Much has been written and said about the Islamic extremists in the Middle East, especially regarding their enforcement of religious law upon the citizenry. In many cases, this is done at knifepoint, by heavily armed zealots who use their religion as a tool to rule with impunity.

I've written previously about what I call the Christian Taliban here in the U.S. In most cases - we don't even have the excuse of being forced to abide by Christian "law" - we can vote. So how does this keep happening?

It starts with the notion that public schools should violate the first amendment and teach "creationism" as science. These people consider science to be a form of atheism, so it's only natural they'd want their religion included as well. In Idaho, even the Republican party is considering a move to include the Bible in studies. In a comparative religions class, that makes sense (especially as it relates to history), but it has no place in a Biology class - or any other science class for that matter.

You know things are starting to go awry when the Catholic League president publicly comes out against the Pope who - per their religious beliefs - is infallible. This is when Big Business starts to influence religion (and we know it already influences politics). The unholy 3: Religious Extremism, Corporatism, and Voter Apathy.

As audacious and insidious as this all is, where things really get into dangerous territory is when it starts to affect people's liberty and legal status. Case in point: in GA, a woman has been arrested for taking an "abortion" pill:

While the rationale for the abortion is ugly, it is still within the 2nd trimester, and thus is still legal. This incident is also giving "personhood" to a fetus, which is another tenet of this type of extremism.

In Arkansas, a nurse has been arrested for performing an abortion:
(bold-face mine)

So giving a person a legal medication is now illegal if that person uses it to terminate a pregnancy? (can we get the same law enacted for bullets?) Is this the sort of thing people are voting for in these red states? Do they think "oh this doesn't affect me, so I don't care"? It is the metaphorical camel's nose in the tent. States continue to enact these extreme religion-based anti-abortion laws, knowing they'll end up in court, poking at Row -vs- Wade, hoping to chip loose a brick and bring the entire thing down.

If you think that won't happen because the courts are the last bastion of common sense, don't be too confident. The Fifth Circuit court of appeals just handed abortion foes the aborted fetus of Row vs Wade:

This is in regards to laws regulating abortion providers out of existence via "protecting the patient" restrictions.

This is real - this is happening now, and it could be coming to a state near you. Laws based on religious beliefs should be dismissed out of hand as unconstitutional, yet in states where being more extreme than the next guy gets you elected, this is what you end up with. The difference between Democrats and Republicans on financial and national defense issues aren't nearly as wide a gulf as the differences in "social" issues. The next time you vote, you need to decide if you want a politician to decide your legal status based on his or her religious beliefs. This is what it's come to; this is what we're up against.