Here are some important law-and-religion news stories from around the web:
- U.S. District Judge John Broomes granted a temporary injunction to two Baptist churches, which challenged Kansas governor’s emergency restrictions on church services, finding religious gathering were improperly given stricter treatment compared to similar activities.
- A Fifth Circuit panel ruled that Texas can reinstate Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order that, in part, banned elective abortions, including medical abortions, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Abdel Bary, a former London rapper and son of an Al-Qaeda operative, was arrested on suspicion of joining Islamic State fighters in Syria and faces terror charges in connection with bombings of two U.S. embassies.
- An annual report on anti-Semitism by Tel Aviv University researchers shows COVID-19 has caused a rise in anti-Semitism as Jewish people are blamed for the spread of the disease and the related economic recession.
- Tony Spell, the pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, was arrested on assault charges after driving his church bus toward a man protesting Spell’s decision to hold mass gatherings in defiance of COVID-19 regulations.
- The Christian ministry’s World Watch Research suggests that persecution for hundreds of thousands of Christians will worsen as COVID-19 spreads through sub-Saharan Africa.