Society's Views on Family Values and Children as Reflected in the novel The Handmaid's Tale In the olden days, religion and politics went hand in hand. The church either ran the land or had a strangle hold on the people. If the church thought there was one way to do something, one had to do as the church requested or suffer great penalty. To go against the church was to go against God, and that meant death. The king was supposed to be chosen by God to rule the people in the way he commanded. The king was the closest thing to God on earth. Monarchs generally ruled hand in hand with the church. As the monarchy's rein s