I’ll be on the CBC’s Freestyle program this afternoon. Tune in, eh?

From Ruth, a.k.a. anduril05’s LiveJournal:

Along with looking at CCM, Beaujon took a shot at the parallel universe of praise/worship music, as well. Once again, not much quality musicianship there, but he saw a few streams of light poking out in some acts. He attended a few conferences, interviewed some artists, did a ton of research, and came out with a well-balanced look on the entire contemporary Christian world. I also appreciated the fact that he jumped over to the culture. He attended a pro-life rally in Washington DC, Calvin College’s “Festival of Faith and Music” and a handful of worship services.

One of Ruth’s commenters asked to borrow her copy (NO!!!!!!); another said s/he was interested in reading my buddy Andy Greenwald’s book about emo, Nothing Feels Good, as well. True story: After I finished the book, I said one thing to the missus about the cover— “Gee, I hope it’s not gonna be a picture of a teenager wearing a T-shirt with the title on it like Andy’s book.”

Sigh.

G13, a Christian person from Beverley, Mass., wrote up a nice post about my book. Here’s what he likes:

the most compelling characteristic of the story is beaujon’s deep desire to understand evangelical culture and his overwhelming empathy concerning the intentions and aims of the wide variety of evangelicals (from jay bakker to dave bazan) that he encounters along the way. near the end of the book, i was startled by beaujon’s compassion for a culture that is not his own and challenged to be more charitable towards a culture that, like it or not, is my own.

And here’s what he doesn’t:

his indifference towards americana music in general and bill mallonee in particular, the relatively unengaging profile on rock for life and the pro-life movement and the failure to mention – at any single point – the influence that progressive, christocentric, iconoclastic influence rich mullins levied upon contemporary christian music.

I liked the Rock for Life profile, but otherwise, I plead guilty. I think the Rich Mullins story is very interesting (especially since there’s an aspect of it that will likely make many evangelical Christians very uncomfortable), and I hope to look into it more someday.

Americana music I will never find interesting.

I profiled Mark Driscoll glancingly in the book; originally I’d meant to just write something on his church for a chapter I’d planned on youth-oriented churches, but he was such a fascinating interview subject that I ended up writing a short chapter on his parish, Mars Hill in Seattle. All that’s to say that he wrote a blog post about the book, and he appears to have liked it, even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like Christian rock.

I wish I’d done a bigger profile of him. Dang.

A preview of a Christian rock fest in dairy country, with lots of quotes from yours truly.

A mostly kind review from the Statesman’s Russell Cobb. I guess I’m feeling a little defensive today, because Cobb says:

Though Rock for Life stops just short of calling for a boycott of anti-Bush bands and can be quite funny (they sell T-shirts that say “abortion is mean” and are especially fond of a design of an embryo playing a guitar), their censorious attitude seems to conflict with Beaujon’s portrait of the modern Christian rock scene. But Beaujon, perhaps overly careful about never making fun of anyone in this subculture, never quite manages to work up a critique of Rock for Life.

I didn’t think it was my job to critique the organization. I profiled it. The critique comes from the reader, depending on how well I handled the profile. If I didn’t give you enough information to make up your own mind, well, that I want to hear about.

A well-done review, and some fair criticism, from the Star-Trib’s Martin Schmutterer, who takes me to task for not speaking to more people, and “thus only half the story.” In my defense, I was worried about the book becoming a morass of quotes and characters and tried to limit the “talking heads,” but I absolutely see Schmutterer’s point.

I don’t, on the other hand, concede on this one:

And, although put forward as a given, there is no insight into the mindset of separateness and persecution that pervades evangelical culture and informs its music.

I think I covered that quite thoroughly. Please let me know if you disagree.

Mikael Wood takes a looksee at my book.

Beaujon locates no easy answers. But the complexity and ambivalence he uncovers among the community’s central figures is refreshing, especially in an age increasingly defined by rampant religious fanaticism.

Rivet’s Andrea Benvenuto does not like the way I wrote about myself in the book. Fair enough.

A nice review by Miles Raymer in last week’s edition, with a thought-provoking kicker:

Stephen Prothero, in his American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, points out that much of Christianity’s success in the U.S. comes from the American ability to mold Jesus into a customized savior for every believer’s need. This isn’t new: 30 years ago the Jesus people just refashioned JC as the grooviest hippie of them all. The kids of the culture wars—caught between an increasingly fundamentalist culture and an ever-more-pressing material one—need more than just a Christ they can get crunk for. They need a Jesus who’s pro-life and antigay, who can sell video games—and T-shirts too.