Sophomore Student Publishes Book About Faith Ship in Sammamish, Wash
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thurSday , M arch 25 , 2010 life & arts Graphic b3 Sophomore student publishes book about faith ship in Sammamish, Wash. at Pepperdine in fall 2008. contract from Tate Publishing saying the Hawks added that he is not compar - His book addresses 15 issues many During his first semester, Hawks con - group liked his openly abrasive, sarcastic ing himself to these figures, but said that A.J. Hawks Christians struggle with in a “grey” soci - ducted scriptural research and word stud - and confrontational writing style. if people aspire to live like Jesus, they ety that condones moral relativity. ies in their original languages. By “People are tired of being told that should not run away from their ministry. finished book Hawks supports each point with a pas - Thanksgiving break, his manuscript was their sense of justice is wrong in the After an extensive process of editing sage from Scripture, clarifying each point 65 pages. name of tolerance,” and sifting through options for titles and at age 19. for the reader with his characteristically Ceri Fox, a youth Hawks said. “For our cover art, he received advance copies of forthright delivery. program leader at “S tatistically, I message to get across, his book on Christmas Eve. “I think that in our postmodern era, Evergreen, saw the let - it has to make people While abroad in London for the By SONYA SINGH shouldn’t be at college, Staff writer where everyone can be right and truth is ter and encouraged a angry, and whether year, Hawks has been working with For sophomore A.J. Hawks, all the relative, there is a logical backlash— our reluctant Hawks to let alone at Pepperdine, they admit it or not, Tate to arrange publicity, create a Web pieces fell into place at the right time. sense of justice doesn’t mesh with the send it to a publisher, if they’re listening; it hits site and schedule speaking engage - With the support of an encouraging modern world,” he said. “If you get only to get feedback publishing a book about a soft spot and people ments for the summer. on how to improve it. Coming from an unassuming back - friend and the convenience of Google, punched, you want to hit back— you theology before the age respond.” Hawks recently published a book about want justice— and this recaptures the “I thought it was a Hawks is well aware ground in his early life, Hawks appreci - theology and its application to our mod - true sense of the Gospels. They’re in your silly idea,” Hawks of 55 or 60, and living that his book may not ates and acknowledges the improbability ern world. face, they’re convicting, they’re unpleas - said. “To pridefully garner a positive re - of his current path, especially for his age. Set to hit bookstore shelves April ant at times.” prove her wrong, I in London all the while.” sponse. His no-non - “Statistically, I shouldn’t be at col - Googled ‘Christian lege, let alone at Pepperdine, publishing 6, Hawks finished his book, “Living in But Hawks never intended to write a SOPHOMORE A.J. H AWKS sense approach to a Grey World: Rediscovering the book confronting ambivalent Chris - publishers’ and sent it right and wrong could a book about theology before the age of Black and White Truth of the Word,” tians. Hawks simply planned on writing to the first one that would allow you to offend those sympathetic to the “grey 55 or 60, and living in London all the at age 19. a letter of encouragement and caution submit an online PDF, which was Tate areas” he seeks to clarify, but Hawkes while,” Hawks said. Hawks, a religion and political sci - to the youth at Black Lake Bible Camp Publishing. Ceri had more vision than says this doesn’t worry him. “I think God likes to take people from ence double major, has extensive expe - in Sammamish. I did.” “Do you have an option?” Hawkes humble beginnings because it turns our rience in ministry. He has taught a By the camp’s end, the single-spaced Hawks did not expect a response said. “When you know the truth, can you conventions on their heads. It is by grace nine-week series on Apologetics, letter took up 16-typed pages. from Tate, which he said only accepts 5 really say nothing because you’re afraid of alone that he chooses to use any of us, let preached more than 20 sermons and For the remainder of the summer, he percent of the manuscripts they receive getting an angry e-mail from George in alone a guy from the least-churched city given multiple seminars on evolution wrote and researched extensively, man - per year. San Antonio? The apostles said shocking in America.” and intelligent design at his home aging to flesh out a three-part skeleton He did not work on it during Christ - things to get the point across ... Jesus did - church, Evergreen Christian Fellow - by the time he started his freshman year mas break, but received an e-mail and n’t make friends; he got crucified.” g [email protected] Guanlao : Band spends downtime in Silverlake Continued from B2 The Henry Clay People and Avid Buffalo are also two bands that could also come and break out of the CG: We’re waiting until the end of summer to whole Silverlake vibe. start the writing process. We’re not very productive G: Does the band still spend a lot of time in Silver- writing on tour, and when we get off tour we usually lake during breaks and whatnot? scatter like cockroaches and hide out in L.A. [Laughs] CG: Yeah, of course. Just the other day I was at We still feel pretty fresh with “Swoon.” We’re still Spaceland seeing my friend DJ there and Brian learning the songs for it, and a few of them we haven’t (Aubert, lead singer and guitarist) showed up and we even tried to play live yet that we’ll try out on this tour got a few drinks and caught up. coming up. We don’t need to forcefully see each other, because G: So are you more of a “bunker” band— one that we end up seeing one another in clubs or bars in the holes up in a studio for a month and writes an entire area a lot. It’s still our hangout. album or a band that kind of sends demos to one an- G: Do you think staying in Silverlake helps or hin- other and pieces songs together over a long time pe- ders your music? riod? CG: We never really think about it that deeply. If CG: We’re not the type of band that will try new you do, that’s when you start to second-guess your songs during sound check. Maybe in the future we’ll music, or start trying to sound like someone else or be get better at writing as we go along. some other band. G: Looking back, how do you think “Swoon” did But as far as being grounded, it helps. We still in the band’s eyes? hang out in the same places with the same friends CG: We’re still very proud of it. We worked so when we’re in town— and hang out with Joaquin hard on the record. The four of us spent so much Phoenix. [Laughs] We don’t really think about it that time on it, and it’s great that fans have liked it as well. much, we just do it. There are always times where I say, “I would love to I live right across the street from Spaceland, so I change up the rhythm on a drum part here and know the area really well. And it’s nice to know all there,” but with the four of us being perfectionists, restaurants in town, and know where your friends are we’re always going to feel that way. We’ll always want hanging out and eati ng. Sometimes I’ll go down to to make our next record better than the last, and I Eagle Rock, where I grew up. I try to avoid Holly - think we did that with “Swoon.” wood as much as possible, just because it can get kind As far as the public’s reception of it, I mean, we got of hectic down there. This area is home for us. PHOTO COURTESY OF SILVERSUN PICKUPS nominated for a Grammy, right? [Laughs] It would be G: Favorite thing to do on a summer day in Los From left, Chris Guanlao, vocalist and bassist Nikki Monninger, vocalist and guitarist Brian Aubert and keyboardist Joe Lester. really stupid for me to say we didn’t have a successful Angeles? go around with “Swoon.” We really want to keep CG: Get Mexican food and chill. That’s one thing thing that cracks us up touring out there is we’ll be in like, We like not having so much overhead. We’re totally playing the material off the new record, so hopefully you can’t get on the road a lot: good Mexican food. Germany, and they’ll be singing along to our songs in per - aware of what’s going on in this day and age of the indus - we can and maybe sell a few more records along the G: How do you like touring in Europe? fect English. I think we’re very American as a rock band, try. To make this a career, we don’t need to spend that way.