Tuesday's News & Ideas - 8/10/2021

Netflix’s ‘Pray Away’ is a humanizing look at ‘gay conversion’ therapy survivors
HuffPost: “It’s undeniable that this movement causes harm,” said filmmaker Kristine Stolakis, whose late uncle hoped to “cure” his trans identity with reparative therapy.

Abortion just isn’t the motivating issue for evangelicals it once was
Religion News Service: Studies show white evangelicals, by and large, do not have a hard-line approach to abortion — other issues like immigration and race are taking priority over advocating for the unborn.

Catholic Church in Italy grapples with loss of tax funds
Crux: Since the 1980s, the main source of revenue for Italy’s Catholic Church has been what’s called the “8×1000,” or the “eight per thousand,” meaning a share of everyone’s personal income tax the state distributes between itself and a charitable entity of the taxpayer’s choosing.

The Holy Land Experience never made it to the financial promised land
Christianity Today: After 20 years, the ambitious biblical theme park is closed for good.

Marc Lieberman, who brought Jews and Buddhists together, dies at 72*
The New York Times: He called himself “a healthy mosaic” of the two faiths. An ophthalmologist, he also ran a clinic that brought sight back to Tibetans with cataracts.

The Spark

Growing up on Los Angeles’s Black barbecue
In the 1970s and 1980s, zig-zagging across the city to pick up food for summer barbecues became a rite of passage for one writer, Eater says.

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