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Bono’s father was a Catholic, his mother an Anglican.
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U2 were teen-agers when they got together (Larry Mullen, Jr., the drummer, was just fourteen), but they were beginning to see outside of the faith traditions of their families. In a country divided along sectarian lines, little about organized religion was attractive. The ambiguity goes back to the band’s origins, in the Dublin of the late seventies, during the Troubles. Much of the confusion around U2’s faith stems from the fact that they’ve never been an “officially” Christian rock band. A few years ago, an Episcopal priest I know helped organize one at a church in New Jersey the service, which featured a huge sound system, stage lighting, cocktails, and a bonfire, raised around forty thousand dollars for an orphanage in Cameroon. Churches around the world have held “ U2charists”-full services at which traditional church music is replaced with songs by U2. “ Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog” is one of several books exploring the theological ideas in Bono’s lyrics. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, addressed the issue of Bono’s belief in a fascinating 2008 lecture about the place of organized faith in secular society. In 2004, the magazine ran an article about Bono’s “ thin ecclesiology”-his unwillingness to affiliate himself with a church-that sparked a debate about the health of organized religion. To some people, Bono’s lyrics are treacly platitudes, verging on nonsense to others, they’re thoughtful, searching, and profound meditations on faith.Ĭhristianity Today regularly covers U2, not just as another Christian rock band but as one of special significance. While secular listeners tend to think of U2’s religiosity as preachy window dressing, religious listeners see faith as central to the band’s identity. The result has been a divide that’s unusual in pop culture.
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In some ways, this seems obvious: a song on one recent album was called “Yahweh,” and where else would the streets have no name? But even critics and fans who say that they know about U2’s Christianity often underestimate how important it is to the band’s music, and to the U2 phenomenon. Actually, they’re a wildly popular, semi-secretly Christian rock band. Most people think of U2 as a wildly popular rock band.