Blessed be the fruit
The art of productive resistance
Listen to a version of this article delivered as a sermon at The Unitarian Church in Charleston on July 13, 2025. Listen to the end for my song “Be Kinder.”
When I began watching the Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017, during our current White House resident’s first term in office, like many people during that time, it felt to me like more of a real-time prescient documentary on the potential future of our country. Watching June Osborn – known in Gilead as “OfFred” – handle the horrors of being a handmaid and all the abuse and humiliation that entailed, I had one dominating thought pop into my head: “If I were ever in such a position, how would my spiritual beliefs and practices help me?”
I used to describe myself as a “recovering Southern Baptist,” since I was raised in a household led by a Southern Baptist minister. Now, I call myself a “recovering Christian,” since my spirituality has shifted away from a trinitarian God that relies on substitutionary atonement to “save” people from their sin. Since 2016, I have been a student of A Course in Miracles, which is not a religion, per se, but a form of mind training. Its goal is to help you unlearn the ways and beliefs of fear-based religions that teach us to feel separate and sinful, and instead develop a vision of love, unity and innocence.
According to A Course, the biggest problem we all face is that we have forgotten who we are. We think we are these bodies and egos living in a world full of fear, conflict and loss. In Reality – with a capital “R” – we are all spiritual beings, connected to one another and to something greater. A Course calls that something greater “God,” but it’s truly that higher consciousness that connects us all, no matter what label you put on it. Deep down, it teaches us that we are all made of Love and not fear.
We suffer in this world because we choose fear over love, but the miracle that the book teaches about is a correction in our perception. As Lesson 135 in the Course’s Workbook says, a miracle “merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false.” When we can see through this illusion, then we can reach that peace that Jesus talks about, that passes the world’s understanding of what peace is or can be.
How in the world is that going to help anyone when a dictator arises and people like me, both female and lesbian, are subjected to the kind of repression we see in a show like The Handmaid’s Tale? In some ways, it doesn’t help at all.
When the boot of authoritarianism is on your throat, feelings of anger, fear, and resistance are pretty much going to overwhelm you. But there is one phrase that is used constantly throughout the series that I believe can give us the road map we need to resist authoritarian rule without becoming what we hate, without making its fear-based rule real, and therefore undefeatable in our hearts and minds.
And that phrase is, “Blessed be the fruit.” This is the customary greeting for handmaids when they meet each other on the street or in the market. The greeting reminds me of a story in the third chapter of Luke in the Christian scriptures. John the Baptist is doing as his name suggests, baptizing people. But in this story, he calls those who approach him a “brood of vipers,” and tells them they cannot rely on their status as “the chosen people” because they are descendants of Abraham to keep them safe. Instead, they must “bear fruit worthy of repentance,” because he tells them, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees,” and those that are not bearing fruit will be “cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The people ask John what they should do to be “worthy of repentance.” What John tells them to do, my friends, are acts of resistance against the power structures of the day. He tells them to share with one another. If you have two coats, give one away. If you have more food than you need, share it. He tells the tax collector – the representative of the government – to deal fairly with those he encounters, and he tells the soldier, who represents the power of the state, not to threaten, extort or oppress anyone or make false accusations.
My friends, the ax is at the root of the tree of democracy at this very moment. We, as Americans, have taken for granted that authoritarian regimes only happen in other countries. Just like those descendants of Abraham, we think we’re special because we come from a group of founders who tried to create a place where no king could ascend to a throne. But much like those Jews who came to John to be baptized, as a country, we have stopped bearing the fruits of kindness, compassion, empathy, generosity, fairness, equity and the greatest fruit of all, love. And we are in danger of being cut down and thrown into the fire.
This is our wake-up call to begin to bear some blessed fruit in our lives, because, as John points out to his audience, the kind of fruit we bear can be revolutionary, especially in a time when fruits such as kindness, compassion, empathy, generosity, fairness, equity and maybe most of all, love, are seen as weakness. However, our world doesn’t need more of the fruit of reactionary, angry or despairing people. For us to bear good, blessed and effective fruit, we must first plant their seeds within our own mind and heart and cultivate them. They don’t have to be in full bloom – we don’t have to be enlightened before we can change the world – but we must begin a practice of contemplating and cultivating these fruits so we can bear them out into the world.
This is where our spiritual practices can play a role. A mind-training program like A Course in Miracles has helped me to plant those seeds of kindness, compassion and love that have already taken root in my own heart. A Course tells us we save the world by realizing that though we may seem bodily separate from everyone else, we share a consciousness. That consciousness is not sick or sinful or in need of someone to die on a cross to save us. That consciousness is innocent. That consciousness is Love itself. If this is true, then even those we blame for the state of the world are imbued with a consciousness of love, no matter how effectively they bury it under a pile of egoic selfishness and acts that harm others.
If we can recognize the fact that, on the conscious level, we are all joined and that there is only one of us here having disparate bodily experiences, then we are not powerless. It means that every thought we think, every action we take, every seed of love planted within our heart and mind has the power to change the world. To do that, though, we first must begin to change the only world we really can control, and that is the world within.
As one handmaid, June is outmatched by the outward power of Gilead. But she uses small acts of resistance to, little by little, reclaim her agency. Her commander, Fred Waterford, takes a liking to her, allowing her to read, giving her lotion and doing other acts of affirmation that are forbidden by the law. She plays into this, giving him a chance to see her as a human being and not just a vessel. She reclaims her bodily autonomy by starting a relationship with the Waterford’s driver Nick, which results in a child.
These personal reclamations of her power blossom when she discovers there is already an opposition group called Mayday. The handmaids amplify these small acts of resistance and reclaim their agency until, spoiler alert, Gilead is defeated. Their actions are only truly effective because they believe they each have the power, individually and collectively, to resist and ultimately overcome their oppressors.
There is a cautionary tale here, however. Violence is one of the main tools used in The Handmaid’s Tale, and we must be vigilant not to make it the hallmark of our resistance. Achieving change through violence usually leads to instability after victory, according to sociologists. By contrast, stability is more likely after a successful resistance when non-violent protest is used.
And right now, there are a lot of non-violent acts of resistance we can do to bear that blessed fruit in the world. One of the most powerful things we can do is reclaim our language. In this talk, for instance, I seek to reclaim a phrase of oppression, “Blessed be the fruit,” by turning it on its head. Instead of a greeting meant to drive home the message that handmaids are nothing but walking wombs, I want to reclaim it as a powerful phrase meant to remind us that we have the power to create a world based on love and not on fear. We have the power to act in non-violent ways that can bring about a revolution, and we do that by not allowing hate to win. Not out in the world and not within our hearts.
As social activist Matthew Albracht writes: “Perhaps our most radical choice is to keep our hearts open, even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard. The world we long for — a world of genuine community and connection — will not be built on hatred and rage. It will be built through the brave choice to see each other’s humanity across our deepest differences, to honor those differences, and to engage with respect and care, even when we are working towards different goals. That is more fertile ground. Refusing to vilify may be the most radical act of resistance left to us.”
How do we engage in this radical act of keeping our hearts open? There are many ways. Peaceful protests are always great. But there are other ways. Currently, our government is trying to use language against us, banning such words as “diversity,” “inclusion,” “woke,” “climate change,” “social justice,” and even the “Gulf of Mexico.”
Use these words. Use them everywhere. Use them incessantly. Put them in your poetry, your songs, your protest signs. Do not let them weaponize our language.
We’re also seeing the rewriting of history at this time. The government is changing the names of Navy vessels named for civil rights heroes like Harvey Milk and Harriet Tubman and Supreme Court justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Many historical events are disappearing from government websites. References to immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, even women and girls, are being scrubbed from historical entries. Even a page about the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, was taken down from a Pentagon page because “gay” is in the name.
If we can be forced to forget our history, then they’ve already won, so we must keep history alive and document what’s happening now so that it can live on for future generations to know and study. We must speak the truth and protest the removal and whitewashing of history.
We must use the power of our purse and boycott companies that support repressive policies. The Tesla Takedown movement has badly damaged the Tesla brand and its sales figures around the world. Sales at some retailers like Target, which stopped its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, have been declining while retailers like Costco which resisted such pressures have seen sales skyrocket.
These are all effective uses of non-violent protest. It is a great example of how individuals, doing small acts collectively, can drastically change things. But I want to get back to John the Baptist’s simple examples of resistance, because even if we do all the things I’ve already talked about, if we skip the step where we first change the world within, then none of these outward actions will make any difference in the long run. If these seeds of kindness, compassion, empathy, generosity, fairness, equity and love are not first planted in our own hearts and minds and cultivated until they take root and bloom, nothing we do to change the world outside of ourselves will succeed.
It takes both things – the cultivation of our inner spiritual world as one of peace and joy, and the small and large outward acts of resistance.
If you do one without the other, you may change things for a few minutes or even centuries, but you will not change them forever. It’s only doing both that makes for permanent change, or what A Course calls “the happy dream.”
The best way to cultivate positive change in that inner world is to do the things that give you joy. Whatever it is – a creative art, being out in nature, gathering with friends and family, taking a trip, petting a dog or a cat – whatever it is, do it now and do it with great joy. This is not a spiritual bypass. You still must do the hard work of resistance, but you also cultivate joy.
As history professor and “Letters from an American” writer Heather Cox Richardson says, “Authoritarians cannot rise if there are strong communities and people acting with joy. You need despair and anger in order for an authoritarian to rise. Whatever those things are that you bring to the community, do them and do them with joy. Don’t stop doing things you love because you’re scared. Because that is actually a form of resistance. Showing up and doing things you love says to an authoritarian: You have to place to root here.”
The ax is at the root of that joy at this moment, my friends. It’s normal to feel despair and anger in these times. In fact, it’s easy. But if you want to do the difficult and joyful work of manifesting a different world, root yourself in joy. Root yourself in kindness. Root yourself in compassion. Root yourself in empathy. Root yourself in generosity. Root yourself in fairness. Root yourself in equity and, above all, root yourself in love. Because that is the tree that will grow strong and never be uprooted.
Blessed be the fruit.
Music for the Journey:
“Blessed” — Brett Dennen
Upcoming appearances:
— Sunday, August 25, 10:30 a.m.: Jubilee! Community, Asheville, NC - Tune in for the live stream!
About the Motley Mystic:
The Motley Mystic is an online community for people who have realized that the truth speaks with many voices. No one religion, philosophy, institution, or dogma captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true Divine Self.
Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well as Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C., which existed from 2010-2024. She is currently the pastor at Clayton Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church in Newberry, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass. She is the founder and senior editor emeritus of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for LGBTQ People of Faith. She is also a musician and an avid animal lover. She has been a student of “A Course in Miracles” since 2016 and today considers herself a recovering Christian.
Yes, we must hold true to our values… They are foundational to living a life that makes a positive difference. TY, Candace