The Satanic Temple has rejected a Supreme Court ruling that requires the burial or cremation of fetal remains. Citing a violation of its religious freedom, the organization insists that is should be exempt from the law. 

On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court upheld Indiana law (HEA 1337), which ensures that unborn babies are granted a respectful burial, instead of being disposed of on landfill sites as is common practice for many abortion clinics.

“The fetal disposition provision expands on long-established legal and cultural traditions of recognizing the dignity and humanity of the fetus,” the state argued in its case before the highest court of the land.

The Satanic Temple, however, believes it should be granted immunity from the restrictions.

“Members of The Satanic Temple believe that non-viable fetal tissue is part of the woman who carries it, and as such, state impositions of ceremonial requirements dictating its disposal, barring any plausible medical or sanitary concerns, is a violation of TST’s Free Exercise allowing Satanists to contextualize the termination of a pregnancy on their own terms, with deference to their own religious beliefs,” the organization wrote in a statement, as reported by the Arkansas Times.

Referring to its members as Satanists, TST said it “affirms that this rule violates their…

The Supreme Court decided not to hear a case involving a challenge to a Pennsylvania School’s District’s policy of allowing students to use the restroom which matches their gender identity rather than their biological sex. Their refusal to hear the case upholds to lower court rulings which favored the school district.

The case started in 2016 when the Boyerton Area School District allowed students who identified as transgender to use the bathroom of their choice. The Alliance Defending Freedom, who represented the students filing suit against the school district, claims that some male students did not know about the policy changed until “they were undressing in their locker room and discovered that a female student was changing clothes with them. They further allege that the students went to school officials “who told them they should just ‘tolerate it’ and make it as natural as possible.’”

A female student did not know about the policy change until she saw a boy in the girls’ restroom. She ran out of the restroom, but according to the ADF, “school officials refused to listen to her privacy concerns either.”

Scholars believed there were two issues at play in the case. First, “Given students’ constitutionally protected privacy interest in their partially clothed bodies, whether a public school has a compelling interest in…

A former pastor is now helping women with a free auto repair service in Conroe, Texas.

PC, “Pastor Chris,” Williams runs God’s Garage in the Texas city, helping single women, widows and military wives.

“My dad went to tech school to become a mechanic before he became a pastor, and I followed him into the pastor side of things, but didn’t know much about cars,” he said. “My dad taught me the basics of car care, and I grew up watching him help people stuck on the side of the road.”

As an adult, however, Williams said he struggled financially and had many car problems beyond his skill set.

“I prayed to God many times that my car would start in the morning so I could get to work. No money for parts, much less labor!” he said. “I told God that if I could make a difference for people in my situation, I would gladly help them.”

He said he was working as a youth pastor in Montgomery, Texas and driving home when he saw a woman and her child walking in the rain. He recognized them as part of the church where he worked.

 “They told me that their car had been in the shop for months and they couldn’t afford to get it out,” Williams said. “Right then, I decided that I needed to figure out a way to get my dream of opening a free garage off the ground.”

He said some car dealerships and auto repair shops can be known for taking…

The Illinois House passed an abortion expansion bill Wednesday that calls abortion a “fundamental right,” states the fetus “does not have independent rights” and makes abortion a part of health care.  

Live Action, the national pro-life group founded by Lila Rose, said the bill was “inherently worse” than the New York abortion expansion bill that was signed into law.

Titled the “Reproductive Health Act” (SB 25), the Illinois bill passed by a vote of 64-50, with six Democrats opposing it. 

Republican state Rep. Avery Bourne, who is pregnant, pleaded with her colleagues to oppose it. 

“We are talking about the most expansive bill we have seen in this state,” Bourne said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She was surrounded by her female GOP colleagues. “We already know that we’ve got women coming to Illinois to have abortions because we are so expansive on this issue. That will continue. This bill is not about keeping abortion legal in Illinois. This is about a massive expansion that will impact viable babies. And that is wrong.”

But supporters said it was needed. 

“To our neighbors in Illinois who hear the news around the country and worry that this war on women is coming to Illinois, I say, not on my watch,” Democratic Rep. Kelly Cassidy said. “To the people in Missouri and Alabama and Georgia and Kentucky…

An Archbishop serving in Iraqi Kurdistan took British church leaders to task for “political correctness” in failing to speak out against Muslim extremism that has driven Christianity “close to extinction” in his nation.

“Friends, we may be facing our end in the land of our ancestors, ”The Most Rev. Bashar Warda, Archbishop of Irbil, said in an address in London. “We acknowledge this. In our end, the entire world faces a moment of truth.

“Will a peaceful and innocent people be allowed to be persecuted and eliminated because of their faith? And, for the sake of not wanting to speak the truth to the persecutors, will the world be complicit in our elimination?”

During his speech, Warda noted that Iraq’s Christian population is down to just 250,000 from 1.5 million—an 83 percent drop—at the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the BBC reported.

Warda also warned that those still living in the region are subject to escalating persecution.

“Christianity in Iraq, one of the oldest churches, if not the oldest church in the world, is perilously close to extinction,” he said. “Those of us who remain must be ready to face martyrdom.”

Earlier this year, coalition forces rooted the last remaining terrorist stronghold from Iraq, effectively dismantling the Islamic State, but in its wake remain neighborhood after neighborhood of…

A bill that would ban abortion after a heartbeat is detected passed the Louisiana House Wednesday with support from the state’s Democratic governor, who says he will buck his party’s official position and sign it into law.

The bill, SB 184, passed the House 79-23, less than a month after it sailed through the Senate, 31-5. 

Unlike other states where abortion restrictions divide Republicans and Democrats, Louisiana’s bill has bipartisan support. A Democrat, state Sen. John Milkovich, is the sponsor. The Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, was elected on a pro-life platform. 

“In 2015, I ran for governor as a pro-life candidate after serving as a pro-life legislator for eight years,” Edwards said in a statement. “As governor, I have been true to my word and my beliefs on this issue. But it is also my sincere belief that being pro-life means more than just being pro-birth.”

The bill would make it unlawful to “knowingly perform an abortion with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being when a fetal heartbeat has been detected.” It makes exceptions for the life or the mother and to “prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” 

My statement on the passage of SB 184 following final passage by the Louisiana Legislature. #lalege

Chemotherapy is working for the 78-year old Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer three months ago. In a cover story with People Magazine, he revealed he is now in near-remission. 

“It’s kind of mind-boggling,” Trebek shared. “The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive results in their memory…some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50 percent.”

According to Trebek, 50,000 other Americans are diagnosed with this cancer a week and the survival rate is at a dismal 9 percent.

“With your prayers, I hope to beat the low survival statistic rates of this disease,” Trebek shared in a video announcing his cancer. “So help me. Keep the faith and we will win. We’ll get it done.” 

Trebek has been transparent in his cancer journey. Talking with Robin Roberts, a breast cancer survivor, on Good Morning America a month into his treatment, he expressed his gratitude for fans and their support. “People all over America have been sharing their good thoughts, their advice, their prayers. And I feel it is making a difference in my well-being,” he said. 

“I’ve had so many contacts from people who have survived cancer for 10 years, 12 years, 14 years,” he continued. “I am now a 30-day survivor…I’m going to catch up to those other people.” 

But he…