I've always interpreted the "please, get up off your knees" lyric as a call away from organised religion. The troubles that exist between Protestants and Catholic in Ireland and between *some* Muslims and the rest of the world (as highlighted by the September 11 attacks), I suppose, stem from the way in which they worship god. (As fucked up as that sounds).
On more than one occasion I've heard or read Bono say that religion is the enemy of God.
I'm not an expert on religion, and I'm sure this is a naive point of view, but to me religions all seem to be based on the idea of bringing good to the world in some way or another. So much trouble seems to come from the little differences.
The "get up off your knees" line, to me, is a call away from the rules and traditions of various religions which probably seem very petty as they may be what cause people to lose sight of the bigger picture. God is interested in peoples' souls and what they do with them, not the clothes they wear, how many times a day they pray or whether or not they sit on their asses in church every Sunday.
Consider this excerpt from Bono's interview on Larry King:
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.
"Please", but I honestly want to know what the line, "Get up off your knees..." means. I know Bono always says it's a song for people who try to shrink God, etc., but does anyone have a clearer explanation of this?
