Notice  that many of the people commenting either haven't read the book- or refuse to admit that there are problems here.
Atwood had an excellent article in the NYT about the book, in which she stated:

"So many different strands fed into “The Handmaid’s Tale” — group executions, sumptuary laws, book burnings, the Lebensborn program of the SS and the child-stealing of the Argentine generals, the history of slavery, the history of American polygamy . . . the list is long."
(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html?_r=0)

She points out that the religious symbols used are Christian- because the book is set in a future America- however the problem is with any fundamentalist society in which anyone's rights are abused.