U2 Letter in Insights

A 'Letter to the Editor' in the last edition of the 'Insights' magazine almost convinced me it was time to break my golden rule and respond. [Insights is the Uniting Church magazine for NSW/ACT] There have been three times over the past 20 years or so when I have come close to writing, but I just can't bring myself to give validity to the lame, ill-informed, red-necked, fundamentalist, carping, illogical and often down right offensive dribble which usually fills its column space!!
Don't get me wrong, I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion. Equally I want to support anybody with a passion and enthusiasm or a vision for how faith can be fostered and the future of the Community of the people of God can be developed and grown. I just don't believe anything of substance is achieved by a letter in that forum. Time and again people demonstrate immovability from a preconceived idea, quote selectively from snippets of scripture to support their view and use these pages to vent about  a range of subjects they are often rebuffed with through committee and community processes in the local setting they come from.
I just reckon if you want to make a difference then deal with people, groups and processes directly, don't write a brief note about it and wonder why people don't fall over backwards to bring change or seek your views and involvement on the strength of a letter!
The inspiration for my frustration was  a letter in response to reports on our event in May accessing the music of U2 as an example of pop culture/secular creative arts for worship, discipleship and reflection on things that matter. It's just one example and coincided with the release in Australia of a book "Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalogue" edited by Raewynne Whiteley and Beth Maynard. The book is a worldwide collection of sermons accessing U2 music to tell its story, expand on a theme or explore scripture and its pretty good!

The writer was critical of holding up U2 music and suggested that in exploring faith and the gospel we take 'a U-turn' suggesting we might as well use Britney Spears. He felt that if thats our view of U2 music we might as well stand on street corners and handout U2 CDs with cards tucked into them. The thing about that is, I reckon we could do worse!!

The writer either rejects U2s Christian background or simply doesn't get it and has a problem with all but Christian music. Either way thats a narrow view of the world, of the mission of the church and the challenges we face and essentially of what bands like U2 genuinely offer...

A band I describe as 'three Christians and a ratbag' have faith, have a history in the church and have struggled to remain connected, work tirelessly for justice and have always been about sharing their faith perspective in authentic ways. Yep, they buy into the rock star thing but are open about who they are.

The 'Elevation Tour' was like a worship tour of the US in the wake of 9/11 as they helped audiences across that country deal with the grief and shock of those events.... the Boston Concert DVD is a massive worship experience [with theatre and rockstar grandeur mixed in].

The album "All That You Can't Leave Behind" explores so many worthy themes... the nature of grace, the discipleship journey of people like Aung San Suu Kyi, where and when real peace might come from etc. The album title is the answer to 'what can you take with you on a costly journey of following an ideal, a call, a cause you believe in that is hard to do..... you can only take 'all that you cant leave behind' and that indeed that is LOVE.

If by drinking, smoking, not claiming publicly that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour in those exact words and being angry about things that matter is what offends the correspondent... then I'm with U2 everytime in our current missional context.

Called to be like Salt and Light in the world around us [Matt 5] we have done plenty of 'preserving' and now its time to 'be the God flavours' in our world. Its my intention not to just write that here but to continue in my own journey and ministry, to be someone on about the rule and reign of God and someone who is willing to engage with any creative energy or outcome if its a fair dinkum go at understanding our own or Gods perspective on and place in the world!!