Friday's News & Ideas - 3/22/2024

Majority in U.S. say Israel has valid reasons for fighting; fewer say the same about Hamas
Pew Research Center: 57% express some sympathy for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Despite church prohibitions, Catholics still choose IVF to have children
NPR: “We had tested the other options as much as we could,” one couple said. “And we knew that it was more important for us to bring life into this world than to get the OK from someone on how to do so.”

Southern Baptists pick a California seminary president to lead its troubled administrative body
Associated Press: A top Southern Baptist administrative body has selected its first permanent leader in nearly two-and-a-half years, a time when it has navigated a tumult of controversies ranging from a sexual abuse scandal to financial struggles — to its own stumbling efforts to find a new president.

It looks like it’s over for Biden’s historic Muslim court pick, Adeel Mangi
HuffPost: Two Democrats said they’ll oppose the U.S. appeals court nominee, caving to the GOP’s smear campaign against him.

Charlie Dates counters John MacArthur’s declaration that MLK ‘was not a Christian’
Religion News Service: In an open letter, the Chicago pastor compares the California pastor to King opponents George Wallace and J. Edgar Hoover, calling MacArthur “them in postmodern dress.”

The Spark

How the U.S. waged a global campaign against baby formula regulation
Records and interviews show that the U.S. government repeatedly used its muscle to advance the interests of large baby formula companies while thwarting the efforts of Thailand and other developing countries to safeguard children’s health, ProPublica says.

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