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Hear No Evil, by Matthew Paul Turner

Hear No Evil
— My Story of Innocence, Music and the Holy Ghost,
by Matthew Paul Turner

The Book:
Matthew Paul Turner grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church where his questions were answered with Bible verses and indoctrination, and any music that wasn’t a hundred year-old hymn, even Christian music, was considered a tool of the devil. Fortunately for Matthew, music spoke to his soul like nothing else had, and it ultimately lead him to question the limitations of his religious beliefs. In Hear No Evil — My Story of Innocence, Music and the Holy Ghost, Matthew tells of his journey from Christian legalism to a personal relationship with Jesus.

The Author:
Lifted from, Jesus Needs New PR:

Listen to Michael Paul Turner on Total Axxess as he talks about his own book and why he wrote it.

The Review:
I loved this book. I read all the good parts aloud to Amoeba, which was pretty much the entire thing. While I wasn’t raised in a fundamentalist Christian church, I was surrounded by enough people who were to relate to Matthew’s bewilderment over arbitrary restrictions and the apparent inability of the adults in the church to answer his questions with any words beyond:

  • “Because I said so.”
  • “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
  • “Just do as you’re told.”

And no matter what our religious backgrounds, we can all relate to the inconsistencies between church politics, church leadership, and church doctrine. Matthew highlights what is good and bad in religion today and does so with wry-wit, compassion and grace. More often then not, Matthew pokes fun at himself and his own search for truth, and through it all, he talks about how contemporary Christian music moved him from salvation through legalism to salvation by grace. This is a great book. It goes on sale today at your local bookstore.

The Giveaway:
I have been gifted with one copy of this book to give away. If you want to be entered in the drawing for this book (winner will be determined by the random number generator), leave me a comment telling me how a contemporary Christian song ministered to you.  To be eligiable for the book drawing, your comment needs to be in by Wednesday, February 17th, at midnight.

I would like to thank the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for providing me with a free copy of this book for my review.  All opinions are 100% mine.

8 Comments

  1. Amazing Grace. Gets me every time. I can´t really sing it, because I tear up and “choke up”. 🙂
    I´m always so grateful for His grace in accepting ME! Again and again.
    I would love a copy of the book, so count me in.

  2. I don’t listen to contemporary Christian music unless it sort of slaps me in the face.

    Amazing Graze is my number one favorite song of all time.

    I’m not sure if this counts as Christian music but I really liked Long Black Train by Josh Turner.

    Desires
    .-= Nessa´s last blog ..Good Bye, Dr. John =-.

  3. I used to get into so much trouble in CCD (religion class for Catholics.) The nuns who tell us something and I would begin asking questions. Pretty soon they would have to call the priest in. I never received a decent answer to any of my questions. I even received some answers that were wrong from the stand point of Church doctrine and / or the Bible. Imagine how well it went over when I point those things out.

    Desires
    .-= Nessa´s last blog ..Good Bye, Dr. John =-.

  4. Oh my GOSH! Do I have to pick just ONE song??? Contemporary Christian music ministers to me every DAY! I’m going to choose Matt Redman’s You Never Let Go though, because the first time God asked me to walk on water, he also sent me that song to help me take the plunge!

    Again… if I don’t win this book, I will surely be buying it! Can’t wait!
    .-= Melli´s last blog ..He Is Going To Be SO Missed…. =-.

  5. Quilly, you’d (and Mr. Turner) be glad to hear that our latest edition of the Baptist Hymnal actually has a whole lot of contemporary praise songs now!

    My favorite is “Behold He Comes” (riding on a cloud) Days Of Elijah:
    These are the days of Elijah
    Declaring the Word of the Lord, yes
    And these are the days of his servant, Moses
    Righteousness being restored
    And these are the days of great trial
    Of famine and darkness and sword
    So we are the voice in the desert crying
    Prepare ye the way of the Lord

    CHORUS:
    Behold he comes
    Riding on a cloud
    Shining like the sun
    At the trumpet’s call
    Lift your voice
    It’s the year of jubilee
    Out of Zion ’till salvation comes

    And these are the days of Ezekiel
    With dry bones becoming as flesh
    And these are the days of his servant, David
    Building the temple of praise, yes
    And these are the days of the harvest
    The fields are all white in the world
    And we are the laborers that are in your vineyard
    declaring the word of the Lord

    CHORUS 2X
    …

    There’s no God like Jehovah (x8–modulate)
    There’s no God like Jehovah (x8–modulate)
    There’s no God like Jehovah (x7)

    Until I heard and learned that song, praising God was a book thing that I was sure I was doing correctlly and enough of. You might even hear me singing that song when I think I am fairly well alone if you could get close enough.

    I would read the book (religiously). 🙂
    ..
    My second post down is a tribute to Dr. John. I linked to your ‘Goodbye Pastor’ blog.
    I also linked to his obituary. Today’s is short, tomorrow will be in full.
    ..
    .-= Jim´s last blog ..Ides of February — Ruby (Red) Tuesday — Red excitment in fifteen days =-.

  6. The book sounds fantastic. Thanks, Quilly!
    Wow, I have to pick just one contemporary Christian song? Well, today, that would be Matt Redman’s “Heart of Worship” because my singing group is working on that one for March 14th (the next time we lead worship). I love this song because it came out at a time when CCM was generating its own “worship wars” within churches (not just hymns vs. praise music, as it had been for many years), and this song reminds us of the true purpose of worship. We don’t sing for entertainment, or for the purpose of music, or because we love to sing; we sing because we are offering up our hearts to God.
    .-= kcinnova´s last blog ..Why dragons have wings =-.

  7. Like the look of the book, but am glad anyway to be able to waffle on about a bit of Christian music I love!

    It is a toss up between ‘All I Can Do’ by Greg X Volz and ‘If These Walls Could Speak’ by Amy Grant – the first because it says that no matter what is happening, all we can do is Praise God and has a great rock feel to it! The second because it is so heartfelt and moving with the simplicity of a beautiful piano backing and some strings and Amy’s gorgeous voice…

    It’s going to have to be the second. From the ‘Lead Me On’ album, though it wasn’t on the original cassette (remember them?) version I had, when I went all digital and bought it on CD it got played again and again, and still does, in fact it is on now. It is a memoir of the way that our homes can have so many memories tied up with them, and that a family home can have a beauty about it just because it has had a family in it. It’s a nostalgic song, a moving song, one that contains a certain tinge of regret but also a sense of moving on with our memories.

    It is a lovely piece of music that makes me cry – which is not something that happens very much at all, sometimes just being able to shed a few tears is being ministered too!

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