U2's Bono an "Edgy" Christian; Warns Against PC Politeness

Christian Post, Jun. 25, 2013

Rocker Bono, in an interview with Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, urged Christians to live a bold faith, noting that Jesus was not polite about acting out the gospel.

In an interview aired on FOTF’s website Bono said he identified with David of the Bible, not just because he was a musician but also because of his candor with God.

Bono admonished “It’s very important for Christians to be honest with God."

Daly said in the interview that he believed the U2 musician lives an honest faith that appears to “orthodox folks" as “maybe too edgy at times."

Bono responded by cautioning that Christians who prize “politeness" over the candor, he cautioned, may end up living a trivialized life. “You’ve gotta be very careful that grace and politeness do not merge into a banality of behavior, where we’re just nice, sort of ‘death by cupcake,’" he said.

While he praised politeness and manners, Bono said “Jesus didn’t have many manners."

Instead he suggested that Jesus was also edgy when He told a man in Luke 9 to forsake burying his dead father to spread the gospel. “He could see right into that fellow’s heart. He knew he wasn’t coming and he was just, it was pretense."

The child of Protestant and Catholic parents, he has avoided religious labels. However he has also been outspoken about his thoughts on the Christian Faith.

In the 2005 book, Bono: In conversation with Michka Assayas, the rocker said “The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled. It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven."

Bono also said he has tried to align himself to what God is doing rather than asking God to bless what he is doing.

Bono challenged Christians to be about more than signs of righteousness but rather actions. “We’ve gotta be a bit more cutting edge, not look to the obvious signs of righteousness—Jesus was very suspicious of them—and I think look to deeper, look to the actions," he said.