For Pastor Netz Gómez and the 1,500 members of his Houses of Light church in Northridge, the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe vs. Wade was an answer to their prayers and decades of hard work.

“We are thanking God that this injustice has finally been rectified, and that states have the right to decide how they want to proceed with abortion rights,” said the pastor, a Mexico native who started the church in his living room 22 years ago and has steadily immersed himself deeper into U.S. politics. “But we are really thanking God because we have prayed so much for the end of abortion. Abortion is injustice. Killing babies is injustice.”

It was one of the broad range of responses to the court’s momentous ruling that has divided members of the same faith across Southern California, including sometimes within the same congregation.