Rock legend Bono has put his name to a controversial new book lashing organised religion. The U2 frontman has penned a foreword to a tome that's set to get Irish clerics talking.
The book -- They've Hi-jacked God -- takes a swipe at the modern Christian church. It's by well-known Northern Ireland Christian Adam Harbinson. He's been in hot water in the past for his anti-Drumcree stance. He has even had his life threatened by crazed loyalists.
Superstar Bono was happy to endorse the book, saying that the Church was in a battle with God. "Sadly the Church is winning," says Bono. "Adam Harbinson takes on the Church as mausoleum for the 'dead' Christ and the Church as handcuffs and fire brigade for the risen Christ -- it's an interesting subject. I find solace in places I never could have imagined...the quiet sprinkling of my child's head in Baptism, a gospel choir drunk on the Holy Spirit in Memphis, or the back of a cathedral in Rome watching the first cinematographers play with light and colour in stainglass stories of the Passion. I am still amazed at how big, how enormous a love and mystery God is -- and how small are the minds that attempt to corral this life force into rules and taboos, cults and sects. Mercifully God transcends the Church which is, I think, the subject of this book."
Bono adds that he has taken comfort and peace in life from his little boy's baptism. Little John Abraham Hewson was born on May 21, 2000 [sic], the youngest of Bono and his wife Ali's four children. When Harbinson was asked how he managed to persuade Bono to write the foreword, he answered modestly: "I just asked him. "You don't have to go to church in order to be a good person...a Christian. That was Bono's experience and that's why he wrote this piece." The book is due for publication later this year.
? Sunday People, 2002.
Sorry--LOL, guess it hasn't been published yet. The above from atu2.com. I was wondering if it was out in the UK/Europe yet.