RELIGION HEADLINES TUE 4-28

(SRN NEWS)-(  )  The 250th birthday of the United States is necessarily the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  Scholars are pointing out that the nation’s founding document makes multiple references to God.  In its opening paragraph, Thomas Jefferson proposed that “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” grant humans equal status and entitle Americans to dissolve the political bands with Britain.  As historians have shown, Benjamin Franklin added a phrase to suggest that those rights had been “endowed by their Creator.”  The delegates also mention the Supreme Judge of the world.

(  )  The U.S. isn’t the only country that is debating abortion these days.  A court of appeal in Kenya has overturned a ruling that affirmed the right to access abortion, setting up a legal clash that is likely to be appealed again to the Kenyan Supreme Court.  The appeals court reiterated that abortion denies a child the right to life as guaranteed in the constitution and is prohibited except in circumstances such as when the life of the mother is at risk.  Kenya’s penal code criminalizes abortion, imposing a sentence of up to 14 years in prison for attempting or procuring an abortion.

(  )  Abortion questions will be before voters in at least three states in November.  Missouri lawmakers are asking residents to repeal the so-called “right to reproductive freedom” that they put into the state constitution in 2024. In Nevada, a state constitutional amendment to allow abortion until 24 weeks passed in 2024, but needs voter approval a second time to take effect.  A Virginia ballot measure would guarantee the right to reproductive freedom, including access to contraception and making decisions on abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.  Abortion advocates are spending big money in all three states.

(  )  The Trump administration is launching an investigation of the New York City Department of Education over accusations of anti-Semitism.  The Department of Education says it has received reports that a group of teachers and staff organized a series of seminars focused on “Palestine, Zionism, and Resistance.”  These seminars urged teachers to indoctrinate children as young as five with pro-Palestinian beliefs.  The Department says “No child should be taught by his or her teachers to hate their peers. Neither should Jewish children be taught that being Jewish somehow makes them inherently guilty.”