the politics of love...

I started reading Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2, the New Edition by Steve Stockman and have already been gripped.

The Christian community seems to have confined its definitions of faith to various precise behavioral patterns and cliched statements of faith. In getting caught up in the minutia of behavorial codes that have had more to do with respectable middle-class behavior than biblical guidelines, many have been so obsessed with the cigar hanging out of Bono's mouth that they are missing the radical biblical agenda that has fired his life and work. (Chapter 1, page 3)

Surely one who smokes, drinks, swears, and wears leather pants can't claim to be a Christian and if he does claim that then we don't want to be associated with that kind of behavior. Why does the general population of Christians focus on such things? It's not really about behavioral codes and cliches. Isn't it really more about a relationship that has changed us on the inside and less about what we do, say, or how we look on the outside? While I myself no longer smoke, I have yet to find anywhere in the Bible that says smoking is sinful and that anyone who does it certainly does not know what it means to inhale Christ. I am sure that God prefers us not to smoke, it damages the body that he created for us, but also don't think he condemns us for it either. And drinking? Jesus himself turned water into wine. Drinking to drunkenness is sinful but if done in moderation, it's acceptable.

The idea of it being radical attracted U2. In any other city in the Western world, this kind of Christian behavior would have been seen as old-fashioned and almost nerdish. In any other city, Bono would have laughed at such middle-class, respectable, religious behavior. But in Dublin, this was radical stuff. To take Jesus seriously was far out. In some ways, Shalom was an out-there kind of gang on parallel lines with the Lypton Village gang. It wasn't as if one of them was dangerous and the other one safe. (Chapter 2, page 17)

For many years the band members said that their faith - not their rock 'n' roll lifestyle - was the real rebellion. In 1983, Bono told Rolling Stone: " I think that, ultimately, the group is totally rebellious because of our stance against what people accept as rebellion. The whole thing about rock stars driving cars into swimming pools - that's not rebellion... Rebellion starts at home, in your heart, in your refusal to compromise your beliefs and your values. I'm not interested in politics like people fighting back with sticks and stone, but in the politics of love." For this band, it was more rebellious to be reading Bibles in the back of the tour bus that it was to be doing drugs - a perspective on Christianity that was not a cultural norm. But being from a place where those with intense spiritual faith were the minority helped the band members grab hold of the radical edge of following Jesus. (Chapter 2, pages 17-18)

I love the thought of living out my relationship with God as though it were rebellious. I remember some of the rebellious things I did growing up: sneaking out of the house at night, smoking, studying boys rather than homework, making out endlessly (these things were all rebellious in the home that I grew up in). I also remember the fervor with which I did them. It was behavior that was highly frowned upon, if not even a little dangerous, which made doing them even more appealing to me. The reason we, or at least I, acted rebellious was to get attention, to get some sense of freedom in a home where I was sheltered, and to live life a little on the edge. Wouldn't it be radical if we lived out that kind of passion in our faith? To treat this life-changing relationship I have with God as though it were taboo and maybe a little edgy?

The guys in U2 have made their faith in Jesus Christ known. They have made it clear that though they have had feet in both camps of Ireland's denominational divide, they found a personal relationship with God outside of both. For two decades, U2 has seemed suspicious of any organized religion. The band members have believed their faith lived and thrived outside the narrow gates of religion. Bono once said, "I have this hunger in me... everywhere I look, I see the evidence of the Creator. But I don't see it as religion, which has cut my people in two. I don't see Jesus Christ as being any part of a religion. Religion to me is almost like when God leaves - and people devise a set of rules to fill the space."(Chapter 2, page 18)

This relationship that I have transcends any religious boundaries, rules, or denominations. Actually, there is a religion to it, it's simply the religion of God, worshipping God. Basic. Pure. Affecting. Wasn't Jesus just interested in the "politics of love," as Bono put it? His greatest commandments were on love: Love your neighbor as yourself; and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

It seems to me I have a lot more to learn from Bono than just aspiring to write as honestly as he does and for an audience as big as his.