RELIGION HEADLINES TUE 2-24

(SRN NEWS)-(  )  Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s licenses held by people living as the opposite sex and roughly as many of their birth certificates.  A new law goes into effect in the state this week that imposes restrictions on the listing of gender identities in government documents.  The Kansas legislature’s Republican supermajorities had to override a veto by Democratic Governor Laura Kelly to pass the legislation.  It prohibits the documents from listing any sex other than the actual biological one and invalidates any that reflect a conflicting gender identity.

(  )  Barcelona’s towering Sagrada Familia basilica has reached its maximum height, though the magnum opus of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí remains years away from completion.  A crane placed the upper arm of a cross atop the Tower of Jesus Christ over the weekend, the soaring central piece of the tallest church on earth.  The first stone of the 566 foot tall house of worship was placed in 1882 and Gaudí never expected it to be completed in his lifetime.  Only one of its multiple towers was finished when he died at the age of 73 in 1926.

(  )  The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared the way for a Louisiana law requiring displays of the 10 Commandments in public classrooms to take effect.  The full court voted 12-to-6 to lift a block placed on the measure that a lower court first issued in 2024.  In the opinion, the court said it was too early to make a judgment call on the constitutionality of the law.  That’s partly because it’s not yet clear how prominently schools may display the Decalogue or if other texts like the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence will also be displayed.

(  )  Persecution of Christians in India is surging and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is concerned.  Commission Chair Vicky Hartzler says “January saw a spate of horrible attacks against Christians.  We are particularly concerned by the report of a Hindu mob beating a pastor as he was conducting Sunday prayers inside a house.  Mobs of radical Hindus are also wielding allegations of forced conversion to justify the arbitrary detention of believers.”  In its 2025 Annual Report, the Commission recommended that the State Department of State designate India as a Country of Particular Concern.