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To: redgolum; All

Does anyone know how long Bono has been a Christian?


39 posted on 07/29/2005 5:56:00 AM PDT by Ladysmith ((NRA and SAS) WI Hunter Shootings: If you want on/off the WI Hunters ping list, please let me know.)
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To: Ladysmith

I saw a Behind the Music episode on them and Bono, Larry Mullen, and The Edge have been born-again Christians since their late teens or early twenties. The only non-Christian in the group is Adam Clayton. I believe he is an atheist.

I love U2. I've been listening to them since I was 16 (I'm now 37). This should not come as a surprise to anyone remotely familiar with their music. There are lot of references to God, grace, and faith in their lyrics, most of which are penned by Bono.

Bono takes a lot of thrashing on FR for his liberal politics. I think it's unwarranted. To me he seems apolitical, making nice with the Clintons as well as Bush. He cares deeply about alleviating poverty. I daresay Christ does as well. You may disagree with his tactics in reaching that end, but Bono is a good egg.


51 posted on 07/29/2005 6:09:39 AM PDT by Juana la Loca
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To: Ladysmith

Not sure but I had read about the Christianity of U2 a few years after they had recordings out. This was in the mid 1980s so it definitely predated that.


54 posted on 07/29/2005 6:12:35 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Ladysmith

IIRC, he was giving testimony at CBGBs during shows in the '70s.


57 posted on 07/29/2005 6:18:03 AM PDT by Tribune7
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To: Ladysmith
Bono has always been a Christian. He says it was his Catholic upbringing that leads him to want to help the poor of the world. In his 20s, he and his bandmates became more vocal about their Christianity and people say that he was born again. He says that he is not a fan of that term because he never lost his faith.

I found this about U2:

Are U2 Christians?

In a word: yes.

Longer explanation: In the band's early years, it was no secret that Bono, Edge, and Larry were very active in their faith. For a time in the early 80s, the three joined a religious group called Shalom, and struggled for some time to reconcile their beliefs with the rock and roll lifestyle. Songs such as "Gloria", "40", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" are very open in their religious and spiritual overtones. In more recent years, Bono has not worn his faith on his sleeve as openly as he did in past years. But to examine things such as Zoo TV, the Mirrorball Man, and MacPhisto, and to take the lyrics of songs such as "Wake Up, Dead Man" and others, and draw the conclusion that Bono (and U2) are no longer believers is to completely miss the point. These things were not U2 embracing the dark side, it was U2 exposing the dark side. As Bono often quoted, "Mock the devil and he will flee from thee." The message has not changed over the years ... but sometimes it's been a little harder to find.

If all that's not enough, various band members have said in recent interviews that they ARE still believers. Here's a quote from Bono during his appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, September 20, 2002:

I'm a believer, but religion is the thing when God, like Elvis, has left the building. But when God is in the house, you get something else. I'm happy in a Catholic cathedral or a tent show down in the South with gospel music.

Here's another quote from Bono, this time in response to a student who asked how Bono's faith informs his activism. It's from a Q&A session during DATA's "Heart of America" tour in late 2002:

"I'm not a very religious person. I'm a need to practice much more Christian. I'm uncomfortable in churches because the Christ I love and read about in the Gospels is often not in the churches. Remember, I come from Ireland and I've seen the damage of religious warfare. I am a believer. I don't wear the badge on the outside but it is on the inside."

And in December, 2002, Hot Press magazine asked Edge about his faith:

Yourself, Larry and Bono were all members of the Shalom Christian prayer group in the early days of U2. Are you still religious?

I still have a spiritual life, but I'm not really a fan of religion per se. You know, what I believe is very much what I ended up coming to. It's not a doctrine that is connected to any church or any religious group. It's very much my own personal thing.

Are you raising your kids as Catholics?

Em . . . technically yes, but again I'm not in favour of presenting something that I think is ultimately very personal in any kind of fundamental way. I think it's really up to everyone, when they reach a certain age, to figure it out for themselves. You know, they are Catholic in terms of their upbringing or whatever, but really they'll decide themselves what they wanna believe, when they get older.

Hopefully these quotes answer the question adequately.
139 posted on 07/29/2005 11:57:24 AM PDT by elc
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