Alabama Supreme Court Rules That Frozen Embryos Are 'Children'

[muriel_volestrangler]

48. The reliance on types of Christianity in the ruling is worse than the Huff Post report says

Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos are children, cites the Bible in opinion

“When the People of Alabama adopted (the ‘sanctity of life’ provision of the state constitution), they did not use the term ‘inviolability,’ with its secular connotations, but rather they chose the term ‘sanctity,’ with all of its connotations,” Parker wrote. “This kind of acceptance is not foreign to our Constitution, which in its preamble ‘invok[es] the favor and guidance of Almighty God,’ … and which declares that ‘all men … are endowed [with life] by their Creator.’ The Alabama Constitution’s recognition that human life is an endowment from God emphasizes a foundational principle of English common law, which has been expressly incorporated as part of the law of Alabama.”

Parker then went on to cite two overtly Christian texts – “Theology Today” and “Manhattan Declaration: The Call of Christian Conscience” – to help define the phrase “sanctity of life” and argue that life begins at conception because, “all human beings bear God’s image from the moment of conception.”

From there, Parker went on to quote the Bible and another theological text that explained, in his words, “the significance of man’s creation in God’s image.”

Justice Greg Cook, the court’s lone dissenter, avoided the biblical arguments and instead focused on the laws as written, noting that nothing in the “wrongful death act” or Alabama law has defined an embryo as a “child.” Such a definition would be necessary to reach the court’s opinion, and it would need to be reached with legal arguments, not biblical ones.

https://www.alreporter.com/2024/02/19/alabama-supreme-court-rules-frozen-embryos-are-children-cites-the-bible-in-opinion/

"The Manhattan Declaration" is an infamous right-wing "declaration" that was done to oppose LGBT rights, abortion, stem cell research and so on. This is like citing a Republican manifesto in a decision.

Some religious leaders have criticized and protested the Manhattan Declaration, calling its principles in general, and its opposition to same-sex marriage in particular, contrary to the teachings of Jesus.[15][16][17] Catholic scholar Anthony Stevens-Arroyo wrote, "While two wars are being waged, with unemployment in double digits, the financial system of the world in suspense, these religious leaders declare that abortion, stem-cell use and same sex marriage override any other Gospel value. (You won't find Jesus saying anything about abortion or stem cells in the Gospel, but the Savior said a great deal about the homeless, the sick, and the hungry.) It's cheating to speak pious platitudes about Christianity and ignore Jesus' words."[18]

Some discussed the document as a political strategy, regarding it as the religious right's effort to re-establish its relevance in the public square,[19][20] but others noted that younger generations of evangelicals and Catholics were less likely to oppose same-sex marriage and more likely to prioritize economic issues over social, and that the document was thus unlikely to win them over.[20][21] Stevens-Arroyo criticized fellow Catholics who signed the declaration for aligning themselves with evangelicals in what he described as opposition to the separation of church and state.[22]

The declaration's invocation of Martin Luther King and of the principles of civil disobedience has also been questioned.[23][24] An editorial in the Los Angeles Times characterized the invocation of King as "specious" and criticized the document, belittling the "anecdotes" regarding restrictions on Christians' religious freedom as "of the sort radio talk-show hosts purvey" or from outside the United States, and noting that federal law already exempts "believers in some cases from having to comply with applicable laws."[25]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Declaration:_A_Call_of_Christian_Conscience#Criticism