RELIGION HEADLINES SAT 2-21-26

(SRN NEWS)  Puerto Rico’s governor has signed a bill that amends a law to recognize an unborn baby as a human being.  Governor Jenniffer González, a Republican and supporter of President Trump, says “the legislation aims to maintain consistency between civil and criminal provisions by recognizing the unborn child as a human being.”  The amendment is now an article within Puerto Rico’s Penal Code that defines murder.  The government notes that the amendment complements a law that classifies as first-degree murder the intentional killing of a pregnant woman which results in the death of the unborn child at any stage of gestation.  

 (  )  The former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom is issuing a warning.  Testifying before a congressional committee this month, Sam Brownback said that China is leading a surge in persecution around the globe.  He pointed to Beijing’s sale of surveillance technology to dictators in Asia and Africa who use those devices to restrict religious freedom.  According to Brownback “There’s an alliance of nations that sees religious freedom as the greatest internal threat to their dictatorial control.  The community of faith has become the target of this dark alliance and China is the puppet master behind all of it.” 

(  )  Religious people have weighed-in on sex-change operations for kids.  The poll comes from the Public Religion Research Institute and it finds that White Evangelical Protestants are the group most likely to support state laws barring children from undergoing such procedures in order to live as the opposite sex — a total of 67 percent.  But the numbers drop from there.   Only 51 percent of White Mainline Protestants favor bans on child sex-change operations, as do 50 percent of White Catholics and 44 percent of Black Protestants.

(  )  A 15th-century statue that once stood outside Milan’s iconic Duomo church has found a new home.  The Bearded Saint with Book was recently restored under the “Adopt a Statue” program, launched in 2020 by the centuries-old institution that oversees the cathedral’s conservation.  As of this month, it is on display at FNM, an Italian transport company.  The program recruits donors to fund restoration of a statue under a loan agreement that allows it to occasionally be displayed outside the Duomo.  These agreements are in some cases granted for an initial one-year term and may be renewed.