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Signatures: The Story Of John Michael Talbot
The authorized biography with autobiographical sketches from John Michael included throughout the text. Never-before seen photos from all phases of his career and ministry.
- GenresBiography
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2003
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June 9, 2019
This is a propaganda piece, pushing only the positives about notoriously difficult John Michael Talbot. The life story actually reveals a very self-centered, egotistical "monk" who left Contemporary Christian music to join the Catholic Church, only the author draws the wrong conclusions about his subject. Since the writer is affiliated with Talbot and gains financially from Talbot's success, everything needs to be read with skepticism.
Talbot was a wild man back in the 1970s when he would use half of his concerts to rant against Christians and society. (I sat through one of them, frustrated that he wouldn't shut up and sing!) He got married young, had a baby, traveled the country while ignoring his family, then claims to have been on his knees in tears over the break-up of his marriage. He converted to Catholicism, became a type of a monk, and started recording music that brought him even greater success. He apparently rarely saw his daughter and she is barely mentioned in the book.
However, he took a vow of poverty and was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Always the rebel, Talbot decided to leave the monastery to start his own order in Arkansas with all the money he had coming in. Over the years he built a bunch of places for people to stay who would be under his leadership, though it appears he had poor leadership skills and most people left the organization. He even somehow gets married to a nun, with both of them relieved of their vows by the Church and his marriage conveniently annulled many years after the divorce. This reveals one of the big problems with how the Catholic Church operates, yet the book accepts it as normal.
So in the end a guy who made vows about being poor and preaches sermons about it actually ends up having lots of money to build his own community, a guy who committed to being celibate ends up getting married to a woman who also had committed to being celibate, and a guy who committed to submitting to the leadership of the Catholic hierarchy ends up running his own organization so he can be in charge of his own decisions.
Typical Catholic hypocrisy. Many people think the former evangelical was nuts for becoming Catholic due to theology. The real problem is that Talbot is a primary example of everything wrong with the structure of the Catholic church. It's a boy's club where self-centered "spiritual leaders" can hide behind centuries-old traditions. It's no surprise in the book that Talbot overpraises Bishop Law, who went on to become Cardinal Law, later revealed to have hidden sex abuser priests and moving them around the diocese instead of pulling them out of churches.
The only persons he criticizes are evangelicals that are critical of his conversion to Catholicism, and sweet Mother Angelica, who saw through his hypocrisy and banned him from her EWTN network. He responds slamming her "ultraconservative" spiritual and political stances that he claims go against the Catholic Church. Another example of a Catholic leader protecting his turf by condemning one truly doing good.
I have no doubt that Talbot thinks he hears God speak to him when he builds new buildings, marries a woman, or gives orders to those who have committed themselves to him. But he is delusional if he thinks he is truly being humbly submissive or doing what God really wants. Everything seems to benefit him, and you can't feel too sorry for a guy who has recorded over 45 albums in cushy multi-million dollar studios.
The book should have not taken what he said and did without further investigation. There is a simple mention of how some people were upset at him or the Church had investigated his leadership, but no details are given. After reading this book I don't trust a man who repeatedly breaks his vows or says one thing while doing another thing. I also don't trust someone who thinks that everyone today should live by every Church decision made over the past 2000 years ago. Some of the Catholic Church's rulings and theology are just wrong or unbiblical, but Talbot wants to defend them based on history--a bit like someone saying we should all follow British law from the 1600s since that was the foundation of our American history. The book shows that simply because a man in a religious organization that is a couple thousand years old says all the right words or sings beautiful songs doesn't mean he or the church is doing the right thing.
Talbot was a wild man back in the 1970s when he would use half of his concerts to rant against Christians and society. (I sat through one of them, frustrated that he wouldn't shut up and sing!) He got married young, had a baby, traveled the country while ignoring his family, then claims to have been on his knees in tears over the break-up of his marriage. He converted to Catholicism, became a type of a monk, and started recording music that brought him even greater success. He apparently rarely saw his daughter and she is barely mentioned in the book.
However, he took a vow of poverty and was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Always the rebel, Talbot decided to leave the monastery to start his own order in Arkansas with all the money he had coming in. Over the years he built a bunch of places for people to stay who would be under his leadership, though it appears he had poor leadership skills and most people left the organization. He even somehow gets married to a nun, with both of them relieved of their vows by the Church and his marriage conveniently annulled many years after the divorce. This reveals one of the big problems with how the Catholic Church operates, yet the book accepts it as normal.
So in the end a guy who made vows about being poor and preaches sermons about it actually ends up having lots of money to build his own community, a guy who committed to being celibate ends up getting married to a woman who also had committed to being celibate, and a guy who committed to submitting to the leadership of the Catholic hierarchy ends up running his own organization so he can be in charge of his own decisions.
Typical Catholic hypocrisy. Many people think the former evangelical was nuts for becoming Catholic due to theology. The real problem is that Talbot is a primary example of everything wrong with the structure of the Catholic church. It's a boy's club where self-centered "spiritual leaders" can hide behind centuries-old traditions. It's no surprise in the book that Talbot overpraises Bishop Law, who went on to become Cardinal Law, later revealed to have hidden sex abuser priests and moving them around the diocese instead of pulling them out of churches.
The only persons he criticizes are evangelicals that are critical of his conversion to Catholicism, and sweet Mother Angelica, who saw through his hypocrisy and banned him from her EWTN network. He responds slamming her "ultraconservative" spiritual and political stances that he claims go against the Catholic Church. Another example of a Catholic leader protecting his turf by condemning one truly doing good.
I have no doubt that Talbot thinks he hears God speak to him when he builds new buildings, marries a woman, or gives orders to those who have committed themselves to him. But he is delusional if he thinks he is truly being humbly submissive or doing what God really wants. Everything seems to benefit him, and you can't feel too sorry for a guy who has recorded over 45 albums in cushy multi-million dollar studios.
The book should have not taken what he said and did without further investigation. There is a simple mention of how some people were upset at him or the Church had investigated his leadership, but no details are given. After reading this book I don't trust a man who repeatedly breaks his vows or says one thing while doing another thing. I also don't trust someone who thinks that everyone today should live by every Church decision made over the past 2000 years ago. Some of the Catholic Church's rulings and theology are just wrong or unbiblical, but Talbot wants to defend them based on history--a bit like someone saying we should all follow British law from the 1600s since that was the foundation of our American history. The book shows that simply because a man in a religious organization that is a couple thousand years old says all the right words or sings beautiful songs doesn't mean he or the church is doing the right thing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review