Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Not long after the Alabama Supreme Court green-lighted the use of an unprecedented procedure for a state-sanctioned murder of a man on death row, the court also ruled that frozen embryos are children. The ruling called it a “theologically based view of the sanctity of life” and said that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
According to that logic, a clump of cells in a petri dish that can’t be seen with the naked eye deserves God’s protection, even if through the force of man’s law, but it’s OK to murder an actual human being who committed a grave sin.
Such is the inanity of Christian nationalism, a movement gaining traction in the Republican Party and being touted by the likes of Donald Trump, the man a record number of white evangelical Christian voters began backing in 2016 and have since. Trump is likely to secure a third-consecutive GOP presidential nomination because of those voters.
Like all Christians, they believe our rights come from God. Unlike the rest of us, though, they believe that they, and they alone, are God’s messengers, that their interpretation of scripture must supersede all other interpretations — and that their interpretation must be the basis of American law even for the tens of millions of Americans who don’t agree with them.
To diverge from their interpretation isn’t just a disagreement, it is disobeying God. It’s a view they want infused in every aspect of American life.
If they determine God is against same-sex marriage, the law must reflect that view, even if it means undoing healthy same-sex marriages in which the relationship has improved the lives of each person involved. If they determine God is in favor of capital punishment, the law must reflect that view, even if it means imperfect men are enlisted to conduct state-sanctioned killings. If they determine God believes frozen embryos are children, the law must reflect that view, even if it makes it harder for married couples to conceive children or easier for medical professionals to be sued or criminally charged with manslaughter for accidentally dropping a petri dish on the floor or unfreezing an embryo improperly.
Before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which upended a half-century’s worth of legal precedence that protected women from Christian nationalist thinking, feminists and others paying attention were sounding the alarm about where such a ruling would lead. That day has arrived. It’s no longer theoretical.
In Alabama, hospitals, medical professionals and struggling couples are wondering if they might be deemed criminals by so-called pro-lifers for trying to create life. Since Roe was overturned in 2022, there have been numerous stories about pregnant women whose lives have been jeopardized, their reproductive futures undermined, in a post-Roe world. And a growing number of conservatives are even discussing rolling back access to contraception.
But a lot of Republican officials don’t want you to know.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said “I haven’t studied the issue” when asked about the Alabama ruling that will have repercussions throughout the country.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the final candidate challenging Trump for the GOP nomination, tried to sound sensible, even revealing that she benefited from the invitro fertilization process that’s now under attack, but did not say that legally declaring frozen embryos children was wrong. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wouldn’t answer directly when asked about his views on IVF and a total abortion ban.
They want to impose their interpretation of God’s will on everyone else. Because they are good, and those who disagree are evil. But they can only succeed if other Christians remain silent in the face of their onslaught on the rights of us all.
Issac Bailey is a Carolinas opinion writer for McClatchy.
