Top Republican Mitch McConnell lashed out on Wednesday at reports about Amy Coney Barrett’s background in a strict religious group which the Senate majority leader claimed “demean the [supreme court] confirmation process, disrespect the constitution and insult millions of American believers”.
Among McConnell’s targets was a Guardian report which said Barrett “lived in the home of one of the founders of the People of Praise while she was a law student, raising new questions about the supreme court nominee’s involvement with the secretive Christian faith group that has been criticized for dominating the lives of its members and subjugating women”.
Barrett is an Indiana-based appeals court judge whose strict Catholic views are the subject of concern among progressives, particularly over the fate of Roe v Wade, the 1973 supreme court ruling which made abortion legal across the US.
People of Praise, a charismatic religious group, was recently revealed to have scrubbed its website of mentions of Barrett.
McConnell wants to confirm Barrett as a replacement for the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the presidential election on 3 November, tilting the court 6-3 in favour of conservatives as key decisions loom on healthcare, abortion, gay rights and more.
Democrats have little power to stop the process, even with Republican members of the Senate judiciary committee infected with the coronavirus, potentially as a result of attending Barrett’s introduction at the White House on Saturday 26 September.
The Guardian was not the only outlet to publish a story about Barrett on Tuesday. Citing records which People of Praise has taken off its website, the Washington Post said: “A 2010 directory states that she held the title of ‘handmaid’, a leadership position for women in the community”.
Other outlets have erroneously reported that People of Praise was an inspiration for The Handmaid’s Tale, the Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel which depicts a society in which women are property of the state, and which was adapted for a hit TV series.
“The word ‘handmaid’ appears dozens of times in the King James Bible,” McConnell said. “It was good enough for the Virgin Mary. But now, because one liberal author put it in the title of an anti-religious novel in the 1980s, the press tries to imply that one of the most brilliant and powerful women in the legal world is anti-women.”
The Post quoted a former member of the group as saying a “handmaid” was a leadership position, though subordinate to male leadership in People of Praise.
As the Guardian reported in September, “Interviews with experts who have studied charismatic Christian groups such as People of Praise, and with former members of the group, plus a review of the group’s own literature, reveal an organization that appears to dominate some members’ everyday lives, in which so-called ‘heads’ – or spiritual advisers – make big life decisions, and in which members are expected to financially support one another.
“Married women – such as Barrett – count their husbands as their ‘heads’ and all members are expected to donate 5% of their income to the organization.”
Barrett has said she does not allow her religious beliefs to influence her decisions on constitutional law.
After voicing a key Republican talking point, comparing supposed progressive anti-Catholic bigotry to attacks on President John F Kennedy, a liberal hero, McConnell added: “Our coastal elites are so disconnected from their own country that they treat religious Americans like animals in a menagerie.”
Many Democrats contend McConnell is disconnected from public opinion when it comes to the question of whether the Barrett confirmation should be rammed through so close to the election, which polls show is an unpopular move.
McConnell has the votes to succeed, regardless of his and other senior Republicans’ statements in 2016, another election year, when they refused to even hold hearings for Merrick Garland, a moderate nominated by Barack Obama to replace the conservative Antonin Scalia.
