Rose is arguing with a Cascadian Jew on Tumblr about God's opinion on homosexuality while her baby naps.

She pauses mid-sentence and gets up to answer the door.

"Hi!" Christina says when Rose opens the door. "I've got almost all of the bitoxiphosphene out of the atmosphere, and it occurred to me that I should probably know more about this world's sociopolitical climate so I can head off any holy wars or claiming that I support things I don't at the pass, and you seemed like a good person to ask."

"Um. Are you saying you're choosing me as your disciple?"

"Yes. In a way that does not suggest you should abandon your baby. Babies are important."

"My first piece of advice is to try to recruit at least one advisor per continent, and maybe an extra one for China, China's big. I can give you advice on North America and a little bit on Europe but I don't... know anything... about the rest of the world."  

"That sounds like a good strategy. Do you know anyone on other continents who seem like good candidates?"

Well, she did call a Chinese woman a racist that one time for believing in evolution.

"Not really."

"Hm. Alright, I'll think of something. Meanwhile, may I come in and use your internet to get a basic overview?"

"Of course!" Rose invites her in. "This is my laptop, feel free to use it-- sorry, I was just arguing about Your opinion about homosexuality--"

"Homosexuality is fine," she says absently, opening a new tab to google China.

"--You should probably tell everyone that as soon as possible, it's illegal in Gilead."

"Joy. Yes, I'll do that. What other religious laws does Gilead have?"

Rose tries to think about what is illegal in Gilead and not illegal in Canada or Cascadia. 

"You can't divorce except for a handful of reasons. Converting people to paganism or atheism or Satanism or Islam is illegal. Paid surrogacy is illegal for people under the age of 21, but unpaid surrogacy is strongly encouraged. Paid adoption is illegal. Abortion is illegal. Contraception is illegal but that's not religious, that's just practical because humanity is going extinct. Pornography is illegal. Lots and lots of stuff is illegal for people under the age of 18 to view, like nudes in art and apologetics literature that explains what other religions believe too much. Jews have a whole bunch of laws, I don't know all of them--"

"Judaism and Islam are completely fine. Atheism and Paganism and Satanism are factually wrong but trying to prevent them through exercise of earthly power is a bad idea. Most of the fertility stuff is a low priority since I'm fixing the root of that anyway. Pornography is I guess not uncomplicatedly fine but unless it's live-action stuff that involves coercion of actors it's basically fine. Preventing minors from seeing Michelangelo's David seems a bit silly. What are the handful of reasons for divorce?"

"Reasons for divorce are adultery, your partner committed a felony, addiction, physical or sexual abuse, or two years' separation. --To be clear, none of the laws about Judaism are anti-Semitic! The Commanders consulted extensively with rabbis in drawing up the laws that apply to Jewish people. They're not allowed to buy pork, that sort of thing."

"That's good. Who are the Commanders?"

"They run the government of Gilead. The Commander-in-Chief runs the government as a whole. Each of the other Commanders runs a particular department, like the military or housing or the educational system."

"Hm. Alright. How precisely does homosexuality being illegal shake out?"

"If they catch you having gay sex, you can go to prison. First-time offenders are usually sentenced to go to an institution that treats SSA, same as minor drug offenders. If they know a website is used to get gay people to have sex with each other, they'll arrest you. It's not illegal to experience SSA, of course, and if you're monogamous and don't flaunt it you can usually get away with it." 

"Well, that's going to have to stop. Probably I'll bring back another baby on live television and then immediately and vehemently condone same-sex relationships."

"How-- how did we make that mistake."

"Do you want a specific historical answer, or just 'humans are fallible and make mistakes.'"

"I-- the former. Paul condemns it in Romans, it's condemned in Leviticus, what went wrong?!"

"Oh, at that point it was mostly just condemned in the surrounding cultures and they wanted to promote Christianity as Super Moral. The real trouble started when a Roman Emperor started a cult for his dead boyfriend and that cult got into conflicts with the early Church."

"I suppose He-- you-- didn't condemn it specifically in the Gospels."