RELIGION HEADLINES MON 5-18

(SRN NEWS)-

(  )  The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to recruit others to commit violent attacks against Jews, including one plot that would have involved dressing as Santa Claus to hand out poisoned candy to children.  The 22-year-old from the country of Georgia pleaded guilty in November of last year to soliciting hate crimes and distributing information about making bombs.  In 2024, prosecutors say the defendant directed members of his group to “target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison.”

(  )  Australia says a neo-Nazi network is the second organization being banned under a new law criminalizing hate groups and support for them.  That legislation was passed in response to the anti-Semitic attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December in which 15 people were killed.  A statement by the government says the National Socialist Network “changed their name, but didn’t change the fact that they were still an organization and were still engaging in the same sort of behavior that met the thresholds for this legislation.”  A radical Muslim group was the first organization banned under the hate speech law back in March.

(  )  According to a new study from West Virginia University, most adults who attend religious services go to several different churches, at least occasionally.  The report indicates that roughly 12 percent of all adults who attend services go to multiple congregations regularly and 45 percent do so from time to time.  Of those who attend multiple congregations, about three-quarters attend two congregations and the rest attend three or more.  Adults who do this are more likely to be politically liberal, whereas political conservatives are more likely to always attend one church.

(  )  A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s demands for transgender patient information from Rhode Island’s largest hospital.  This decision marks a setback for the Department of Justice, which says the information is needed to investigate possible misbranding fraud.  The DOJ is especially concerned about sex change operations being performed on children.  The Rhode Island decision is the latest development in the fight over kids’ health records.  Last week, 11 families filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the department from obtaining the documents in Maryland’s federal court.