Reclaiming Christianity from Gilead

Gonna try to keep this vague to avoid any spoilers, but I wanted to discuss the subtle theme of faith in God, outside of Gilead's belief system. We see it most in June, the memorial she set up in early S2 in the office, insisting on getting Hannah Christened, and when she occasionally quotes scripture like in S6 ep 7 most recently.

When June does these things, it almost feels defiant, a "you can't take this away from me" kind of attitude. Though, there is clearly a genuine belief as well, even if the show brushes over it.

I personally love this choice by the writers. I was raised in an extremely religious home, Southern Baptist, conservative to the point the pastor would even make references to politics occasionally from the pulpit. To make a long story short, I had a crisis of faith in my teen years,partly because I was a "gender traitor," and partly because I couldn't reconcile the teachings of the church with the loving God I believed in (at least at the time).

My dad made me attend apologetics classes in an effort to keep me from losing my religion, but the entanglment with right wing politics, disgust with lgbt people, and extreme hypocrisy within the community eventually lead to my deconstruction, and current agnostism.

It often felt like there was no place for me within the religion. I recieved mixed messages to "find a church that likes gays," and the realization that most of those churches only kept the "love the sinner, hate the sin" mentality.

Gilead weaponized Christianity, and used it to take power over others. Meanwhile, they destroyed other sects of Christianity. In S1 they demolished a Catholic church, and a pastor was shown on the wall. Gilead, much like the large, right-wing Protestant evangelicals hurting America today, believe that only they know the right way to interpret the bible. Everyone else is wrong and "not a real christian."

You don't know how many times in my teens and young adulthood, I was caught in the middle of people arguing about "X behavior means they're not a true Christian," as if the no true Scotsman fallacy ever helped anyone. That being said, I find it somewhat healing to see June and others hold onto their faith in God despite all these things. Even though I've personally stepped away from the faith, it brings me peace that monsterous people who twist religion to harm and exclude people, can't just claim they're "the only true Christians" and invalidate all other interpretations of the same book.

TLDR, Seeing June's faith remain held up and unshaken despite the cruelty of Gilead(and their attempt to silence other Christians/Catholics), is healing for me.