It's hard to get in the door....

It would be impossible for me to catalog the most meaningful/thoughtful/favorite U2 lines, but if I did compile a list the following would definitely be at the top:

Jesus never let me down
You know Jesus used to show me the score
Then they put Jesus in show business
Now it's hard to get in the door
"If God Will Send His Angels," Pop, 1997

Why is spirituality so important to U2 and why is church viewed with such suspicion? Why is it so hard to get in the door?

Another favorite lyric:

And I'd join the movement
If there was one I could believe in
Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was a church I could receive in
"Acrobat," Achtung Baby, 1991

Bono often reflects on the hypocrisy of a church predisposed to conflict, exclusivity, inaction, self-indulgence, greed and a general disregard for God. He has regularly made statements like, "religion often gets in the way of God." That seed was planted by growing up with a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, and was brought to full bloom by living in a war torn country (Ireland) where terrorists routinely killed one another in the name of Christianity.

Why is it so hard to get in the door? For those who live in the real world, a world in which church has no meaning or purpose, this question is more relevant than the people who call themselves Christians. The general populace is tired of the blond-haired, blue-eyed, Val-Kilmer-look-alike Jesus that "If God Will Send His Angels" speaks of above. Brian McLaren asks, "Where is a person least likely to go when he/she wants to know about God?" His answer: the church. I agree.

I'm starting a category of blog entries entitled "It's hard to get in the door." I want to give examples of why I think so many find Christ desirable but the church such an obstacle. Most of this is a result of a grossly out of touch Christian subculture. I've been collecting examples of isolation, compromise and irrelevance. See "Take the Plastic Christ out of Christmas" if you want to know what I'm talking about. I invite you to leave your stories and examples as well.

Why is it so hard to get in the door? Why are people ready to accept Christ but not the church? More to come....

I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don't want God in it
"The Wanderer," Zooropa, 1993

You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
Well then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
"One," Achtung Baby, 1991

Comments

[Beth]

As someone who was brought up an atheist and had to go through that "get in the door" process, bring this topic on!

That last verse you quote, from "The Wanderer," is at the very top of *my* favorite U2 lyrics, although not so much because of the "get in the door" issue, but because of how directly it describes my experience inside the hierarchy of the institutional mainline church.

Here's an example of out of touch church culture for you. Many denominations were represented in GUOYK, so when it came out our publisher asked about having it reviewed in a few relevant denominational publications. In one case, no one in the publication's office had ever heard of this "U2" or of a "Bono," so they replied no thanks, they didn't anticipate enough reader interest in a book on such an obscure topic. (I located someone on their editorial board who was a little less out of touch, and that person was able to give them some context for the idea that perhaps a reader or three might know what "U2" was.)

Just one thing, and I'm sure this was a slip of the fingers: Protestant (Anglican) *mother*; Catholic *father*.

[Tim]

Beth,

Thanks for "feeling" this one and responding so affirmingly. I highly value your opinion as one who has an atheistic background. I was raised from "within" so I'm coming from a very different place.

Regarding the mother/father thing, you're right, I do know that Bob was the Catholic. Oddly enough, I had just been re-reading Bono's National Prayer Breakfast speech and he himself makes the blunder. He says, "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." It's not just in the transcript, it's in the video too. Odd isn't it? Do you have any explanation for this? I've already corrected the reference in my original post.

Finally, I was driving to work this morning and "One" was working on me (again). I added the "temple" lyric from that song. Seems appropriate.

Thanks again.

[Beth]

My explanation is that I think Bono was somewhat nervous and not listening to himself.

[Jennifer]

I'm reading U2 by U2 now, and I wonder if another key to this is the crowd that Bono was a part of- from his descriptions it sounds like they (Bono, Guggi, etc) prided themselves on being different than others (and in some ways that was a protection in what Bono portrays as their rough and tumble neighborhood). It also makes sense to me that when he was in an 'organized' relgious group, that it was not a traditional church, but Shalom.

I'm also sure that losing your mother at the age that he did would cause a person to ponder God, and to have some difficulty connecting with God in a traditional way.

One last thing that has just ocurred to me- I have always interpreted Bono's lyrics about God to be a sign that he questions God himself, and not just the church, which is prey to human foibles. I don't think he's only viewing the church with suspicion. I have always loved that he's open with the fact that his relationship with spirituality has been one of seeking, confusion, questioning.

And with that, I have got to get to bed : )