After a childhood roped off from popular culture, Turner (
The Christian Culture Survival Guide) chased dreams of becoming a Christian singer only to find the safe genre more plastic than relevant. In this memoir, Turner strings together his journey from starstruck child to Christian music editor, with tales of music's influence on his Independent Fundamental Baptist upbringing. At times, the book takes aim at the denomination, lamenting the anxiety its moral absolutes produce: few things existed that were more frightful than a syncopated beat. At other points, the book becomes a critique of unoriginal Christian music. Turner calls for honesty from all Christians, begging artists to tap into guarded imaginations and urging churches to be more forgiving when singers step outside the box. Despite his misgivings, Turner maintains a playful tone, like a teenager rolling his eyes at an embarrassing parent. Still hopeful, he seeks not to discount Christian music and its listeners but to fine-tune his Christian church and shake up the genre that remains a consistent thread of grace in his life.
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“Like a good Amy Grant song,
Hear No Evil will worm its way into your brain, lodge itself there, and refuse to leave. Every page is funny, honest, and full of the best kind of faith. Matthew Paul Turner isn't just a great Christian writer. He's a great writer, period.”
— Kevin Roose, author of
The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University
“The most glorious part about
Hear No Evil is Matthew Paul Turner’s humor and authenticity. Brilliantly affective, this collection of stories about music--its triumphs, its dysfunction, and its value in people’s lives--will conjure up memories about your own musical journey and experiences. Matthew's funny and sometimes irreverent tone reveals not only his social relevance but also his sincerity.”
— Josh Shipp, host of
Jump Shipp, author of
The Teen’s Guide to World Domination, MTV personality
“There’s an adage: ‘Never make fun of a group of which you are not a member.’ Matthew Paul Turner grew up in the fundamentalist bubble and worked in the Christian Contemporary Music scene. And make fun of them he does however, not with outsider venom but with insider empathy.
Hear No Evil is hilarious, cringe-worthy, and all too true. And Turner's faith survived. Halleluiah. That’s what humor can do.”
— Susan E. Isaacs, actress, comedienne, and author of
Angry Conversations with God
“
Hear No Evil is a compelling story that will send you on a journey where you’re laughing one second and doing a painfully honest heart check the next. When you finish this book you’ll have a new understanding that God works in very unique and surprising ways as He draws us closer to Him.”
— Pete Wilson, pastor of Cross Point Church, author of
Plan B
“Anyone who grew up in the evangelical bubble will relive their own adolescence through Turner’s witty, devastatingly forthright account of his own. Couching his unsparing observation in self-effacing mirth, he drags the superstition and cultural backwardness of the good ole Christian subculture right out into the open.
Even if you’ve had bad experiences with exorcisms in the past,
Hear No Evil is the last one you’ll ever need.”
— David Sessions, founding editor of
Patrol magazine
“In
Hear No Evil, Matthew Paul Turner writes ‘The odd thing about Christians pursuing fame is that they do it while pretending not to be interested in fame’. I would buy this book even if this was the only sentence printed inside. It’s that valuable.”
— Jonathan Acuff , creator of StuffChristiansLike.net and author of the book
Stuff Christians Like
