Being Untwisted

Title: Being Untwisted: Deciphering Christianity's Malignant, Evolving, Ulterior Purpose

Author: Mike Marty

Publisher: Michael Marty

Genre: Essays, Christian Nonfiction

Source: Author provided

My Review:

Mike Marty is the owner of the KLUV radio station. He reached out to me and requested I read his book. I like listening to the KLUV radio station so I decided to give it a try. (edited to add: when he wrote this book he was not aware of K-LOVE radio station).

Being Untwisted is a collection of essays written by nine people who all work at the KLUV radio station. Each person has written several essays on a variety of topics. When I read the synopsis I thought there were nine essays. 

The synopsis does not fully portray what this book is about. Unfortunately, after reading it I can't give a better description.What I took from the book is that nine people were giving their opinions on a variety of topics. In some cases, the essays were written more in a "lecture" tone rather than an "informational" one. There is a lot of repetition of phrases and thoughts.

"Though other great works do it nearly as well, the Bible probably has the best capacity to inspire its readers to understand there's more to life than working, eating, sleeping...oh, and partying."

The above quote is just one of many that I am not sure how to take (underlined emphasis mine). I don't know if is said in jest, being snarky, or completely serious. This is the major problem I have with the book, I don't know how to take it. There were so many things that I felt were not clear, or that clearly went against what I was taught.

Reading on the Kindle made the book very disjointed. After every essay, there was a link to connect back to the beginning of the book. There are song titles at the beginning of some sections of essays referencing a particular verse, but that is not helpful. I am not going to stop reading, get on Google, and see what the song is about. It would flow better if actual lyrics were in the book.

Thank you to the author for the opportunity to read this book. I was not required to provide a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Synopsis (From Goodreads):

The young, ambitious employees at radio station KLUV have a common belief that life is worth living. They are constantly inspired and challenged by the principles of honesty and love which they feel are at the pinnacle of the meaning of life. They believe that these two truths used in harmony can make life very enjoyable and ultimately worth the effort.

In this collection of confessional and explorative essays, nine of them have pieced together a vast array of their lives' experiences into a basic framework of their perceived truths about faith and life. They believe strongly that they've presented a thorough account of their beliefs, and they feel that the chosen topics are broadly comprehensive in their scope.

If, in fact, both "believers" and "non-believers" in our country today are, more often than not, mistakenly misled with regard to the original, historical, and contemporary encapsulations of Christian knowledge and requisite conduct, Being Untwisted begins the work of alleviating the mistakes.

Love the truth; love it, don't loathe it.