Examining Amy Coney’s Barrett’s Religious Association with the “People of Praise”

Short Paper #4: Examining Amy Coney’s Barrett’s Religious Association with the “People of Praise” and the group’s False-Ties with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale Allison Brown Middle Eastern Religions Dr. Ward 28 October, 2020 In recent weeks particularly, attention has grown with the United States Supreme Court and its latest Justice, confirmed only days ago, Amy Coney Barret. The acceptance of her position on the court made history as President Trump’s third seat appointed, in a single-term, and the position being filled a mere eight days before the general presidential election. Barret’s nomination brought attention to a religious group she has ties with, the closely knit religious community known as the “People of Praise”, a group that has captured the interest of many with her confirmation, including false claims that the group inspired Margaret AtwToo hed ’s Handmaid’s Tale. In order to understand how and why these claims came to be, I will first examine the group from unbiased and primary perspectives and then move on to investigate why false claims have arisen relating the group to a dystopian society where have no reproductive rights or agency. The Catholic community, the People of Praise, found its roots in the late nineteen-sixties in South Bend, Indiana, also where the University of Notre Dame is located. The group has remained under two-thousand since its creation and currently sits at 1,750 “active” members. Estimates from the investigative sources find that members of the group contribute 5% of their 1 yearly incomes in exchange for their membersh .T iphe group has been compared with some elements of Pentecostalism, with a practice of “ … physical forms of worship, such as speaking 2 in tongues, faith healing and baptism” . Turning to what the group has to say for itself, their mission statement suggests a community that provides for each other and works together for a common good, “People of Praise is a charismatic Christian community. We admire the first Christians who were led by the Holy Spirit to form a community. Those early believers put their lives and their possessions in common, and there were no needy persons among t3h. eTm” he last line of their statement is not only taken in the spiritual and usual sense, but literally. Barrett herself for a two-year period lived in a joint community with members of the group where their interactions with those outside 1 of the group were discouraged, exemptions for work related dealings for Barrett who was a law professor at the time at the University of Notre Dame, and devoted themselves to a communal life with their neighbors. As of 2002 the group had expanded across the United States, Canada, and even the Caribbean, and pilot programs were being launched in lower-income neighborhoods across the US, “ … inspired by the Holy Spirit, People of Praise members began moving into some of America's poorest neighborhoods … hosting prayer meetings … nd establishing private elementary schools … made the neighborhoods more beauti pefualceaful places to live”4. The tone of the last sentence in particular feels condescending and problematic. Although one could understand the normal values of “mission” work in a Christian context, creating a private, for-profit schools in lower-income neighborhoods doesn’t seem to entirely align with their inspiration from the Holy Spirit to “help” these impoverished regions. Looking to Barrett’s involvement in the group, when she joined the community is not entirely known, the earliest public appearance of her in the group is found in 2006, with her family’s home in Louisiana at the time being, “... the hub of New Orleans branc5h. U lifn et”il her confirmation hearings she had yet to directly, and actively announce herself as one of its members. Although it cannot be exactly known what Barrett’s own views are on modern issues and how she will rule on them in the future (i.e. abortion, same-sex marriage, reproductive rights), People of Praise is clear on their views with , “ … a strict view of human sexuality that embraces traditional gender norms and rejects openly gay men and w6oam nd ena”vid “pro-life” beliefs and other progressive movements. Although in confirmation hearings Barrett assured Senators that her religious opinions would not affect her rulings, she has written in the past in her law research article entitleCdatholic Judges in Capital Cases that she believes that Catholicism “should” influence a judge’s railings and wo7.rkAlthough it is not yet known how Barrett will rule on cases that bring her own morals into action, we know that she is working with strong beliefs from the People of Praise and believed at a point in her career (if not still) that Catholicism should impact her role as a Supreme Court Justice. 2 With People of Praise coming into the spotlight these past few weeks, many could not resist drawing an association between the group’s “handmaids” to those in Margaret Atwood’s literary works. InThe Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian future of the United States, known as Gilead, is a totalitarian society in which a fundamentalist religious regime controls a state that had descended into chaos because of environmental disasters and a birth rate that would not sustain the Earth’s population. The “handmaids” serve as “ … fertile women are forced to live as sexual and childbearing slaves … ” who are placed with upper-society families and then are moved on to provide further “services” to another family after a healthy child is provided. With the People of Praise, the term handmaid came from descriptions in the Bible of the Virgin Mary and the accounts of her life. Handmaids are women in the group who serve as mentors to other, younger women in the community. Barrett has served in this position and presumably still does with a member of the group. People of Praise referred to their handmaids as “women leaders” when the Handmaid’s Tale was televised into pop culture i8n. 2018 The false claim that the handmaids in Atwood’s novel and the People of Praise spread earlier in October described as being “...perpetuated by a series of confusing coincidences and uneven fact-checking, first emerged in a Newsweek article and was later picked up by Reuters. Both articles have since been corrected, but the right was furious at both. The Washington Examiner called it a ‘smear that just won’t d9i.eA ’twood’s comments and research logged while writing the novel in the late eighties have identified the inspiration for the handmaid's coming 10 from a different Catholic group, “The People of Hop e , ”h owever many still observe that some practices in these Catholic groups are similar. Both groups have substantial evidence from past members and current recordings and documents that women are found to be subservient to their male counterparts in the communities, People of Praise claiming that they are following the Bible regarding the roles of gender and their submission of women in order to build their “ideal Christian” community11. In conclusion, although no one for certain can know what cases will come to be in Barrett’s time on the court and how she will rule on them, many minorities feel unsettled about 3 her role as a Justice and how her beliefs may impact her ability to rule impartially. Even though the ties with Atwood and the People of Praise have found to be incorrect, one may cannot help but feel the lines are too blurred to be comfortable. The argument over whether the two religious communities are connected reflects the deeply contentious and divided atmosphere in which Barrett has been confirmed to the Supreme Court, and also a display of “ … the immense 12 symbolic weight The Handmaid’s Tale carries in American popular culture” . This weight is evident in the protests that have been occurring since the election of Trump in 2016, of women donned in the red-capes of the handmaid’s protesting draw-backs in women’s reproductive rights that have only grown more common as his presidency has continued. Protests that can be expected to continue with female reproductive rights being a contentious item likely to face the courts in the near future. 4