The Ultimate Battle

Apollos or Paul. Pope or Nope. Calvinism or Arminianism. Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen. No issue has divided the Christian church, and it’s pop culture equivalents, more than the state of Bono’s soul.

Okay. I know that’s going a bit too far. But I can’t tell you how many times I have stood face to face with friends and strangers in churches, bars, clubs, and amidst the throng at U2 concerts debating this very question—Is Bono a Christian? Whether well-meaning or provoked or venomous, people seem drawn to the debate and it can get pretty passionate.

It’s a fun topic to argue. With well-known lyrics to back up either argument, both sides make great points and get to have their say. Because Bono has never really put the questions to rest (although some argue that he has), it’s a subject filled with mystery and frustration. And like the parable of the four soils, there are eye-rolling skeptics, sold-out believers, outright rejecters, and the blissfully indifferent ones who don’t see why it matters.

You might be a skeptic. You’ve grown up with U2’s music as a backdrop to your culture and it’s not bad to listen to, but every time ‘Bone-O’ opens his craw to scold us on this or that social no-no, you want to puke. He’s a loudmouth loser with a messiah complex. Put him in a box with Babs, Oprah, and Clooney, and ship them off to Cuba. Besides, you agree with Henry Rollins; U2’s bassist sucks.

You may be the type who cannot and will not believe that Bono is a Christian. To you, he is a charlatan of the worst kind. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. A con who, along with Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson, and Lady Gaga, wants to drag our unsuspecting kids along with him to h-e-double-hockey-styx. He says the f-word for Pete’s sake! Unless he tells you his personal confession of faith, in person, with your own trusted pastor or priest standing by for inspired verification; unless his personal testimony comes with references to the four spiritual laws, the five points of Calvinism, and a riveting tale of his near-death baptism experience, you won’t be satisfied. And anyway, no regenerate Christian could ever say that he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for!

You could be the one who believes whole-heartedly that Bono is your brother in Christ. His lyrics and music are as worshipful to you as the old hymns. It is no wonder to you that modern worship leaders do their best to copy the U2 sound. If they ever held a U2 mass at a church near you, you’d slap on a black t-shirt and your Chuck Taylors and go. Bono’s interviews with Bill Hybels, or his speech at the national prayer breakfast, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is washed in the blood of the Lamb. His lifelong passion and actions to intervene on behalf of the suffering widows and orphans are the visible fruit that only can come from a life that’s fully grafted to the vine. You know Bono is one of us, and “40” makes you cry.

Or maybe you’re indifferent to whether Bono is or isn’t a Christian. It doesn’t make any difference to you. It’s none of your business. It is up to him whether he believes in Jesus or Allah or Buddha or L. Ron Hubbard. Coexist, right?

Maybe.

Maybe the reason U2 fans and U2 haters alike get so passionate about this question is that it does make a difference what Bono believes. It matters because this question applies to each of us. What you believe about life and how it relates to what happens after death, is crucial to how you will ultimately live. The way you act toward your family, the way you do your work, the way you find meaning in your own existence is directly affected by what you believe about God.

Then, Bono stands up on a stage and hints that he has a clue about who or what God is, and we wonder if he’s got it right. He becomes a window into our own post-modern, collective soul. We see in him the same violent yearning to get it right that we face every day. And some of us are willing to fight for the answer.

So the age-old battle begins again. Is Bono a Christian? Does it matter? If you knew the answer, would it change anything for you?

Discuss amongst yourselves.