The case of a Christian high school student who was forced to write the Islamic Creed at school is slated to come before a U.S. Supreme Court conference on Oct. 11.

The conference is a list of petitions that the Supreme Court reviews for consideration. The court can then decide whether to take on the case, CBN News reports.

This week, the Supreme Court will consider the case of Christian student Caleigh Wood, who in the 2014-2015 school year was forced by a teacher at La Plata High School in Maryland to write the Islamic conversion creed, also called the Shahada, as part of an assignment.

That creed says, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

Wood refused the assignment, saying that she believed it would be a sin to profess that there is another god other than the Christian God. School officials did not accept her refusal and she was given a low grade.

The Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing that the school had violated the First Amendment Establishment Clause. A federal appeals court ruled in February in favor of the school, saying the school was not endorsing any specific religion with the assignment.

The law center appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

“Under the guise of teaching history or social studies, public schools across America are promoting the…

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Christian organizations are urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill that would require the state’s public universities to offer abortion medication through campus health clinics. 

If signed into law, the “College Student Right to Access Act,” or SB 24, would take effect in January 2023. Newsom has until Sunday (Oct. 13) to make a decision. 

Commonly known as “the abortion pill,” the prescription medication provides a nonsurgical process to end early pregnancy, for women who are less than 10 weeks along, by blocking hormones needed to sustain the pregnancy. While groups like the California Family Council claim the medication can be dangerous, scientific research has found it is safe and effective. 

State Sen. Connie Leyva, a Democrat who authored the bill, said the legislation “reaffirms the right of every college student to access abortion.”

“By ensuring abortion care is available on campus, college students will not have to choose between delaying important medical care or having to travel long distances or miss classes or work,” she said in a statement.

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, saying such services were already “widely available” to students. Newsom, however, spoke in favor of the bill on the campaign trail.

Andrew Rivas, executive director of…

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on federal law and workplace discrimination – one of the biggest LGBT cases in history – could come down to the vote of Justice Neil Gorsuch, observers say. 

The high court heard arguments Tuesday in three cases that will determine whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, also bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Lower courts have split on the issue. 

On Tuesday, the court’s four liberal justices – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer – appeared unified in voting for the LGBT workers in the cases. 

But the court’s five conservative justices may be splintered. Court observers said Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Trump, seemed torn. 

Amy Howe, at ScotusBlog.com, wrote that the “outcome” could hinge on Gorsuch, who “at times appeared sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ argument but also expressed concern about the ‘massive social upheaval’ that he believed would follow from a ruling for them.” At one point he called it a “close” call.

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg pointed out that Gorsuch said when a person is fired because of sexual orientation, that person’s sex is at least a “contributing cause.” 

Mark Joseph Stern, who covers the…

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is drawing applause from both sides of the aisle for a viral monologue in which she urges Americans to be kind to one another, no matter the other person’s beliefs.

DeGeneres, in a clip from her show, explains why she sat next to former President George W. Bush at Sunday’s NFL game in Dallas between the Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers – and why they got along, too. The daytime talk show host posted the clip Monday night on her Twitter feed. 

DeGeneres said she and her spouse, Portia, were invited to the game by Charlotte Jones, the executive vice president of the Cowboys and the daughter of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. They sat in the owner’s suite. 

“When we were invited … I was aware that I was going to be surrounded with people from very different views and beliefs. And I’m not talking about politics. I was rooting for the Packers and – get this – everybody in the Cowboys suite was rooting for the Cowboys. And so I had to hide my cheese hat it Portia’s purse,” DeGeneres said, using humor to make her point. 

“… But during the game, they showed a shot of George and me laughing together. And so people were upset. They thought: Why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president? [They] didn’t even notice I’m holding the brand new iPhone 11,”…

California pastor Adam Tyson recently shared on “The Pure Flix Podcast” his journey with Kanye West and believes his conversion is genuine, according to Faithwire.

The rapper, who grew up with a former Black Panther father who became a Christian marriage counselor, knew about God but ran from him.

“[T]he first time I talked to [Kanye] the first Sunday in June, he told me, ‘I got radically saved five weeks ago,’” Tyson shared. “I said, ‘Kanye, what happened five weeks ago?’ He said, ‘I was just under the weight of my sin and I was being convicted that I was running from God, and I knew I needed to make things right, so I came to Christ. I came out of the darkness into the light.’”

Tyson first became acquainted with West after he attended his church, Placerita Bible Church in Santa Clarita, California, several times. In early June, West stayed after the service to talk with the senior pastor. Ever since, the pair have met weekly to discuss the Bible.

“I spent about three hours just going through the gospel, making sure he understood clearly about the atonement of Jesus Christ, that God is holy, that we are sinners, that Christ came to die in the place of sinners, that by repenting and believing in him, we can have eternal life,” Tyson said. “And [West] was like, ‘Hey, man. I told you. I’ve been radically saved; I believe that…