Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

The Last Week    A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem   By    Marcus Borg &    John Dominic Crossan Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton The Last Week     is, as the subtitle says, is a daily study of the events taking place during Jesus’ last week on earth. The authors structure their work by focusing on Mark’s gospel written about four decades after Jesus’ crucifixion. In the preface we learn the value of the week’s sequence spelled out by Mark, which allows the authors to trace the events leading up to the cross and the Easter celebration. Not surprisingly then, readers find eight chapters taking us from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.  The clarity of writing and scholarly presentation of information missing from so many sermons make this an ideal read for Lent so I highly recommend it for Christians who are unclear on the significance of the week in the first century context of the Roman Empire as well as for a meaningful message that conveys the pas

   Pray Away By   Kristine Stolakis   Jessica Devaney     Anya Rous   Carla Gutierrez Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton Pray Away is a documentary film about the experience of American Evangelicals who identify as LGBTQ and conversion therapy. I watched the show last week on Netflix and I recommend the film to those interested in the topic. One of the leads is a man named Jeffrey who identifies as ex-trans. He no longer identifies as trans as he says, “I lived transgender but I left it all to follow Jesus.” The film tells part of the Exodus story. Exodus was a large Christian organization based in Orlando Florida. It began in 1976 and quickly expanded to help people who identified as gay or lesbian change their same-sex attraction. The process was called conversion therapy or reparative therapy. Exodus closed in 2013. The film, Pray Away , tells the story of people who continued to struggle with same-sex attraction, which never went away. Despite the closing of Exodus, C