RELIGION HEADLINES- SDUN 8-16-26

(SRN NEWS)   By many measures, Americans are growing less religious.  Since 2007, the percentage of people who pray daily has dropped, while the religiously unaffiliated have grown to 29 percent.  But those numbers can distract from just how much faith still matters in American public life – much more so than in Western Europe, despite its similar religious roots.  About two-thirds of Americans consider religion important in their daily lives, compared with 56 percent in Italy, 40 percent in Spain and 36 percent in Germany.  While about two-thirds of American Christians pray every day, only 18 percent of European Christians do so. 

(  )  A federal judge has ruled that Utah can enforce its strict anti-gambling laws on prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, in a win for states seeking to rein in the popular betting platforms.  Utah has been on the front lines of a battle between states and the federal government over who regulates the markets and whether they should be considered finance or gambling.  Clergymen, pro-family advocates and others have been warning about the dangers of America’s wholesale embrace of gambling.  Kalshi sued Utah in February, asking a federal judge to prevent the state from enforcing its gambling restrictions on the platform. 

(  )  The Trump administration says that Medicaid will stop paying for sex-change operations and hormone treatments for transgender minors and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program won’t pay for the treatments for those under 19.  The announcement is the latest in a series of policies from the administration aimed at ending the practice of spending taxpayer dollars on irreversible surgeries designed to help kids live as the opposite sex.  At least 27 states have already banned sex-change operations on those under 18.  Even in states that haven’t, many major hospitals have stopped providing some of the treatments. 

(  )  A WNBA task force of team presidents and general managers met last week and discussed transgender athletes but did not make any changes to eligibility rules.  The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,” but it does not include any more specific language defining male or female.  Earlier this month, two former NBA players declared themselves eligible for next year’s WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.  Some players have come out in favor of a ban on men joining the league while others have voiced support for it.