850 Words of Relevant - a response
My email in box was a little heavier this morning. It seems that an article in 850 WORDS OF RELEVANT, an email newsletter, has raised a few eyebrows and heckles in the U2 camp...
Tara Leigh Coble writes...
"About five songs into their set, Bono stopped the show and strapped on a headband with writing on it. I stared up at the JumboTron to see that the handwritten lettering said: COEXIST.
Coexisting sounds like a great idea. I fully support the peaceful philanthropy that Bono has encouraged, and this seemed like another way that he was trying to spread the message.
Except, it started to feel like more than a political message. The “C” in “coexist” was the Islamic crescent moon, the “X” was the Star of David, and the “T” was the cross of Christ. Bono pointed at the symbols on his headband-first to the cross, then to the star, then to the crescent moon-and he began to repeat: “Jesus, Jew, Mohammed-all true. Jesus, Jew, Mohammed-all true.”
He repeated the words like a mantra, and some people even began to repeat it with him. I suddenly wanted to crawl out of my skin. Was Bono, my supposed brother in Christ, preaching some kind of universalism? In just a few seconds, I went from agreeing with him about Christlike “coexistence” to being creeped out by the ungodly, untrue thing he was saying. What’s going on here? What if he believes that all ways are the same, and he just thinks of Christianity as his particular way? Aren’t universalism and true Christianity mutually exclusive?
I’ve heard the urban legends of amazing things Bono has said about his faith, I’ve read the books, and I’ve peered deep into everything he’s said hoping to find something that makes his beliefs clear. For years, I’ve adored him and clung to the notion that he is believer, too. After all, he identifies himself with Christianity, doesn’t he? When he stated that lie so boldly, it devastated me. It was, without question, the most disturbing experience of my life; I felt like I’d been covered in bile. As I looked around, I saw all the people standing and chanting with him-it was disgusting and beautiful all at once. Unity can be so enticing. It made me think of the one world religion and how that will probably look benign and beautiful from the outside, too. I even started to wonder if universalism just might be poised to be that religion. All these things were running through my head."
I guess as I am recognized as a bit of a U2 nerd that I should be the first place people might turn to vent their anger and find opinion. Yet, there is something that links me more intricately to this particular piece; Relevant who sent the article is my publisher and are even giving away free copies of said book to those who sound off about the article! There are many issues raised by the article and by the fact that Relevant published it. I will deal with the Relevant side of it in communication with the company directly so let me simply deal with how it effects are understandings of U2 and Christianity.
U2? To be honest it gets tiresome, and maybe even more so when you have spent most of the past five years writing books and tracking across the world speaking about U2’s faith, when evangelical Christians still have to somehow catch Bono out. We will come to the truth of the COEXIST bandana in a moment but first let us see what Bono has said about his Christian faith this year.
In a recent Q magazine Bono gives pretty much his conversion prayer, telling God he was available for whatever God had for him. Within weeks he joined U2 and started dating Alison Stewart, his future vocation and life partner. Pretty quick and significant answers! He adds, “I couldn’t let go of my faith. But what’s more interesting is that I don’t think God will let go of me.”
The month before in Rolling Stone he spoke extensively about his spiritual life, Scriptures and how that faith is very much of a Christian variety. He points out the wonder of the incarnation, “And I believe in a poetic genius of a creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in “straw poverty”, i.e. the story of Christ makes sense to me.”
Perhaps the most significant pontification about his faith comes in the book Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas. Endlessly quoting Bible stories and digging deep in the Old and New Testament for nuggets of wisdom, Assayas is irritated by the endless Scripture references and not at all able to believe what Bono believes. It is in such intimate conversation that we find Bono coming closest to explaining his faith. The divinity of Christ and effects of the cross are defined with a CS Lewis-like apologetic but perhaps one of his most powerful observations is about the relationship between Karma and Grace.
He said, “I really believe we’ve moved out of the realm of Karma and into one of Grace…You see at the centre of the all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics – in physical laws – every action is met by an equal or opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the every heart of the Universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that, “as you sow, so will you reap” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is every good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff…I’d be in big trouble if Karma was finally going to be my judge. I’d be in deep shit. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”
This is pretty explicit and clear and it does a variety of things in relation to Tara’s article. First, it should explain to her where Bono stands with the Christian faith. If it is Grace and not works (or Karma) then he seems to be depending on the right things; God’s unmerited favour redeeming him in the cross. Secondly it should show what Bono thinks of his Christian belief alongside other faiths. As far as I know the only one offering Grace is Christianity. Bono has never shared any clear commitment to any other belief system than Christianity. He has never espoused any new age, super-market do-it-yourself religion.
Indeed, Bono has always showed suspicion for all religions including institutionalized Christianity, though he has been reconciled somewhat with it in recent years. So that in concert Bono would be proclaiming all religions in some preaching way to a congregation would be against the grain of all that he has said for the past twenty five years and that he would somehow claim to believe them all equally would be a contradiction of most of his spiritual utterances this year.
What Tara needed to do, was to ask why? Why would Bono be wearing such a headband? What was the aim of the act? How does it relate to the belief in Christ that Bono so obviously has? A little more research would have helped enlighten her. Her article comes out after the release of the official DVD of the Vertigo Tour. I went straight to that document to allow Tara’s words to caress and collide with the actual events. I quickly discovered that Bono says, at least in Chicago, “Jesus, Jew, Mohammed…it’s true… all sons of Abraham.” And indeed that is true. Isn’t it? Of course when I watched the same scene in Vancouver, back in April, I had been researching the revised edition of my Walk On book and had documented Bono’s idea of a museum in Europe that would bring all three ancestors of Abraham together to see what they had in common at their source. It is part of Bono’s peace initiative worldwide. He wants us to see what indeed is true about all three faiths that are doing all kinds of harm to each other at this moment in history.
So once we see where Bono is coming from and get a more accurate quotation and understanding we should maybe move on further and try to learn something about Christianity and how it will relate to our times. In the postmodern world (lazy term but I hope you know what I mean) we are not going to defined, or find any power, in what we are not or what we are opposed to. Tara’s article betrays an insecurity about evangelical Christianity that needs to be discarded. In the new dispensation we need to start believing that the truth is strong enough. We don’t need to damn everything else for us to get saved. Getting saved will damn what needs damned. The saved will be saved no matter. We need to begin to portray the positive, life changing, society transforming power of Christ. If we do, we don’t need to insult or antagonize our neighbours of different faiths. It is down to belief. Either truth is strong and true or it is not. If it is weak then we maybe do have to beat to a pulp anything that threatens it.
In all aspects of his life Bono has decided to be a friend. He has relationships with atheists, hedonists, druggies, philanderers, war mongers, greedy capitalists, fascists, Marxists… you name it. It is about COEXISTence! What he has decided to do with this wide array of human beings is to recognize that they are all made in the image of God and loved by that God, so much that he would become a baby in straw and a man on a cross for them. In not distancing them by their beliefs, or by their behavioural decisions, Bono has a voice among those whom he feels Jesus would move amongst. He believes that the truth he utters amongst them about a whole plethora of issues is true enough to apply the power of change.
Of course in Jesus day there were those who questioned his liberal approach to the tax collector, prostitute and sinner; Bono has actually SINNER stenciled onto his leather jacket. He is humble in his confessions of his own failings. He is aware that it is sinner not Messiah that he is playing even though he’d like to see look at the world as Jesus does and bring Christ-like change. Jesus raised the heckles of the Pharisees by partying with these people, allowing them to pour expensive oils over his feet. They called him a glutton and drunkard as a result of his seeming ambiguity. He just loved them, condemned them not and spoke the truth of the love of God believing that that would change people and society.
Just one last thing and I promise I don’t mean it to be a cheap shot. Tara says of this rock concert moment, “It was, without question, the most disturbing experience of my life; I felt like I’d been covered in bile.” We have thousands of children dying because they don’t have the water and drugs that we take for granted. We have three people having more control over wealth than the sixty poorest nations. We have wars raging, some of us involved in the killing of thousands of civilians for the most dubious of reasons. We are raping the creation of our God and Father and it is causing catastrophic “natural” tragedies. In the season when God made himself poor, we are lavishing one another with joke presents and gratifying our sick materialism while people die of hunger. Only 13% of evangelical Christians in America are interested in helping with the HIV/AIDS pandemic in southern Africa. Anti-Christs are rampant and ravaging the world and the most disturbing thing is a mis-quote from a rock star. God forgive us. At least Bono believes He will!
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