(PresidentialWire.com)- Ever since judge Amy Coney Barrett was revealed as President Donald Trump’s frontrunner to become the next Supreme Court nominee, the media have been on the warpath. Barrett has been subject to various anti-Catholic smears, with Newsweek even claiming that the judge came from a Catholic sect that “inspired” the dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
In case you’ve never read it, the novel tells the story of a totalitarian state that overthrows the United States government.
that “People of Praise,” which is a Catholic group that Barrett is understood to be a member of, was the inspiration for the novel. The outlet claimed that female members of the group report to senior spiritual leaders who are called “handmaids” and that the Catholic group says “men have authority over their wives.”
Newsweek also said that Margaret Atwood, the author of the novel, “Indicated that the group’s existence motivated her to write The Handmaid’s Tale, set in the fictional Gilead, where women’s bodies are governed and treated as the property of the state under a theocratic regime.”
All it takes is a little research, however, to prove the claims made by Newsweek to be wrong. The “handmaids” the outlet spoke of are merely spiritual advisers and have no authority. What’s more, Amy Coney Barrett spent 15 years as a law professor and is also the first and only woman to have ever occupied a seat on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Indiana.
Does that sound like a woman who is controlled and owned by her husband?
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the claim that Atwood was inspired by the group is also wrong. And Newsweek admitted as much.
“Correction: This article’s headline originally stated that People of Praise inspired ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ The book’s author, Margaret Atwood, has never specifically mentioned the group as being the inspiration for her work,” Newsweek admitted.
So…they lied.
“A New Yorker profile of the author from 2017 mentions a newspaper clipping as part of her research for the book of a different charismatic Catholic group, People of Hope. Newsweek regrets the error.”
Maybe Newsweek should have doubled checked the facts before smearing a judge for being a Catholic.
