment,” said Sarah Barringer Gordon, professor of constitutional law and history at the University of Pennsylvania, previously. The temperature.

And although the People of Praise group was never mentioned during Barrett’s 2017 confirmation hearing for her current post, Senator Dianne Feinstein told Barrett: “Dogma lives loudly in you.” Barrett told senators his faith will not affect his decisions as a judge.

In recent days, abortion rights groups have expressed concern that Barrett, a darling of the religious right, could help reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade of 1973 which legalized abortion.

The folks at Praise and Barrett, through Notre Dame Law School where she is on faculty, have been contacted for comment.

Correction: The title of this article originally stated that People of Praise inspired “The Handmaid’s Tale”. The author of the book, Margaret Atwood, never specifically mentioned the group as the inspiration for her work. A New York profile of the author from 2017 mentions a newspaper clipping as part of his research for the book by another charismatic Catholic group, People of Hope. Newsweek regrets the error.