Bono at the National Prayer Breakfast

Posted: May 30th, 2006 | Author: david | Filed under: Christ Above Culture, Christ of Culture, examples, music | No Comments »

http://www.data.org/archives/000774.php

All my friends know how much I like U2. There are a lot of things I like about the band but I am always interested in how their (especially their lead singer, Bono) view of Christ affects their approach to culture.

When Bono spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast (read his speech at the link above), I couldn’t resist reading his comments. Not only because it was Bono, but because so many people from our Federal government participated, including our President. This provides two examples of the interaction between Christ and Culture.

Now, from what I understand, the National Prayer Breakfast isn’t run by the government, maintaining the separation of church and state. This is why it can be an exclusively Christian program. It’s purpose is…

“To develop and maintain an informal association of people banded together, to go out as “ambassadors of reconciliation”, modeling the principles of Jesus, based on loving God and loving others. To work with the leaders of other nations, and as their hearts are touched, the poor, the oppressed, the widows and the youth of their country will be impacted in a positive manner. Youth groups will be developed under the thoughts of Jesus, including loving others as you want to be loved.”

This provides an example of Christ Above Culture, where Jesus is the positive example to which we should all strive to emulate.

This is in contrast to Bono, who is an example of Christ of Culture. The similarity between these two positions is shown by Bono’s opinion about law…

I’d like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I’d like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws… but of course, they don’t always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you’re here.

Both Christ of Culture and Christ Above Culture share a view of law that transcends the Scriptures. They agree that ethics is a primary concern of Christ. Jesus is primarily conceived as an example to follow.

The Christ of Culture view that Bono holds, however, is more generic and religion is more universalistic. For example, Bono says…

I close this morning on … very… thin… ice.

This is a dangerous idea I’ve put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God… vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town—Washington—that knows something of division.

But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these.

This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.

He then goes on to quote the New Testament (as an example of Christian thinking), The Koran (as an example of Muslim thinking), and the Old Testament (as an example of Jewish thinking.) His universalism distinguishes him from the Christ Above Culture.

This is also seen in Bono’s view of religion…

Yes, it’s odd, having a rock star here—but maybe it’s odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was… well, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays… and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash… in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment…

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Who can blame Bono for thinking this way about religion. Nevertheless, this is another distinction between Christ of Culture and Christ Above Culture.

In discussing these two views of Christ and Culture, it is always important not to let our discussion get in the way of missing the point. How does our Christian faith affect what we do about the poor in Africa? Bono says that the plight of the poor was very important to Jesus and should be to us. He suggests we help to solve this problem by having our government “tithe” to poorer countries.

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