FAITH as an Institution

In an attempt not to summarize I am going to analyze a certain part I found to be very interesting in the book. When the narrator describes the cushion on the window seat and the inscription of FAITH in it I end up asking myself two questions. Is it a positive sign that FAITH is the last remnant of the past society, or is it a negative sign? One could argue that it is positive by mentioning the ability of faith to transcend time and space and the idea that the good and holy prevail. But when the narrator describes the inscription, she doesn’t exactly use any positive connotation words. In fact, she uses words like faded, dingy and worn. While describing the window seat that the cushion rests on, the narrator even mentions that it is too narrow for comfort, and she introduces the cushion as a "hard little cushion". All of these words indicate negativity and therefore lead me to believe that FAITH, in the case of the narrator, is not positive, but negative.
It is also crucial to remember though that handmaids are not permitted to read and they are not required to read in order to function in society. So the fact that she is given anything to read is a surprise in itself, so why the word FAITH then? Why not the word MALE, or PATRIARCHY, or INEQUALITY? Is it maybe that FAITH stands for something similar to MALE, PATRIARCHY, or INEQUALITY, or is it because FAITH somehow embodies all three of these concepts? I think an interesting answer in this case would be that FAITH does embrace all three of these concepts. If so then the author is going out of her way to show the view of "FAITH", or religion, in the eyes of an oppressed women, and in this case it is a negative one.