Review: Body Piercing Saved My Life

Pastor Mark Driscoll recently wrote about the book, Body Piercing Saved My Life, over at The Resurgence. Here’s a review that will appear in August, Vox Pop #20.

By Matt Johnson

Ever hear that old adage “why should the devil have all the good music”? The quote is often mistakenly attributed to the 70s Jesus People Movement pioneer Larry Norman when in fact, rumor has it, Martin Luther coined the saying. Regardless of where the question comes from, the fact is that music has been a point of controversy within Christendom for centuries.

Senior contributing writer for Spin Magazine Andrew Beaujon comes to this project as a non-believer and an outsider to the world of Christian rock. Beaujon describes the Christian music world as a parallel universe to the “real” world of rock and roll depravity. To be fair, that’s really not a bad assessment. Historically, Christian artists have been famous for offering up second rate family-friendly versions of what is popular in culture at large. The Christian version of Hall and Oates in the 80s = Degarmo and Key. If you like AC/DC, you’ll love X-Sinner! And the list goes on and on.

The book’s title (Body Piercing Saved My Life) is swiped from a popular T-shirt slogan the author kept seeing at Christian music festivals. The front of the shirt bears the body piercing slogan while the back displays an image of the wounds in Jesus’ hands, post crucifixion. Beaujon considers this image “a suitable metaphor for the way Christian music imbued the language and symbols of the rock world with unexpected, ultimately subversive meaning.” This idea is essentially a springboard into the rest of the book.

I was surprised when I first saw this book on the shelf in the Mars Hill bookstore, considering it appeared to be a slight against a subculture kind of close to home. To be honest I’m not sure that this book would be for sale here if it weren’t for a chapter on Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church (for anyone that’s read anything in the press about Mars Hill, there’s really nothing new here). As a music nerd obsessed with the sociological implications of music, faith, and culture intersecting, however, I’m glad it’s available.

Although the writer’s opinion peeks through from time to time on typical pet issues (namely the preoccupation with women’s “reproductive health” issues), by and large this is a very sincere, honest look at the culture of Christian music. From a journalistic standpoint, Beaujon’s writing is top notch.

He isn’t out to demonize anyone or make fun of the music or the fans, and surprisingly-though discontinuities between faith and practice is mentioned from time to time-he isn’t out to smear the Christian faith.

I was a skeptic at first but Body Piercing is well researched, reads in a nice conversational tone, and is refreshing in that it lacks the air of cultural superiority typically maintained by those who criticize or analyze Christian rock.

Just to be clear, this is not a fan book about your favorite Christian rock band. Yes, Skillet, Cool Hand Luke, Mute Math, P.O.D., Switchfoot, Pedro the Lion, David Crowder Band-even oldsters like Rez, Keith Green, Larry Norman, Stryper, and Amy Grant-are referenced. But Beaujon is concerned with the bigger picture. What is the attraction to this music? Why do Christians cloister themselves away from the general culture and what makes these Christian music fans tick? All relevant questions worth asking.

I get the impression that Beaujon is sincerely surprised by what he finds. With each festival he attends, music business convention he goes to, and band he interviews, the answers to the abovementioned questions are as varied as the individuals themselves. For instance: What is Christian music? Some say it’s music made by and for the edification of Christians. Some restate the conversation by saying, “Well, we’re not a “Christian band’ we’re just Christians in a band.” Others reject the distinction between sacred and secular altogether, in light of Christ’s rule and reign over all; our job as Christians is to extract the good, pure, lovely, and noble things of the culture and mine the truth around us for the cause of the gospel. This answer seems the most consistent to me.

Beaujon didn’t become a Christian while writing Body Piercing, but he did become a fan of not just the music, but of Christians, and of Jesus Himself.sort of. The character traits he attributes to Jesus are lacking but it’s good to see a skeptic thinking through the issues nonetheless. “As long as Americans continue to try out identities till they find one what suits them,” Beaujon writes, “they’re going to need maps, if you will, of whatever path they’ve chosen. The tessellated world of Christian music is really just a guide to the many ways to navigate the muddled, mottled landscape of just one of those choices.”

He continues, in effect condoning the “genre” with the conclusion, “Here’s to never stopping seeking, to never stopping rocking, to never stopping shopping. No, there doesn’t need to be Christian rock. But I’d hate to live anywhere that didn’t give people enough hope to think opposite.”

On a personal note, much of the cognitive dissonance that Beaujon unearths in his journey into the parallel universe of Christian rock really hit home for this reviewer. I have been in bands that have toured the country extensively, put out records, and lived on peanut butter and jelly for the better part of a decade. Early on I kept a foot in the Christian rock world before being utterly repulsed and moving on.

Not to say that there isn’t a place for Christian music necessarily. But the commercially successful artists that are more philosophically leery about their associations with Christian music (P.O.D., Switchfoot, Mute Math, Stacie Orrico, Pedro the Lion, and Sufjan Stevens, who consistently refuses Beaujon an interview throughout the book) seem much more likely to missionally engage a general listening audience. The artists that choose the arguably easier road of a ready-made Christian audience run the risk of ghettoizing themselves into a subculture where the prospect of maneuvering between faith, art, and commerce becomes a tricky reality. But that’s a separate article for another day.

Here’s an interview with author, Andrew Beaujon.