When the lead singer of rock band U2, Bono, reportedly said he did not want to record with "Christian' record labels because it would be preaching to the choir, his statement suggests that both he and the choir were already converted " but to what or to whom? 

I recently attended a U2 "Eucharist' where the congregation, the choir long since gone, attempted to sing along to classic U2 songs before taking Communion. This phenomenon first occurred in mid 2005 at the Rev. Paige's Episcopal Church in Maine, USA, not long after Bono's incursions into Christian America to raise support for his crusade to conquer world poverty. Whatever you think of U2's brand of rock music, there is no doubt about Bono's commitment to addressing AIDS and world poverty, a passion he shares with Bob Geldof. His extraordinary, long lived career in the rock industry now sees Bono with access to the President of the USA and Prime Minister of England, perhaps more of a comment on their need to be seen relating to a rock star with a huge mass following.  His challenge to Christians to demonstrate justice in tangible ways is on the table. Whether the Christian church needs to reciprocate by incorporating his songs into the liturgy is another question.

U2 produce high quality pop music. It has all the ingredients of commercially driven art " the tension of self expression and what will sell, idealism and popular acclaim. The first problem with using U2's music in Christian liturgy is not the quality of the poetic expression or musicality- both are of a high order. It is simply a misappropriation of the art for purposes it was never intended.

U2 have been tagged as Christian, although they have never claimed to be a Christian band. Is it because their songs mention God, Jesus, love or faith it is fair game for use in corporate worship and something as profound as the celebration of the Lord's Supper? What do we make of U2's numerous songs which use the name of Jesus, oblique references to the scriptures and even the Jewish name for God, Yahweh? What about Bono's faith thing?

Here is a transcript from Andrew Denton's recent "Enough Rope' interview with Bono on the ABC-

ANDREW DENTON: "As a man of faith, when you look at Africa, what’s your concept of a working God?'

BONO: "Look on the God thing I have to be really careful because I’m not a very good advertisement and so I don’t want to sit there and say, “I’m a man of faith,” Yes, I am, I just can’t. I recently read in one of St Paul’s letters where it describes all of the fruits of the spirit, and I had none of them.'

ANDREW DENTON: "You fulfill a Christian ideal.'

BONO: " No, I don’t think so. All the commandments I’ve broken and the ones I haven’t I’ve probably wanted to. But that said, I do have a faith and it is challenged on a daily basis by what I see in Africa. Yes, and yet more than that I have a sense that really people are the problem. We’re the problem, really. God gets a lot of bad press…....So I’ve gone through my shouting at God, I’ve gone through my angry phase but I finally end up looking at my own indolence and fighting with it, an indifference. Because I have it, too. And I feel that I’m not alone in this. I feel there’s a generation of people. I kind of realised this isn’t something we can really blame God for. This is about us, really. So that’s where I am on it.'

The non-specificity of "I do have a faith' is puzzling as Bono has been more specific in his interviews with the French atheist, Michka Assayas. These interviews establish that Bono has a strong sense of grace and the sacrifice of Jesus for him. Perhaps it was in reaction to Denton’s line of questioning and wishing to be seen as an ordinary person, albeit driven and focused, that Bono seems to really pull back from a specific statement of faith. Perhaps because, like for most of us, there are times when grace seems remote and unreal. 

The majority of people alive could probably say "I do have a faith', though who or what the object of their faith is might be open to question. One cannot help but admire the frank confession of having no "fruits' of the spirit and breaking all the commandments. He clearly needed to counter Denton's implication of sainthood. At least that is safer than taking the righteous high ground " the self professed flawed idealist has less far to fall.

So who is the God he refers to? Is God someone you can know and relate to? There is nothing in Bono's lyrics which suggest that. On listening again to the mid eighties album Rattle and Hum, one is struck by the ambiguity of the lyrics. In fact it seems more like a kind of agnosticism " God is not knowable but a kind of vague feeling. I would guess a lot of people have that kind of feeling. Bono makes many references to love, whatever that may mean " (Pride) In the Name of Love (the tribute to Martin Luther King), "love rescue me', When Love Comes to Town, or in God Part II, "I feel like I'm falling, like I'm spinning on a wheel, It always stops beside a name a presence I can feel I…I believe in love.' This is classic rock poetry " I can feel it now but tomorrow it might be gone.

So the person addicted to searching but averse to finding might say "I like vague. I like nebulous concepts. I like feelings and oblique references, suggestions of things which might be, but don't get too personal. Vague doesn't need commitment. Vague can shift with the times; it can adjust to the situation. It does not need a real person.' 

Twenty years on, has Bono found what he was looking for or is the search all that counts?  Is there more to his music than a social justice message, which could be equally attributed to others of Bono's vintage without the trappings of religiosity, people like Sting or the band Midnight Oil?

If the songs on U2 "s 2004 album "How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb', are anything to go by, the search is still on, but maybe getting closer to a Jewish view of God. The song "Because of you, I am' maybe be referring to God as Bono's maker or maybe his human emotional support.  The ambiguity remains, rather like the Song of Solomon " the "you' in the song could be Bono's lover or God.  After all this is rock music, not a theological treatise: it is allowed to be ambiguous.

The final song, "Yahweh', is hopeful. Yahweh is the name of God as a person, the divine Person who has relationships with people. This name brings God near to Man, but whether Bono knows this or even if he considers God to be knowable is not yet clear. Remember Paul's words to the Athenians "I even found an altar with this inscription TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as unknown I am going to proclaim to you'. The rest is history. The search is over " a living relationship with God is now possible by believing in Jesus. There is no other name by which anyone can be saved. So while you might sing "I still haven't found what I am looking for' meaning that the next life is only dimly perceived "as if through a glass darkly', a Christian cannot sing those words if they are really in a relationship with the person Jesus Christ.  Either He has found you and you Him, or not.

Paul Campbell-Allen is an experienced Christian musician and a member of St Thomas’ Anglican Church North Sydney