Ha ha, Biff. 
I think one of my two alltime favorite U2 quotes comes from Ali, on this very.....er, subject. Asked point-blank on Irish TV in the fall of 2000 if she was preggers again (which of course she was, with John) she replied, "well, you know how Bono is always saying he's half Protestant and half Catholic. Well, now you know which half is Catholic."
Funny, my discovery of U2 came in December of 1981, when I had just turned 12, and I was flipping the radio and landed right in the break of "Gloria" (I call it the "ashtay sonata") before the last chorus kicked in. You know the part I mean. I was a pagan then. Figuratively, I mean. My mother (God rest her) was very bitter at God for the hard blows she had been dealt in life, and more were to come. In fact, the crap was only beginning. And sadly, I was unable to bring her to God's grace, and she died as bitter as ever. As a result of her bitterness I had not been baptized in any chruch, had never even held a bible, and could count the numbe of times I had set foot in a church on one hand, and they were mostly the Catholic chuches of friends. I had never even seen anyone make the sign of the cross, and thought Elvis Presley's covers of old hymns (hich Mom, being a devout Elvis fan, liked to play..it was the closest I got t spiritual instruction as a kid, and maybe it wasn't all off the mark!) were songs written by him.
U2 didn't open any spiritual doors for me. Not at first. In the beginning it was the giddy excitement of the "infatuation" stage, of being in a secret club you felt no one else knew. Propaganda was still 4 or 5 yrs in the future. It was understanding at once the political side of the lyrics, and missing everything else. ( Being a lover of history, I had already read on my own a great deal about the British-Irish conflict by the age of 12.) Which was a lot. But God had plans for me. At about the same time He led me to books that opened up my world. I found them all in bookshops or the school library. I was (and still am) a voracious reader. First and foremost were Taylor Caldwell's 2 great works of fiction on the lives of the Apostles; 'Great Lion of God", about Paul, and above all, "Dear and Glorious Physician" about St. Luke. This last is one of the great works of religious fiction of all time, IMO, right up with the "Joseph" series witten back in the 30's by..Thomas Mann, I believe? There are passages that will make you burst into tears, no matter how old you are. Even today I keep a battered copy on my desk and recommend it to people. Since my mother died in Octobe it has at times been more of a comfort to me than the Bible. Taylor Caldwell's Luke is a man who despised God in his youth, for killing the innocent (as he saw it), he hated God ever since his teens when his beloved sister died of leukemia. He decided to become a doctor so that he could steal from God the lives that Luke felt He was planning to take. he was constantly at war with Him. he also resolved never to marry or have children as it would doistract from his war with God. Cladwell's Luke is handsome, brilliant, and preferred devoting his medical practice to the poor rather than the luctrattive practice he could have made in Rome as adopted member of a wealthy Roman family. The story of how he changes from vlunatary apostate to an Apostle reads like the tale of Oskar Schindler, but with 100 times more emotion. The book is filled with pages and pages of long, broken, emotional prayers, and descriptions of joy and despair and healing that Caldwell puts into his mouth. It's impossible not be moved. His final prayer of submission, in which he offers his life to the Lord, is spoken as his brother falls asleep beside him. Luke's kid brother was (in Caldwell's version) at the Crucifiction and was the centurion who offered Him a drink. He is stricken with cancer soon after and the doctors give him up. they call Luke in and he walks in excpecting to see a dying man but on the 2nd visit he has been mysteriously healed. Luke offers his life to Jesus then, saying that all this time He has been striving to show him love and mercy, He has not sught to punich Luke for His rebellion, no, his questioning has only made him more beloved in Heaven:"Oh, You who have brought me from the wilderness and the barren places, I implore You, accept my life that I might serve You, I, who am as lowly as any worm, lower than the dust....Do you despise Your children? Is this not all that you want, that they might come to You, that they may see Your Mercy and Your Love forever?"
OK, enough about this book! All of you should read it however....
But after these books, when I was 13-14, Mom suddenly had me baptized in the Armenian Church and enrlled in Sunday school. (The Armenian church is great in that it allows adult baptismns. ) My stepfather was fighing a custody bettlke fr my kid brther and my uncle had persuaded her to put us in a church as it would help her in court if we were getting a religious education. (Well, whatever works!) This may be blah for you who had gne to church all your lives but it was a thrilling new thing for me. It opened up a whle new world of learning and experience. Bit it was all still academic. My life had not gotten to the level yet where I truly needed the voice and music of healing.
By 1984 my slife was a shambles. Mom had married a 3rd time, she was losing the custody battle (now in its 4th year) and my 2nd stepfather had taken to drinking and beating her on a daily basis after they had been forced to declare bankrupcy due to the finacial strains of the case. I now beleived in some way thatGod had plands for ne, though I knew not waht. I had bought my Sunday schl Bible home and had begun scribbling U2 lyrics in the jacket. I now knew where "40" came from and had begun to meoize Pslams etc. But still, I had not given my life to God. You flks know what I mean. I didn't know how, didn't know how to pray. God was a mysterious but still academic prescense rather than an intimate emotional Being.
UF had come out in November of 84 and I was angfry at the band fior selling out, as I flet they had at the time. But one night in Febuary f 1985 whne my 2nd stepfather began beating my mothe so severely I though she would die, (she did go to an emrgency room), I found myself going to the kitchen and getting a carving knife out of the drawer and walking up to the two of them struggling, and told him point blank that I would use the knife on him if he did not let her go. he did not and I took a step forward ( I remember this like it was yesteRDAY) but I leterally ran into an invisible wall and could not move another inch forward, no matter how I tried. I then heard a soft voice whispering to me to go downstairs and into my bedroom. Shaking, I did. The voice then told me to get out my walkman and which side of which cassette to put on. (I am NOT lying, this is true.) When the first stanza of "Bad" came on, "If you twist and turn away..if you tear yourself in two again.../if I could, through Myself, set your spirit free...etc..I always like sometimes to put a capital on that 'myself'!) I burst into tears and flung myself on the bed sobbing. It seemed forever like I heard the police enter the house but I was too busy trying to pray to notice much. My prayer was basically something along the lines of:
I don't know who You are, but thank You for your servants in this wonderful band. I've been fans of theirs, but I didn't understand them at all, not until now, and neither have I understood You. If you have a purpose for my miserable life, please tell me, and strengthen me, for I am helpless, alone, and lost. I was 15 at the time and the band had been my lifeline, without me ever really understanding why. Now I knew.
But I still didn't know of the final committment. That would come later, 3 yrs later, when I invited God into my life at a Bible study group on campus. I truly beleive God used their music to work a miracle that night, and stop me frm doing a stupid thing that would have ruined my life. Though how much is nw open to question. Three weeks after my last u2 show this tour (ct 7 2005) my mothe hung herslef, as a result of the final injustices done to her by this same man. I have been consumed with rage and hate through my grief, and find myself reading again those taylor Caldwell books, seeking again the sweet, shy, innocent 15 yr old girl who had the tender dreams and longing of youth. I am still young (36) but it seems so far away. Thank God that my band has not really changed, as much as the tried to.
n a more humerous note:
The date that I officially became a 'Christian" was May 10, 1988. I was not up enough on U2 trivia at the time to know what was so special about this date otherwise. God sure has a strange sense of humor.
I think one of my two alltime favorite U2 quotes comes from Ali, on this very.....er, subject. Asked point-blank on Irish TV in the fall of 2000 if she was preggers again (which of course she was, with John) she replied, "well, you know how Bono is always saying he's half Protestant and half Catholic. Well, now you know which half is Catholic." Funny, my discovery of U2 came in December of 1981, when I had just turned 12, and I was flipping the radio and landed right in the break of "Gloria" (I call it the "ashtay sonata") before the last chorus kicked in. You know the part I mean. I was a pagan then. Figuratively, I mean. My mother (God rest her) was very bitter at God for the hard blows she had been dealt in life, and more were to come. In fact, the crap was only beginning. And sadly, I was unable to bring her to God's grace, and she died as bitter as ever. As a result of her bitterness I had not been baptized in any chruch, had never even held a bible, and could count the numbe of times I had set foot in a church on one hand, and they were mostly the Catholic chuches of friends. I had never even seen anyone make the sign of the cross, and thought Elvis Presley's covers of old hymns (hich Mom, being a devout Elvis fan, liked to play..it was the closest I got t spiritual instruction as a kid, and maybe it wasn't all off the mark!) were songs written by him.
U2 didn't open any spiritual doors for me. Not at first. In the beginning it was the giddy excitement of the "infatuation" stage, of being in a secret club you felt no one else knew. Propaganda was still 4 or 5 yrs in the future. It was understanding at once the political side of the lyrics, and missing everything else. ( Being a lover of history, I had already read on my own a great deal about the British-Irish conflict by the age of 12.) Which was a lot. But God had plans for me. At about the same time He led me to books that opened up my world. I found them all in bookshops or the school library. I was (and still am) a voracious reader. First and foremost were Taylor Caldwell's 2 great works of fiction on the lives of the Apostles; 'Great Lion of God", about Paul, and above all, "Dear and Glorious Physician" about St. Luke. This last is one of the great works of religious fiction of all time, IMO, right up with the "Joseph" series witten back in the 30's by..Thomas Mann, I believe? There are passages that will make you burst into tears, no matter how old you are. Even today I keep a battered copy on my desk and recommend it to people. Since my mother died in Octobe it has at times been more of a comfort to me than the Bible. Taylor Caldwell's Luke is a man who despised God in his youth, for killing the innocent (as he saw it), he hated God ever since his teens when his beloved sister died of leukemia. He decided to become a doctor so that he could steal from God the lives that Luke felt He was planning to take. he was constantly at war with Him. he also resolved never to marry or have children as it would doistract from his war with God. Cladwell's Luke is handsome, brilliant, and preferred devoting his medical practice to the poor rather than the luctrattive practice he could have made in Rome as adopted member of a wealthy Roman family. The story of how he changes from vlunatary apostate to an Apostle reads like the tale of Oskar Schindler, but with 100 times more emotion. The book is filled with pages and pages of long, broken, emotional prayers, and descriptions of joy and despair and healing that Caldwell puts into his mouth. It's impossible not be moved. His final prayer of submission, in which he offers his life to the Lord, is spoken as his brother falls asleep beside him. Luke's kid brother was (in Caldwell's version) at the Crucifiction and was the centurion who offered Him a drink. He is stricken with cancer soon after and the doctors give him up. they call Luke in and he walks in excpecting to see a dying man but on the 2nd visit he has been mysteriously healed. Luke offers his life to Jesus then, saying that all this time He has been striving to show him love and mercy, He has not sught to punich Luke for His rebellion, no, his questioning has only made him more beloved in Heaven:"Oh, You who have brought me from the wilderness and the barren places, I implore You, accept my life that I might serve You, I, who am as lowly as any worm, lower than the dust....Do you despise Your children? Is this not all that you want, that they might come to You, that they may see Your Mercy and Your Love forever?"
OK, enough about this book! All of you should read it however....
But after these books, when I was 13-14, Mom suddenly had me baptized in the Armenian Church and enrlled in Sunday school. (The Armenian church is great in that it allows adult baptismns.
) My stepfather was fighing a custody bettlke fr my kid brther and my uncle had persuaded her to put us in a church as it would help her in court if we were getting a religious education. (Well, whatever works!) This may be blah for you who had gne to church all your lives but it was a thrilling new thing for me. It opened up a whle new world of learning and experience. Bit it was all still academic. My life had not gotten to the level yet where I truly needed the voice and music of healing. By 1984 my slife was a shambles. Mom had married a 3rd time, she was losing the custody battle (now in its 4th year) and my 2nd stepfather had taken to drinking and beating her on a daily basis after they had been forced to declare bankrupcy due to the finacial strains of the case. I now beleived in some way thatGod had plands for ne, though I knew not waht. I had bought my Sunday schl Bible home and had begun scribbling U2 lyrics in the jacket. I now knew where "40" came from and had begun to meoize Pslams etc. But still, I had not given my life to God. You flks know what I mean. I didn't know how, didn't know how to pray. God was a mysterious but still academic prescense rather than an intimate emotional Being.
UF had come out in November of 84 and I was angfry at the band fior selling out, as I flet they had at the time. But one night in Febuary f 1985 whne my 2nd stepfather began beating my mothe so severely I though she would die, (she did go to an emrgency room), I found myself going to the kitchen and getting a carving knife out of the drawer and walking up to the two of them struggling, and told him point blank that I would use the knife on him if he did not let her go. he did not and I took a step forward ( I remember this like it was yesteRDAY) but I leterally ran into an invisible wall and could not move another inch forward, no matter how I tried. I then heard a soft voice whispering to me to go downstairs and into my bedroom. Shaking, I did. The voice then told me to get out my walkman and which side of which cassette to put on. (I am NOT lying, this is true.) When the first stanza of "Bad" came on, "If you twist and turn away..if you tear yourself in two again.../if I could, through Myself, set your spirit free...etc..I always like sometimes to put a capital on that 'myself'!) I burst into tears and flung myself on the bed sobbing. It seemed forever like I heard the police enter the house but I was too busy trying to pray to notice much. My prayer was basically something along the lines of:
I don't know who You are, but thank You for your servants in this wonderful band. I've been fans of theirs, but I didn't understand them at all, not until now, and neither have I understood You. If you have a purpose for my miserable life, please tell me, and strengthen me, for I am helpless, alone, and lost. I was 15 at the time and the band had been my lifeline, without me ever really understanding why. Now I knew.
But I still didn't know of the final committment. That would come later, 3 yrs later, when I invited God into my life at a Bible study group on campus. I truly beleive God used their music to work a miracle that night, and stop me frm doing a stupid thing that would have ruined my life. Though how much is nw open to question. Three weeks after my last u2 show this tour (ct 7 2005) my mothe hung herslef, as a result of the final injustices done to her by this same man. I have been consumed with rage and hate through my grief, and find myself reading again those taylor Caldwell books, seeking again the sweet, shy, innocent 15 yr old girl who had the tender dreams and longing of youth. I am still young (36) but it seems so far away. Thank God that my band has not really changed, as much as the tried to.
n a more humerous note:
The date that I officially became a 'Christian" was May 10, 1988. I was not up enough on U2 trivia at the time to know what was so special about this date otherwise. God sure has a strange sense of humor.
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to you.
