A family of Syrian refugees arrived in Indianapolis on Monday night.
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis said in a statement Tuesday that the family — a father, mother and their two small children — “arrived safely” in the city, where they have some relatives.
The Archdiocese said it has been helping the family resettle through its Refugee and Immigrant Services program. It said the family “fled the violence of terrorists” in war-torn Syria three years ago and underwent “two years of extensive security checks and personal interviews” before the federal government cleared the four of them to enter the United States.
The governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, had asked the Archdiocese to hold off on resettling the family until Congress passed legislation that addressed his concerns about the refugee program. But Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin said the church’s refugee program was “an essential part” of its identity and informed Pence that the Syrian family’s resettlement would go on as planned.
In a statement, a Pence spokesman said the governor “respectfully disagrees” with the church’s decision. One of the governor’s main concerns is that one of the Islamic State-linked terrorists responsible for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris may have been posing as a Syrian refugee.
“The safety and security of the people of Indiana is Governor Pence’s top priority,” the spokesman, Matt Lloyd, said in the statement. “The State of Indiana will continue to suspend its participation in the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana until the federal government takes action to address the concerns raised about this program.”
Pence is among the many U.S. governors who have attempted to block Syrian refugees from resettling in their states since the Paris attacks, touching off political and moral debates about the legality and ethics of their actions. Texas was another state that vehemently tried to prevent Syrian refugees from resettling within its borders, even taking the battle to the courtroom.
But a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee told the Associated Press a family of Syrian refugees arrived in Texas on Monday and resettled near Dallas, where the six of them have relatives. The AP reported 15 more refugees were expected to arrive in Texas this week.
The Satanic Temple along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has announced they are suing an Indiana county that refused to allow a Satanic display during the month of December.
The lawsuit claims that a Franklin County ordinance that requires permits for displays and activities be restricted to county residents is a violation of the First Amendment.
“Our joint lawsuit with the FFRF is our response to this arbitrary limitation,” Satanist spokesman Doug Mesner said. “I suspect that the arbitrary restriction of local standing is merely but an effort at keeping varying viewpoints to a minimum.”
The Indianapolis Star says the American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit.
The Satanic Temple wanted to display “an artistic three-dimensional sculpture mounted on a wooden platform” between November and January and the FFRF wanted to display cut out figures marking the “December 15 nativity of the Bill of Rights.”
“FFRF wishes to erect this display on the courthouse lawn in order to highlight what it believes to be the paramount importance of the Bill of Rights and to otherwise express itself,” the lawsuit reads.
“Additionally, FFRF is aware that it has members who reside in the county and also has members that visit the county. It would also like to erect its display to support these persons and to make sure that their secular beliefs are adequately represented.”
An Indiana woman who threw her newborn baby in the trash after giving birth will be spending 20 years in prison.
Purvi Patel, 33, was arrested in 2013 after she arrived at an Indiana hospital following the birth of her child. She denied being pregnant but her injuries made it obvious to hospital personnel that she had just given birth. Patel then admitted she had been pregnant after an affair with a co-worker.
Patel claims because her Hindu family is against pre-martial sex so she panicked when she gave birth and threw the child into a dumpster behind a shopping center. She claimed the baby was stillborn, however doctors were able to show the baby had been born alive and could have survived if given medical attention.
The defense claimed she had been trying to induce her own abortion using drugs but that failed. Under Indiana law, it is feticide to induce premature birth with the intent of causing death except in the case of approved abortions.
“You, Miss Patel, are an educated woman of considerable means. If you wished to terminate your pregnancy safely and legally, you could have done so,” the judge said. “You planned a course of action and took matters into your own hands and chose not to go to a doctor.”
Lila Rose of Live Action said there was a high level of irony in the case.
“If an abortionist had destroyed this defenseless little person at 28 weeks, there would be no controversy,” she said. “But since the baby managed to be born, to breathe, and then to be killed at the exact same age, law enforcement is scrambling to see justice served.”
Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” that protects Christians and other people of faith from having to be forced into actions that are violate their faith.
“Today I signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because I support the freedom of religion for every Hoosier of every faith,” he said in a statement. “The Constitution of the United States and the Indiana Constitution both provide strong recognition of the freedom of religion but today, many people of faith feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action.”
The bill is a mirror of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law says the government cannot burden someone’s exercise of religion without proving a compelling government interest.
Governor Pence said that while the federal law protects some freedoms, there are things on the state level that needed to be covered by a state law.
“Last year the Supreme Court of the United States upheld religious liberty in the Hobby Lobby case based on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but that act does not apply to individual states or local government action,” he said. “In order to ensure that religious liberty is fully protected under Indiana law, this year our General Assembly joined those 30 states [who have passed local legislation] and the federal government to enshrine these principles in Indiana law, and I fully support that action.”
The governor of Indiana has said he will defend a veterans memorial in a state park that contains a small cross.
“So long as I am governor, I will defend the right of Hoosiers to display this sculpture in Whitewater Memorial State Park as a lasting tribute to the service and sacrifice of all who have worn the uniform of the United States,” Governor Mike Pence said in a statement.
The anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a threatening letter last month to the director of Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources saying that the existence of the cross on the monument was a government endorsement of Christianity.
“I fully support the decision by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to accept the sculpture commissioned by local citizens to honor all who have fallen in service to our country,” Governor Pence said. “The freedom of religion does not require freedom from religion. The Constitutions of our state and nation more than allow the placement of this Hoosier artist’s sculpture on public land.”
Supporters of the cross say if it’s offensive to an atheist just to see the cross there, it’s just as offensive to a Christian or any other people of faith to have no symbols there that endorses an atheistic belief system.
A virulent anti-Christian organization is targeting a veteran’s memorial at an Indiana park because it contains a 14-inch tall cross.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources demanding the removal of the cross from the 8-foot-tall statue located in Whitewater Memorial State Park.
“No secular purpose, no matter how sincere, will detract from the overall message that the Latin cross stands for Christianity and the overall display promotes Christianity,” attorney Rebecca Markert wrote on behalf of the anti-Christian group. “[The cross means] the government only cares about the deaths of Christian soldiers.”
The cross is part of a wooden chainsaw-carved statue that reads “all gave some; some gave all.”
A man who is an Army veteran initially complained about the cross being a part of the tribute.
“I just thought that a memorial to veterans in a veterans’ park didn’t need to be turned into a religious shrine,” Wendell Bias told a local newspaper, despite the fact no worship services have been held at the site.
The vehement anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation has coerced an Indiana school district to ban staff from leading prayer.
The group said an anonymous person contacted them about a teacher leading prayer at a school-sponsored event. Teacher Jeffrey Burress confirmed he lead a prayer at Sarah Scott Middle School at an awards ceremony.
“The district should make certain that teachers in its schools are not unlawfully and inappropriately indoctrinating students in religious matters by encouraging them to engage in prayer,” the anti-Christian group wrote in a letter to the school.
School superintendent Daniel Tanoos said that he disagreed with the actions of the group but that the school’s lawyer said the move had to be done. Tanoos said he would allow students to lead prayer at events if they choose to do so because that is constitutional.
The FFRF has been targeting Christians around the nation that lead or participate in prayers in public schools.
A severe storm dropped a tornado onto a town close to Indianapolis, Indiana Tuesday damaging homes and leaving thousands without power.
National Weather Service meteorologists say the tornado hit the town of Plainfield, about 17 miles west of Indianapolis. Hendricks County Emergency Management says three homes were destroyed including one that had the roof caved in when a camper picked up by the twister dropped on it.
The storm then struck the southwest part of Indianapolis.
The city’s public safety director, Troy Riggs, said that emergency officials received reports of downed trees and damage to houses. Power lines were knocked down leaving thousands without power into the evening.
Several roads were also flooded as a result of heavy rains.
Doctors say tests on an Illinois man who contracted the deadly MERS virus from an Indiana man who was the United States’ first victim of the virus is not able to spread the disease to others.
“The second round of test results from oral and nasal swabs show the Illinois resident is not infectious,” Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck of the Illinois Department of Public Health. “What this means is, although the resident was infected at one time, if he sneezes or coughs, the virus is not in his nose or mouth and therefore cannot be spread to others.”
Health officials say the Illinois man likely contracted the virus from the Indiana patient during a 40-minute business meeting where the two shared nothing more than a single handshake. It is the first person-to-person transmission of the virus confirmed in the United States.
Dr. Hasbrouck said the virus is still so new that it’s not known all the ways the virus can be transmitted. He said that many other people also had contact with the Indiana patient and all of them have tested negative for MERS.
At least six people are confirmed dead after a Sunday outbreak of tornadoes across the Midwest.
The town of Washington, Illinois was devastated by a massive tornado that tore an 1/8th mile wide track through the entire town. Mayor Gary Manier said that up to 500 homes have been damaged or destroyed and that some neighborhoods are completely destroyed.
“How people survived is beyond me,” Manier said.
The tornadic storms are considered unusual for mid-November. Damaging winds and tornadoes were reported in 12 states: Michigan, Iowa, Illnois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
The storms moved so fast at times that weather forecasters were warning people to see shelter even before they could see a change in the weather.
The storm threatened the Chicago area forcing the game between the NFL’s Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens to be delayed for two hours as teams and spectators huddled under the stadium.
