Purpose Driven – Body Parts

U2's Bono

Christianity  is full of paradox. I think paradox is part of the faith’s very DNA: The King born in a manger; victory found in shameful death; the promise that, in order to save one’s life, one must give it away.

So it only makes sense that Christianity — the force that almost singlehandedly preserved the cultural achievements of ancient Greece and Rome, the foundation of so much of the Western World’s art, literature and philosophy, the entity that’s so woven into our cultural sensibilities that no atheist movement on earth can drive them apart — is, at its core, the most countercultural movement on earth.

That’s a long prelude to introduce the actual theme of this post: An outstanding essay on U2’s Bono by one of my favorite bloggers, Steve Beard. Beard, founder of the faith-and-culture roundup known as Thunderstruck, suggests that Bono — that hard-rocking Irishman — has become one of Christianity’s most effective evangelists. And, as such, Bono is wrapped in paradox.

Beard offers this example:

Bono has the reputation as rock ‘n’ roll’s most effective and enigmatic spiritual provocateur — rattling the souls of fans all over the globe. “I sometimes think I have a kind of Tourette’s syndrome where if you’re not supposed to say something, it becomes very attractive to do so,” he once confessed. “You’re in a rock band — what can’t you talk about? God? OK, here we go. You’re supposed to write songs about sex and drugs. Well, no I won’t.”

And then there’s this:

There is very little garden-variety Evangelicalism (in the North American sense of the word) found in the members of the band. They drink, smoke, swear, and wear leather pants. But there is a hefty and poetic theological substance that I think would startle St. Paul and would bring a smile to the Psalmist. This rock ‘n’ roll band is committed to social justice and eternal truth. In this day and age, that is no small luxury.

Bono disappointed several Christians I know when he made a cameo in Sasha Baren Cohen’s crudely provocative “Bruno” this summer. Many felt it beneath this rock star who, as time goes on, seems to poetically preach more and more with each passing album. For me, it felt like just one more pebble of paradox: The sort of enigmatic and sometimes incomprehensible paradox we all — and Christianity itself — is made of.