RELIGION HEADLINES SAT 10-11-25

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(SRN NEWS)  FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is cutting ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center, asserting that the civil rights organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine”.  Many Christians and conservatives have made this same complaint for years, pointing to the SPLC’s annual Hate Map, which has included such ministries as Focus On The Family and the Family Research Council.  Those and other groups are targeted by the SPLC because the oppose gay marriage and transgenderism.  In making his announcement, Patel added that “This FBI will not partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.” 

(  )  Jews in the United Kingdom are unnerved by this month’s deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester.  Some say they feel forgotten by a society that has allowed anti-Semitism to grow unchallenged over the last two years.  Other British Jews say that politicians have failed to reject anti-Jewish speech or protect Jews from hate crimes.  Simon Burton, a Manchester native, says “We are Jews, but we are English. We have lived in Manchester for 150 years. We belong here.  Now we feel let down.”  The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the October 7th, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.  

(  )  The Supreme Court has heard arguments in its latest LGBT case, weighing the constitutionality of conversion therapy laws passed by nearly half the states.  The justices heard a lawsuit from a Christian counselor challenging a Colorado law that prohibits therapy aimed at helping young people abandon the homosexual lifestyle.  Kaley Chiles argues that the statute violates her freedom of speech by barring her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.  Chiles has support from the Trump administration.  Colorado argues that a child who turns away from the LGBT lifestyle might suffer harm as a result.  

(  )  The stakes in supreme court elections in Pennsylvania next month are very much like those in Wisconsin last spring: partisan control of the highest court in a crucial presidential swing state.  In November Pennsylvania voters will decide whether three state Supreme Court justices — all Democrats — should keep their seats on a court that has been at the center of pivotal fights over hot button social issues.  The court currently has a 5-2 Democratic majority, so an across-the-board loss for Democrats on Election Day could leave the panel in a partisan 2-2 stalemate for two years, before replacements can be nominated.