Wednesday's News & Ideas - 3/13/2024

Poll shows slight dip in US support for LGBTQ rights across religious groups
Religion News Service: A strong majority of Americans, and majorities of many religious groups, still broadly support LGBTQ rights.

Latino evangelical support for Christian nationalism rises as Trump courts religious vote
NBC News: In the U.S., around 10 million Hispanics identify as evangelical or Protestant. One pastor said they are going to vote “like no other year” in November.

Where antisemitism and anti-Zionism collide*
The New York Times: “…lately, in reaction to the grotesque suffering in Gaza, two ugly, intertwined trends are gaining steam. Well-intentioned opponents of Jewish nationalism, some Jewish themselves, are being falsely smeared as antisemites. At the same time, antisemitism is cloaking itself in anti-Zionism, with people spitting out the word ‘Zionist’ when they really seem to mean ‘Jew.’”

US-mandated religious freedom group ends Saudi trip early after rabbi ordered to remove his kippah
Associated Press: A U.S. Congress-mandated group cut short a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia after officials in the kingdom ordered a Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah in public, highlighting the religious tensions still present in the wider Middle East.

The slow work of dialogue*
The Christian Century: For 20 years, Mennonite scholars from North America and Shi’a scholars from Iran have met periodically to build bridges.

The Spark

Picasso tried to ruin his ex’s career. The Picasso Museum will show her art. 
Because of Picasso’s anger toward her, and because she later moved to the United States, Françoise Gilot’s work* has had “a very limited presence in French public collections,” said the curator of paintings at the Picasso Museum in Paris. Now, the museum is aiming to change that, says The Washington Post.

*access is limited for nonsubscribers