RELIGION HEADLINES FOR SAT 8-30-25

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(SRN NEWS)  Attorney General Pam Bondi says that the Justice Department has sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide sex-change operations or hormone therapy to children.  The request represents an elevation in the Trump administration’s efforts to keep doctors from performing irreversible surgeries on minors for the purpose of living as the opposite sex.  Bondi says the requests are part of investigations into “healthcare fraud, false statements, and more”  No charges have been announced so far, but the probes are getting the attention of certain hospitals and doctors.

(  )  Berean Baptist Church in Brooklyn is marking its 175th anniversary this month with the debut of “The Audacity of Faith”, the first installment in a short documentary series tracing its history from its founding in 1850 to the present day.  The six-part series will highlight pivotal moments in the church’s legacy, from serving as a station on the Underground Railroad, to opening a credit union for members in 1950, to developing a senior living center and affordable housing units in the 2010s that continue to operate in Brooklyn today.  Each episode runs two to five minutes. 

(  )  The manager of a leisure park in southern France is being investigated for alleged religious discrimination after a group of Israeli children were refused access.  The kids, ages eight-to-sixteen, had made a reservation to use the zipline facility in the Pyrenees mountains.  Prosecutors say the manager initially said he was refusing the group access on the grounds of “personal beliefs” before offering other justifications.  Perla Danan of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions says “It started with graffiti, insults and physical attacks and now it’s literally a ban on children.”  The Israeli group opted to go to a different park. 

(  )  Religious colleges that require students to sign a statement of faith cannot be excluded from a popular Minnesota program that lets high school students take college courses for credit.  That’s the ruling from a federal judge, tossing a state law that she called an unconstitutional violation of religious freedom.  The decision from U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel (bruh-SELL) is a victory for two religious schools in the state: Crown College in St. Bonifacius and the University of Northwestern in Roseville. Those two institutions require their students to pledge to follow the school’s values and conduct rules.