America is indeed marching towards theocracy, but the route is not as straightforward as simply vesting the contents of a petri dish with legal rights. The Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that frozen embryos are children entitled to legal protection is a symptom of a far deeper problem - the erosion of the separation of church and state.

On the surface, the ruling may seem like a straightforward application of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. After all, shouldn't all zygotes be treated equally, regardless of how or where they were fertilized? But dig deeper, and you'll find that the court's reasoning is steeped in religious fanaticism. Chief Justice Tom Parker's concurring opinion weaves together biblical quotes, the Ten Commandments, and 16th-century commentary to justify the court's decision.

But what's truly disturbing is not just the court's reliance on religious dogma, but its blatant disregard for the Constitution's Establishment Clause. The 1st Amendment prohibits the government from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion," yet the court has effectively elevated a religious creed into public policy.

The implications of this ruling are far-reaching and terrifying. If a fertilized egg is entitled to more legal protections than a living, breathing person, what's to stop courts from applying religious dogma to other areas of law? What's to stop judges from using the Bible to justify their decisions on everything from criminal law to environmental policy?

We must not let this happen. We must not let our courts become instruments of religious tyranny. It's time to take a stand against the erosion of the separation of church and state and to reclaim our Constitution's commitment to secular governance.

Theocracy by Petri Dish: How Alabama's Ruling on Frozen Embryos Threatens the Separation of Church and State

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