Jesus Freaks

DC Talk was one of the first Christian bands that I got really into. They were quite popular among Christian teens back then, and their popularity resulted in their name being branded on other things, like this book: Jesus Freaks, by DC Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs (but likely written by some anonymous ghost writer).

On one hand, this book is an update of the Foxe's Book of Martyrs, on the other, it's just a chance for "The Voice of the Martyrs" to cash in on the success of DC Talk. It's a legit organization that accomplishes a lot of good - standing up for persecuted Christians in restricted nations.

There's some good and some bad to this book. Stories of martyrdom are simultaneously challenging and encouraging. Any martyr's story prompts the question, "Do I have a strong enough faith to be tortured and/or killed for my love of Christ?" The book is also very accessible and easy to read - many people have likely encountered their first stories of martyrdom (outside of the Bible) in this book.

However, the stories are short - for 90% of the stories I longed to know more. They are so short, in fact (1-3 short pages), that they start to blend together. I suppose this book was not intended to be read in just three days, but I don't think that would have changed much. Most stories read something like this: So-and-so had a strong faith in Jesus, but the country they lived in had no tolerance for this faith. So-and-so is arrested, asked to deny his/her faith, doesn't, and then is tortured and/or killed. There are some slight twists, but that's about it. We never get a chance to know these people in any sort of real way, so, in my opinion, the impact of these stories are lessened. This book would have been stronger if instead of having close to 100 martyrs' stories of 1-3 pages they had 20 of longer length.

Additionally, the book was written at a very low level: 6th grade reading level, tops. I know this makes it accessible to a large audience, but it's also not written particularly well. There are plenty of easy-to-read accessible Middle School level books that have rich language and significant depth; Jesus Freaks has neither.

Finally, there is a notable (but not surprising) lack of Catholic "Jesus Freaks." In early Christianity most Christians were Roman Catholic, and MANY were martyred for their faith. However, there are only two martyrs' stories given from 320 until 1500. That's strange. For being a book that claims to represent the stories of martyrs throughout history, there's a stunning nearly-1200 year gap in coverage! That's awful, and clearly prejudiced. There's a TON of stories from the 1500s, when Catholic persecution of new Protestant groups was rampant, but none of the Protestant persecution of Catholics (in the 1800s, mainly). So the book is mainly comprised of 3 groups: early Christians (1100 year gap), early Protestants (350 year gap), and modern Christians in Communist or Muslim countries.

Was this book valuable? Sure, there were some stories that really challenged and blessed me, and I'm sure it could be fairly valuable to a teen Christian. But I honestly wouldn't recommend this book for anyone - there's got to be something better and more legitimate out there.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars (the only reason it gets more than one is because of its message)

26 books, 112 days...at this rate I'll read 85 books