Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  Disability Justice in the Church By  Amy Kenny in 2022 Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton   Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. (James 5: 14-15a, NIV)   “God told me to pray for you.” Amy begins her challenge to Christians who dehumanize her, and all people with disabilities, by telling the tale of a prayer predator. She interrupts the woman’s plan, “I don’t need prayer for healing. My body has already been sanctified and redeemed.” Amy uses a cane and a wheelchair. Throughout My Body is Not a Prayer Request , we learn what Christians and medical people have said and done, which have had a cumulative effect of dehumanizing Amy. She has encountered many Christians who do not accept her as she is. Her work is an attack on the mentality of ableism . [ Read about ableism ] Part of

 The Sociopath Next Door      By   Martha Stout Reviewed by    Jaimée Allman     and Geoffrey W. Sutton In The Sociopath Next Door , Dr. Martha Stout, psychologist and Harvard Professor, asserts that monsters do not hide in closets or under the bed, but rather in our neighborhoods, businesses, churches, and families. In this 241-page book, Stout draws on over two decades of experience to provide the reader with a manual for identifying and responding to the sociopaths of society. According to Stout, four percent of Americans can do virtually anything without a single trace of remorse; the other 96 percent of us have both the right and responsibility to protect ourselves.            Stout begins by asking the reader to imagine what it would be like to live without conscience, to have the unique ability of moving through life without emotional attachment to anyone or anything. Fortunately, this is an impossible task for most readers. The introduction provides the reader with a basic bu