RELIGION HEADLINES

Audio By Carbonatix

(SRN NEWS) – A Virginia man arrested during a megachurch’s Sunday services on suspicion that he was about to embark on a mass shooting has been convicted of a hate crime.  A jury has found Rui Jiang (ROO-ee  JANG) guilty of trying to obstruct congregants’ free exercise of religious beliefs.  Prosecutors said Jiang intended to shoot congregation members of the Park Valley Church in Haymarket in 2023.  He was arrested at the church, armed with a handgun and other weapons, after a former girlfriend alerted police to disturbing social media posts he made. 

American Jews who fled their Syrian homeland decades ago are urging the Trump administration to lift sanctions on the country.  They say those sanctions are blocking them from restoring some of the world’s oldest synagogues and rebuilding Syria’s decimated Jewish community.  Members of the Hamra family, who fled Damascus in the 1990s, returned to Syria last month for the first time.  They were among a group that briefed State Department officials on the trip this month.  The sweeping sanctions block most investment and business dealings in Syria. 

Two public school districts and several parents are suing in Pennsylvania in a bid to end anti-discrimination laws that allow boys to compete against girls in sports.  The court action comes amid debate in Pennsylvania and the nation over males invading female athletics, as well as their bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms.  If the lawsuit is successful, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission would no longer be able to investigate complaints about discrimination involving sexual orientation or so-called “gender identity”. 

LGBT activists and other liberal groups are bashing California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom for speaking out against males being allowed to compete against females in sports.  Speaking on the inaugural episode of his new podcast, the potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate called it an issue of fairness.  The Democratic Party is having an internal debate over transgenderism in the wake of its loss to President Trump and Republicans last fall.  Polls show most Americans do not want boys playing against girls in school sports.