Bono Answers The Big Questions...

[spanisheyes]

about God, on being a Christian, and religion as the enemy of God...taken from the transcript of Bono's interview on Larry King Live, Sunday, December 1, 2002...

KING: What makes a kid get evil? What makes a man...

BONO: What makes man evil?

KING: Yes.

BONO: I think -- I mean, if you ask a big question like that, and you have to look into -- you have to be responsible and to follow those questions through to the people and study the people who have asked them over eons, over centuries. And you get to the great books of wisdom, and you get to the scriptures, in my case. And you know, I've -- listen, I am the worst -- I am at the very bottom of the list of the food chain of -- you know, I sort of need to practice a whole lot more Christian. But...

(CROSSTALK)

KING: ... Christian.

BONO: That's what I hold onto. KING: Right back with Bono. It's World AIDS Day. He's starting a national in the heartland talking tour with the Judds -- don't go away.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

KING: We're back with Bono.

You mentioned being Christian, and...

BONO: Trying to be.

KING: ... trying to be. Are you -- do you like organized religion? Are you a Catholic? Do you go to mass?

BONO: Who in Ireland could have too much respect for organized religion? We've seen it tear our country in two. My mother was a Protestant. My father was a Catholic. And I learned that religion is often the enemy of God, actually.

And religion is this sort of -- religion is the artifice, you know, the building, after God has left it sometimes, like Elvis has left the building. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.

KING: So, especially in Ireland, you've seen it fail.

BONO: Yes, yes. And now, we're watching it around the world. We're watching what religion can do. And you know, I think it's anathema, and see -- religion takes ideas. Religion often reduces the size of God. God is so big. It's a gigantic concept in God. The idea that God might love us and be interested in us is kind of huge and gigantic, but we turn it, because we're small-minded, into this tiny, petty, often greedy version of God, that is religion.

KING: And so, we raise money in his name and go to war in his name.

BONO: Yes.

KING: If there is a God, he must be angry at a lot of this.

BONO: I think God is very angry at the moment, and I think there is -- I think it's shocking what is going on in the world. And I think it is an extraordinary moment.


Chris

 

[adamswildhoney]

WOW!! that was awesome to read bc Bono and I share the same beliefs when it comes to religion!!

Thanks Spainsheyes!!!

 

[spanisheyes]

Bono Issues Blunt Message for Christians During Heartland Tour

Chicago Sun-Times
3rd December, 2002

Bono Issues Blunt Message for Christians

By Cathleen Falsani


IOWA CITY, Iowa - Motoring his way across the blustery Midwestern
plains from Nebraska to Iowa Monday in a gleaming silver and chrome
tour bus, rock star-cum-humanitarian Bono revealed the true motives
behind his crusade to save Africa from the scourge of AIDS and
poverty.

The singer is on a seven-day tour of Mid-America with his
organization Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa, or DATA as he calls it,
to raise Americans' consciousness about the plight of millions of
Africans who are HIV-infected and dying -- more than 6,500 of them
every day -- because they cannot afford life extending AIDS drugs made
in America.

"That there's a force of love and logic behind the universe is
overwhelming to start with, if you believe it," Bono told the Chicago
Sun-Times as he road past mown corn fields west of Omaha. "But the
idea that that same love and logic would choose to describe itself as
a baby born in s--- and straw and poverty, is genius. And brings me
to my knees, literally.

"Christ's example is being demeaned by the church if they ignore the
new leprosy, which is AIDS. The church is the sleeping giant here. If
it wakes up to what's really going on in the rest of the world, it
has a real role to play. If it doesn't, it will be irrelevant."

When the 42-year-old lead singer of the Irish band U2 talks
about "the church," he's counting himself among its members.

As a lyricist, Bono has woven sometimes overtly Christian themes
through his music. And as an activist, he's comfortable talking about
moral imperatives. But he doesn't often talk explicitly about his own
faith.

That seems to be changing as his passion for what he calls "the
emergency" in Africa grows. Saving Africa is not just a matter of
economics, security or morality. For Bono, it's a matter of faith.

"To some people the church is their ticket to respectability, a
certain bourgeois point of view, a safety net for when they go to
bed. My idea of Christianity is no safety net, a scathing attack on
bourgeois values and a risk to respectability.

"By the way, I don't set myself up as any kind of Christian. I can't
live up to that. It's something I aspire to, but I don't feel
comfortable with that badge. It's the badge I want to wear."

Bono spent the day jumping in and out of his well-appointed bus,
talking to Midwesterners at roadside diners about his passion.

At the Iowa Harvest diner in Menlo, Iowa, Bono chatted with local
activists and community leaders who had been summoned to talk about
what they could do to help Africa and how important they felt the
issue is at a time when terrorism and economic trouble are universal
worries.

In one of only a few unscripted moments Monday, as his aides tried to
wrangle him back on the bus, Bono turned to wide-eyed Gwen Varley,
13, seated next to him and asked if she watched MTV.

"No," the shy teen said.

"They don't have MTV out here?" Bono asked.

"No. I just have mean parents," she said.

First he commiserated with parents who don't want music videos in the
house. But then he told her, quietly, "I'm a fan of MTV. Go get 'em."

On his way out of the Iowa diner and gift shop, one of the owners
asked Bono to sign the guest book and handed him a gift basket filled
with homemade goodies.

"Ooh, there's spicy stuff. I like that. I consider myself a spicy
guy," Bono quipped, as he eyed a jar of preserves.

Ever the rock star, he couldn't resist adding: "I'm Man Spice. Or,
actually, Old Spice."

At an evening program at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, the
children's choir from Ghana that is touring with Bono spontaneously
began to sing the U2 hit, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking
For," as he sang along.

Bono's Heart of America tour pulls into Chicago tonight.


? 2002, Digital Chicago Inc.

 

[bonosloveslave]

Re: Bono Issues Blunt Message for Christians During Heartland Tour

"By the way, I don't set myself up as any kind of Christian. I can't
live up to that. It's something I aspire to, but I don't feel
comfortable with that badge. It's the badge I want to wear."

[/B]

I wish I knew what he was really saying here and why he keeps saying it - none of us can 'live up to that' - but we know he knows about grace......maybe that's what I'll ask him if I can catch him in Kentucky

 

[mebythesea]

Re: Re: Bono Issues Blunt Message for Christians During Heartland Tour

I wish I knew what he was really saying here and why he keeps saying it - none of us can 'live up to that' - but we know he knows about grace......maybe that's what I'll ask him if I can catch him in Kentucky

That always disturbs me slightly too, or when he says "I'm trying to be" a Christian -- when you put that up against his clear celebration of free grace throughout his career, it just doesn't seem to add up. I think he aims his remarks much more at non-Christians' ears than at Christians, so maybe this is just his way of trying to avoid seeming holier-than-thou. But it does jar a little.

So if you get to ask him, tell us what he says!

 

[popsadie]

I think I in a way agree with Bono here. I've read in interviews before that he considers the title "christian" as a very high title and calling indeed. Personally...when I describe myself as what the wrod literally means..."little christ"...I also sometimes feel uncomfortable...is my fruit and life really indicative of a little christ....judging from the Larry King interview...Bono feels undeserving of the title...which is probably why he usually refers to himself as a believer.....not that he or I am right in this...but I can definitely understand where he comes from on this one

 

[bonosloveslave]

ANother comment

The full article is at http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/comms.nsf/stable/heart_day2&3 , but here's the related comment from when he was in Iowa:


This is a spiritual issue, noted Bono. "God is at work here. Decency and a moral compass offers courage and direction on a spiritual level." When asked by an undergraduate student about his faith in God and how that informs his activism Bono replied, " I'm not a very religious person. I'm a need to practice much more Christian. I'm uncomfortable in churches because the Christ I love and read about in the Gospels is often not in the churches. Remember, I come from Ireland and I've seen the damage of religious warfare. I am a believer. I don't wear the badge on the outside but it is on the inside. We don't have to guess what is on God's mind here. It bewilders me that anyone can call themselves followers of Christ and not see that AIDS is the leprosy spoken about in the New Testament. God is at work here. That is how faith has affected me. It is why I am here, I suppose," Bono said.

 

[mebythesea]

"I'm not a very religious person. I'm a need to practice much more Christian. I'm uncomfortable in churches because the Christ I love and read about in the Gospels is often not in the churches."

I saw that. To me, saying he's "not very religious" is very standard evangelical Christian talk, opposing manmade religion to heart-relationship with God. And saying he's a Christian of the "need to practice much more" applies to all of us.

Both those seem different from "trying to be a Christian," which to me he appears to endorse the idea that how good *your* *actions* are is what *makes* you a Christian. An idea that you would think would be repellent to someone as enraptured with grace as Bono is.

But just as I type this, I'm thinking: it's a tiny nuance. It could sound different to him. Etc. So, you know, whatever. I think his witness on this trip has been awesome and the whole thing is magnificent. That's the real story.

 

[nbcrusader]

BONO: I think -- I mean, if you ask a big question like that, and you have to look into -- you have to be responsible and to follow those questions through to the people and study the people who have asked them over eons, over centuries. And you get to the great books of wisdom, and you get to the scriptures, in my case. And you know, I've -- listen, I am the worst -- I am at the very bottom of the list of the food chain of -- you know, I sort of need to practice a whole lot more Christian. But...

I saw the interview Sunday night. What really struck me was hearing a multi-millionaire celebrity speak with such personal humility. Not a polished ?look how humble I am? statement, but a truly heartfelt statement.

I, too, was struck by the "I'm not a very religious person. I'm a need to practice much more Christian. I'm uncomfortable in churches because the Christ I love and read about in the Gospels is often not in the churches" statement and agree with mebythesea?s assessment. Faith must come from the personal relationship with Jesus, but we cannot dismiss the importance of corporate worship ? in Spirit and in Truth.