There’s an excellent Catapult Magazine article about the age-old debate of “being in the world, but not of it.” Specifically, it addresses U2’s Bono and his penchant for antics.
In a nutshell, read this about 10 times:
“Sensuality is not antithetical to faith. It is, in fact, where faith is lived, because we are creatures bound to the earth, and faith cannot be lived anywhere else.”
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A very interesting article! I’ll need to think it through a bit more…
Couldn’t agree with you more, Patty. I love that not all of us fit neatly into a little man-made machine of Christianity. Encouraging for those of us “who are out”.
what i dislike the most about many forms of organized christianity is the way it is so finicky about “who is in” and “who is out” and how easily someone that “is in” can become someone that “is out”. moreover, how the christian machine is so willing to “own” a person when that person fits their mold and “disown” the person when that person breaks out of it.
it is an acceptance based on convenience not committment and it drives me nuts.
plus, i happen to be one of the people that, like the author of the article, grins when Bono steps outside the mold.
I’m not all that ‘plugged in’ to contemporary music as it is. I didn’t even know that Bono claimed to be born again.
I don’t see why everyone has to explain his actions. You can’t blindly follow anyone, not even your pastor. Trying to explain away Bono’s actions only shows me someone who has their eyes on the wrong man.
Do you guys/gals remember how big of a hit Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant took when their songs started getting playing time on non-christian stations? Those two never (that I can remember) pulled any of the things Bono has done and yet they were called all kinds of things just because they started singing stuff that wasn’t mainstream gospel. I understand that now Amy Grant is in a different marriage and such.
I’m thankful that God has an abundance (more than I can ever use) of grace to give me, cuz I’m worse than Bono, I’m just not on national tv when I mess up.