Burned Over Bono: U2's Rock 'n' Roll Messiah and His Religious Politic.

Chad E. Seales

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract

Within the last decade, many fans and members of the popular press have labeled Bono, lead singer of the band U2, a "Rock 'n' Roll Messiah," because of his global humanitarian efforts and relentless effusion of theological and political messages in song and concert. Focusing on the relationship between religious practice and secular activism, I argue that Bono has performed a secularized soteriology--a public prescription of spiritual and economic salvation unbounded by religious institutions--that conjures an imagined World Polity; and this message has been packaged and delivered in ways that blur distinctions between show business and modern revival techniques.

Introduction

[1] In February 2006, Bono, lead singer for the Irish Rock band U2, presented the keynote speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, an event organized by an evangelical Christian foundation. After admitting to a crowd of over 3,000 people, including President George W. Bush, members of congress, and a sampling of world leaders, that, "there's something unnatural- something unseemly- about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents," Bono gave a homily (his term) on the virtues of aiding the sick and poor in Africa. Making reference to a "higher law," he called world politicians to move beyond religion, "because it often gets in the way of God," and embrace the "era of grace" that began with the new Millennium, the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25-27). [1]

[2] Bono's speech at the prayer breakfast is just one example why fans and members of the popular press have labeled him a "Rock 'n' Roll" Messiah. While Bono has infused theological and political messages into U2 songs since the 1980s, he has transformed these lyrical homilies into relentless political action within the last decade. Africa has been at the center of this action. Toward the end of the twentieth century, Bono joined Pope John Paul II and others in the Jubilee 2000 movement, or Drop the Debt Campaign. Invoking the Levitical tradition of a Jubilee year, when debt was forgiven without penalty, these religious leaders called first world nations to drop the debts of poor third world countries. Bono has continued this movement in the new millennium. In 2002, Bono founded DATA, a non-profit organization that has advocated heavily for debt relief on behalf of African nations and has been highly successful, to the surprise of many. Since that time, Bono has frequently "mounted the pulpit" as front man for DATA, preaching to presidents and politicians.

[3] Although Irish, Bono has focused on the United States as his primary media outlet. Politically, Bono has followed a path similar to U2, which remained rooted in Ireland but traveled to America to discover global musical success. This pattern, of course, is not peculiar to U2. The rise of the Irish band merely illustrates the transatlantic ties to the "American production" of rock 'n' roll. But Bono adds another element to the equation. Not only does he stand with U2 in cultural streams of American music, he also stands with DATA in fields of American evangelists. Bono's methods of advocacy and his techniques of political conversion resemble the modern revival techniques of American evangelists perfected by Charles Finney in the nineteenth century. And like his American evangelical counterparts after Finney, from D.L. Moody to Billy Graham, Bono has toured both sides of the Atlantic and traveled the globe preaching his message of debt forgiveness for Africa. In terms of form and effect, Bono is close company with American revivalists.

[4] Through his advocacy for Africa, Bono has fused strands of American rock 'n' roll and revival into a religious politic. This fusion, however, involves more than just music and religion; it is also an ideological imagining of a politically and economically integrative process. In his work with DATA, Bono advocates for the inclusion of African nations within an emerging U.S. led World Polity. This inclusion, in turn, is predicated on the global expansion of democracy and capitalist markets. Bono's promotion of World Polity is an example of what sociologists have called "ideological globalization from above." [2] Further, Bono's attempt to integrate African nations into this polity is part of a modern secular project. It assumes that nation-states are sovereign (they can regulate defined borders) and that this sovereignty is based on Enlightenment Reason, not religious tradition or practice. Jose Casanova has argued that the modern global public sphere, or World Polity, that emerged in the late twentieth century has exhibited a rationalized Enlightenment impulse. In order to participate in this polity, social actors, understood by Casanova as mainly nation states, must adapt to the demands of modernity born out of this impulse. For Casanova, this is especially true for religion. He argues, "that only a religion which has incorporated as its own the central aspects of the Enlightenment critique of religion is in a position today to play a positive role in furthering processes of practical rationalization." [3]

[5] If the integration of African nations into a World Polity is understood as an example of "practical rationalization," then Bono plays the role of religious broker in this process. He is an agent for African nations in global political and economic markets and his primary methods of negotiation are religious. Bono's project of nation building in Africa through DATA, an explicitly secular process, is also an implicitly religious practice. Bono's advocacy for Africa illustrates practically what Talal Asad has argued theoretically about the "the concept of the secular," that it "cannot do without the idea of religion." [4] Through his advocacy for Africa, Bono has preached a "secularized soteriology," a public prescription of spiritual and economic salvation unbounded by religious institutions. [5] Performing religious practice as secular activism and secular activism as religious practice, Bono promotes a U.S. led World Polity with evangelical flare and eschatological expectation.

[6] In this paper, I describe the "elective affinity" between Bono's message of salvation for individuals and nation-states and the "rationalized" political and economic order of World Polity. My understanding of elective affinity and soteriology as an explanation of "what one must do to be saved" is indebted to Max Weber. [6] Linking Bono's lyrical soteriology of individual salvation to his political prescriptions for "what an African nation-state must do to be saved," my interpretation of Bono's work with DATA corresponds to three aspects of Weber's theoretical description of soteriology. First, Weber argued that a social agent could not conceive of salvation or redemption without a coherent "image of the world," which is provided by the dominant society. But Weber also believed that the "germ" of this theodicy, or rationalized conception of a totalizing moral world, was found in "the myth of the redeemer." And finally Weber maintained that, "almost always - some kind of theodicy of suffering has originated from the hope for salvation." [7]

[7] Following this three-part structure, I argue in the first section that America is the dominant manufacturer of a soteriological "image of the world" (of democracy and free markets within a World Polity) and that Bono seizes upon these ideals and strives to remake them in his own interests. [8] For Bono, the "idea of America," like the "idea of religion," is that which must be overcome. In the second section, I examine Bono's Messianic promotions as one "germ" of World Polity and I compare his religious politic and his techniques of conversion to American revivalists. [9] In the third section, I propose that Bono's soteriological aspirations for Africa provide one form of theodicy for World Polity. In other words, Bono has explained the spread of democracy and the expansion of capitalist markets in Africa in terms of its hope for political and economic salvation for those suffering across the continent. Finally, I conclude by suggesting that like many American revivalists before him, Bono has provided a religious solution to a moral and economic dilemma.

Overcoming America: Bono Preaches Global Politics

[8] Although Bono is not native to the United States, like many of his immigrant predecessors he has been inextricably linked with America. In terms of his political relationship to America, Bono is somewhere between the "Liberator" Daniel O'Connell, who sent out an appeal from Ireland in 1841 to the Irish in America to join the abolitionist cause, and John Riley, the Irish-American soldier who defected to the Mexican side in the Mexican-American war. [10] Like these Irish compatriots before him, Bono has preached against the injustices of America both home and abroad. In U2 songs, Bono has often juxtaposed biblical images of human struggle with God against global examples of human struggle with America. For example, "Bullet the Blue Sky," one of Bono's earliest sermons to America, contrasts biblical allusions of human entanglement with God-- "In the locust wind, comes a rattle and hum, Jacob wrestled the Angel and the Angel was overcome"--with images of U.S. military involvement in Central America in the 1980s . [11] In this cacophonous song, lead guitarist, "the Edge," imitates the rattle and hum of fighter planes while Bono describes them, "spraying bullets on women and children in tin huts and city streets" across the hills of San Salvador. For Bono, the Salvadoran disappeared have run "into the arms of America." Throughout "Bullet the Blue Sky," Bono moves across time and space: across national boundaries, from El Salvador to the United States, across historical markers, from Jacob to John Coltrane, and across geographic location, from rural hills to city streets. This is an image of Bono lyrically tangled up with America. [12]

[9] Now cut to 2001 at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, where Bono is at work in concert. [13] The front section of the wrap-around upper deck of the Continental Airlines arena is lined with advertisement boards. Bono has positioned himself at the apex of the heart-shaped walkway that extends from the stage. U2 is in the middle of "Bullet the Blue Sky," and Bono has grabbed a spotlight. In the darkened arena, he shines it across the advertisement boards and cries out against the evils of capitalism. He then chides America for hoarding its wealth and ignoring the AIDS crisis in Africa. The homily ends, the refrain begins, and the song climaxes. Seconds later, Bono announces that Bill Clinton and a United Nations representative are in the house, along with the Beastie Boys. Bono praises them for their humanitarian work, and he calls for more funding for AIDS research and more aid to Third World countries. [14] This is an image of Bono politically tangled up with America.

[10] Born Paul Hewson in 1960 to a Protestant mother and Catholic father in Ireland, Bono is no stranger to religion and politics. [15] His religious renderings are fused with political conviction. Though Irish, Bono embraces America and more importantly, he calls on America with religious fervor. America is Bono's spiritual wilderness, a land of religious promise and political possibility. [16] In contrast to his political message, however, Bono's spiritual convictions are amorphous. I do not attempt a history of Bono's spiritual journey here. [17] Rather I reference lyrics, concert performances, and speaking engagements, as they relate to Bono's current political activism, continually emphasizing his religious imagination. In the public performance of his religious politic, Bono often plays a role similar to public theologians. Martin Marty, historian of American religion, has defined public theology as "an effort to interpret the life of a people in the light of a transcendent reference." In the sense that he publicly articulates moral causes--Third World debt relief and an international fight against AIDS in Africa--in light of transcendent references, God and America, Bono performs the role of a public theologian. [18]

[11] Bono has called on American politicians, economists, theologians, and religious and social activists, particularly evangelicals, [19] to help him with his…