BOOK REVIEW - "WITH ALL ITS TEETH: SEX, VIOLENCE, PROFANITY, AND THE DEATH OF CHRISTIAN ART" BY JOSHUA S. PORTER

The Bible is a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path." Does this mean that there are times it only lights a foot or two of that road? Can the Bible be clear one moment, ambiguous the next and some mixture a little further on? Is it blasphemous to consider that the Bible is art, or is that view consistent with God being the Master Artist? And is it possible that a novel or painting or other form of artistic creativity may be highly offensive to one believer and a comfort to another?

"With All Its Teeth: Sex, Violence, Profanity, and the Death of Christian Art," written by novelist, art-punk musician, and pastor Joshua S. Porter (odd combiniation, isn't it?) deals with these questions and others. 

The preface and "Act I: What is Art?" deals with the difficulty of defining art, that God is an artist and the world and Scripture are among His works of art, and the fact that art is not always beautiful or comfortable. At the end of chapter 1:1, Porter states, "To take issue with art is to take issue with God,. To devalue art is to devalue God." (p. 33). The remainder of the book has sections on what art is for, what to do with art, and dealing with concerns we have dealt with by art such as sex and violence. He concludes with how to move toward a Christian Appreciation of Art.

There aren't many books I consider rereading. This is an exception. It gave me things to think about, and some of those themes will come out in my blog. For example, most of my novel reading and music listening is focused on the Christian market. He hasn't changed my mind about my approach, and I'll be glad to tell you why, but  I am stronger on that being my opinion and calling, and applaud those who take a different direction.

I recommend this book very highly. I think pastors should read this, as well as artists and relatives of artists who wish they'd get a real job. I will give put an advisory on it - there may be parts you consider offensive. For example, when quoting someone using cuss words, he includes cuss words. 

 

ALBUM REVIEW - "HOUSE OF MOURNING" BY ANGEL MACHINE

"The heart of the wise in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." Ecclesiastes 7:4

"House of Mourning," the most recent release by Angel Machine, can be considered a concept album, based on the theme of the title, with lyrics, vocals, and keyboards creating a heavy mood. 

Angel Machine consists of Wayde and Apryll Seraph. This project begins with "Prelude: the House of Mourning," consisting of spoken word backed up with the electronic keyboards, and concludes with the radio edit of "Sea of Glass" (a longer version is the 3rd cut). 

At the halfway mark of 2026, this is my favorite album of the year. It definitely is thought provking and has memorable songs. My favorites are "Sea of Glass" and "Belief Divides." The instrumentals (title track, winter song) are both excellent as well.

LOOKING BACK AT THE '26 INDIANA GOSPEL MUSIC FESTIVAL AND A COMPARISON BETWEEN IGMF AND KINGDOM COME FESTIVAL.

Eric Shaw, emcee of the '26 IGMF, center, flanked by Revival Road Quartet

Becky and I moved to Indianapolis in '95, and for a while, we had no knowledge of two different music festivals. A little over a month ago, I gave you a pair of blogs dealing with the Kingdom Come Festival (aka KCF), which I was unaware of until '21 and didn't attend for another two years. Now, I attend most of it on the third weekend of June. The event is Thursday night and goes from 10am to about midnight Friday and Saturday; since I don't like driving after dark, I avoid the Thursday night set and leave the other nights no later than 7; earlier if I start getting sleepy. It is located at the Howard County Vietnam Veterans Grounds, and I drive the hour long trip back and forth.

Around that time, I also became familiar with the Indiana Gospel Music Festival (referred to as the IGMF). Actually, that familiarity was more with the Indiana Gospel Music Association (IGMA), and there is an overlap between the two. This event is, I believe, the 4th Saturday of July at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall, half the distance KCF is.. 

This year, IGMF was hosted by Eric Shaw, and included Ginny Spellman, Revival Road Quartet, Victorious Trio, Jeff Shelburne, the Worthen Family, Witness Quartet, By Faith Quartet, The Riddells, and the David Melton Family Singers. I'll admit I got drowsy, so I missed the final act and the finale. I first attended the '24 IGMF, and returned after missing last year's.

I wrote a summary of the '24 IGMF, and promised a blog of comparing the two festivals. That promised blog was posted... uh, now. I forgot all about it, so I'll mention the comparisons between the two.

1. MUSICAL GENRE. KCF is eclectic style wise, though it's mostly metal/hard rock (there also was rap, country, and pop. IGMF is Southern Gospel. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was the only person who attended both events. (In fact, I'd be shocked if I wasn't.)
2. THE GROUNDS. KCF currently has three stages: The outdoor Main Stage, an indoor stage in a metal barn, and an acoustic stage under a tent. Only the Acoustic stage has seats set up in the area. IGMF, on the other hand, is indoors, with seats set up for the audience, who help put up those chairs when the festival is over.
3. DURATION. I mentioned KCF's duration above. IGMF is four hours.
4. SCHEDULE. KCF's sets mostly are half an hour, with some of the Acoustic Stage's being 20 minutes, and the bigger names having 45 minute to an hour sets. The Main Stage has 15 minutes between sets, while the other stages have a 30 minute break. This year, each IGMF artist had 4 song sets (the final act, which I missed, may have been longer). The emcee gave a few announcements and jokes, but there probably was no more than five minutes between acts. The reason why follows.
5. INSTRUMENTS OF CHOICE. Here, I'll start with the IGMF: the accompaniment of choice most of the time is back-ground tapes. When I left this year, the only live instrument was Jeff Shelburne's trumpet; in '24 one act had a piano player, and soloist Curtis Pruett played both guitar and keyboards - in one case, on the same song. The performers at KCF were mostly bands, and I believe that any who used tracks also had live instruments.
6. TIME TO VISIT WITH THE ARTISTS. Simply put, if you want to mingle with the artists at IGMF, plan on getting there at least a half hour early, because the transitions between acts aren't long enough to do much moving around. As for KCF, they have a large merchandise tent separate from the stages, where it's easy to get merchandise and talk to the artists, with time to spend in that tent.
7. FINALLY, THE FINALE. I've been to three IGMF events (one of which had Eric Shaw as emcee and three artists performing), and I left early for one, but my hunch is they always end with all the artists getting on the stage and the emcee leading the singers and audience in singing a few traditional songs everyone knows. I've always left KCF hours before the final act, but the logistics seem to be against them having the same type of conclusion (KCF has 50 or so different artists in the three days, IGMF has approximately a dozen).

Allow me to close with a few photos from the IGMF Festival.

EmCee Eric Shaw and Ginny Spellman

Victorious Trio

Justin Riddell of The Riddells with his wife and children. Not pictured is the rest of the group - Justin's sister and mother.

The Worthen Family 

By Faith Quartet, with Eric Shaw emceeing.

The Witness Quartet. The young men in the back row on the left are brothers, and took turns filling in for their normal bass singer (one commented they never had a normal bass singer). 
  

Jeff Shelburne

BOOK REVIEW - "FRACTURED, FRAGMENT 01" (DARK TRENCH SHADOW SERIES, BOOK 3 OF 4) BY KERRY NIETZ

 What is the greatest danger facing Threadbare the debugger? Anti-tech terrorists threatening to destroy the status quo? A sadistic representative determined to enforce the status quo? Or his girl-friend Damali, which is the opposite of a debugger's status quo?

After a multi-year break working on other series and a stand-alone, Kerry Nietz returns with book 3 of his Dark Trench Shadow Series with "Fractured, Fragment One." At the time of review, "Fractured, Fragment Two" is published and available. In his acknowledgements, Nietz mentioned that when he was writing the latest installment of the Dark Trench Shadow Series it was getting to long for one book, so he divided it up into two parts.

Nietz's first novel was "A Star Curiously Singing," the beginning of the  three part DarkTrench Saga. Later, he introduced the DarkTrench Shadow series, which starts at the same point of time the earlier series did, but took a divergent route with some of the same characters, and ends before DarkTrench Saga does. If you haven't read any of his Dark Trench books, my suggestion would be to read the first two DarkTrench novels ("A Star Curiously Singing" and "The Superlative Stream," and then read the DarkTrench Shadow Series ("Frayed," Fraught," and "Fractured" both Fragment 1 and Fragment 2), and then conclude with "Freeheads," the last of the DarkTrench Saga.

For those unfamiliar, the DarkTrench stories fall into the distopian category, a world where the planet is under Sharia Law and a part of the populace are debuggers, with head implants. The books are full of plot twists, as well as interesting characters.

I highly recommend all of Nietz's books. I've read 14 of his novels (I'll be starting Fractured, Fragment 2 in a couple of days), his autobiographic "Fox Tales," and "Just Dumb Enough," a collaboration by the March Lords, including Nietz. 

BOOK REVIEW - "I WISH YOU JESUS: THE LIFE & MUSIC OF SCOTT WESLEY BROWN" BY KEITH MANLEY WITH SCOTT WESLEY BROWN

 My adult life has been blessed by listening to Scott Wesley Brown. Many of his songs have been a constant encouragement like "Learning To Live Like Jesus," "Keep the Son In Your Eyes," "Within His Joy," "Look What God Is Doing," and "He Will Carry You." Some leave me feeling back I've just hearing a sermon, such as "This Little Child" and "Yeshua Hamachiah." And my favorite Scott Wesley song (and in the top ten of my all time favorite songs, quite possibly the top five), "Out on a Limb" is a superb motivator.

Likewise "I Wish You Jesus," the authorized biography by Keith Manley with Scott Wesley Brown, accomplishes some of those things as it goes through Scott's life. I found myself encouraged and motivated reading this book I didn't know he was involved with CCM since the Jesus Music Days, that he worked with important people in the formation of Christian music like Larry Norman and Gary Paxton, and was part of Sparrow Records when it started. It also shares his heart for missions, including several trips to places around the world, including behind the iron curtain before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and once having his guitar confiscated by the KGB.

There were a few weaknesses with the book. It seems like he has too many "This really impacted Scott's life" to keep me from rolling my eyes some. By the end of the book, what was meant as review ended up being repetitiveness. Still, this book is worthy of 5 stars and a full recommendation.

BOOK REVIEW - "SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH" (COLORADO K-9 UNIT BOOK 1) BY LAURA SCOTT

 

Who murdered rancher Jordan Clarke's missing sister, and what happened to her newborn child?  How about the unknown assailant taking potshots at Autumn Riley, who with her bloodhound partner Bear are part of a task force to solve that murder, two previous similar killings, and rescue another pregnant girl who's missing?

It's an annual tradition, or at least its been the past four years: Laura Scott has the honor of starting Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspence imprint. This year, she's getting the Colorado K-9 Unit series moving with "Searching for the Truth." 

One thing I always try to do in reviewing fiction is to spoil the book (I don't worry as much about spoiling the plot in non-fiction books). Of course, the main story threads are not concluded in the first book, but in my opinion the ending for the first book was not completely satisfying. I see hints that parts of this series will be disturbing for certain readers. 

Does that mean I don't recommend it? No. It's well written, and you can care for Jordan and Autumn through this story (and they'll probably have a smaller but definite part as the series progresses. Thus, I give this 5 stars, and recommend it.

ALBUM REVIEW - "RED ALERT" BY MALCOLM & THE MIRRORS

Red Alert by Malcolm and the Mirrors, which came out in '82, is one of my favorite albums musically, one of my favorite albums ministry wise, and one of my favorite album covers.

No, this album came out before the TV show, so there's no connection with Malcolm in the Middle. Malcolm refers to Malcolm Wild, who in the '70' was part of the Jesus Music pioneer group Malcolm & Alwyn, who had a solo between the two groups (he's currently a pastor at a Calvary Chapel in Florida). For those who are familiar with his earlier items, you need to put on your seat belt - this one is definitely harder.

Some of the songs on this project deal with the threat of nuclear war in the title track and in "Paint Your Windows White." The answer, though, is not politics but in Christ, which are the themes of lead off song "Gotta Give," "Can't Live Without Him" (which was previously on the Back To The Rock compilation), "Sharon O (She's Gonna Go Through Stages)," and "Love Your Love."

For me, though, the highlight of the album is the final two songs. "Look Up! (His Coming's Near)" and "Alright By Me" have encouraged me multiple times in the 45 years since I started listening to them, up till present.

I highly recommend this album.