Yearning for answers, relationship with God underpins its theology
Years before becoming an Anglican priest, Andrew Asbil felt drawn to Irish rockers U2 and their message of hope and salvation.
"I've been a huge fan since the first album, Boy, came out," says Asbil, 48, now minister at Toronto's Church of the Redeemer.
Boy, released in 1980, set U2 apart, he says. It wasn't the fluff the 1980s became known for, instead challenging fans to find meaning in life. In his first year of university, Asbil was hooked, and remained a fan as his studies led him to theology.
"When I started my seminary work, I began looking at the lyrics in a different way and began to see a lot of the biblical narratives."
The band's lyrics seeped into his conversations and sermons. Last spring, he even featured "The Moment of Surrender" from U2's latest album in Good Friday services.
"It's a song that says there come moments in your life when you have to surrender to love," he says.
And on Sept. 14, the Church of the Redeemer, at Bloor St. and Avenue Rd., will host a U2 night, with Asbil exploring the theological underpinnings of the band's music, with musical accompaniment from parishioner and Toronto musician Mike Daley and his band. The free event runs from 7 to 9 p.m.
U2 plays two shows at the Rogers Centre on Sept. 16 and 17.
Asbil, who has seen the band several times, says there is almost a "covert" aspect to the spirituality of the band's songs that attracts both secular and religious audiences.
"There's a subtlety to it," he says. "They weave in images that are archetypal, but also spiritual."
Not everyone agrees, however. Bono's legendary ego can come across as self-righteous and has turned off as many people as it's inspired. Asbil says not all his parishioners share his enthusiasm for the band. Bono, himself, has admitted to an inflated opinion of himself.
"I've got a messianic complex. It's true. And anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation," he said in his 2006 address to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.
U2 has never hidden the faith of its members, though few outside the most devout of Christian families paid much attention.
Three of the band's four members – singer Bono, guitarist The Edge and drummer Larry Mullen – were deeply involved with Shalom, a charismatic Christian group in Dublin, when the band formed 30 years ago.
Bassist Adam Clayton has been described as spiritual, but not religious.
They left Shalom after leaders of the movement told them to choose between it and their music. They chose the music, but never left their faith behind. Now free of organized religion, they could explore their faith on their own terms.
And that, says author Greg Garrett, is what distinguishes U2 from other Christian rock bands, who he says push "a message instead of following the truth wherever it led them."
No traditional Christian rocker band would sing "I still haven't found what I'm looking for," as U2 does, writes Garnett, author of We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2.
Still, the band's obvious Christian references made it "safe" for the children of religious families to listen to, Garrett says in a telephone interview, while its willingness to ask troubling spiritual questions appeals to the non-religious.
The theology of U2 is a yearning for answers and a relationship with God rather than claiming to have found any such thing. That, says Garrett, resonates in a secular society in which traditional houses of worship struggle to keep members.
It's religion for those who don't want churches or the faith of their youth. The faith of U2 is questioning and unsure, yet hopeful that a better world is possible. It is Christian-based, but its messages of peace and love are common to many religions.
"I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us are here – Muslims, Jews, Christians – are all searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God," Bono said at the Prayer Breakfast. "I am certainly searching, and that, I suppose, is what led me here."
U2's music could perhaps come only from Ireland, where religious strife has torn the country apart. Bono is the son of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother.
In "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," he sings, "I can't believe the news today, I can't close my eyes and make it go away," calling on listeners to bear witness to the troubles around them as the first step to addressing them, Garrett writes.
In the song "One," the turn of phrasing is key as Bono sings, "We get to carry each other," Garrett says.
The line isn't the more obligation-sounding, "We've got to carry each other," as the faithful have often viewed scriptural passages telling them to help the less fortunate.
"It's not about duty, or slogging through working at the soup kitchen," Garrett says. "It's a great joy and blessing to be able to lift each other up, because community is where we're formed."
Asbil admits he cringes at U2 shilling for Research in Motion on its latest BlackBerry commercial, but quickly comes to their defence.
"The purist part of me says, `Oh, for heaven's sake, how can you do that?' But on the other hand, they are business people, they donate a lot of their time, they donate a lot of their money, they donate their name" to social causes, he says.
"The lasting legacy of U2 is that the music speaks to a higher ideal."
(c) Toronto Star, 2009.
if only i had turned around
