One of my favourite things to do is to grab a Starbucks, "tall, non- fat, gingerbread latte, no whip, no sprinkles," ( Isn't crazy how specialized our coffee order can be!!) and browse the shelves of Chapters. Now, all the employees are sporting the above statement attached to their name tags. Usually, due to my cynical nature, I would ignore this missive, but decided to go ahead and ask each employee I descend upon, "what book are you reading now?" Not surprisingly, I seem to catch every employee off guard. After a few awkward minutes, they do manage to share about their latest adventures in reading, which almost convince me to purchase the book!!
Recently, I received a Chapters gift card, so I was eager to buy some new books and to see if I could catch any more employees off guard!! One book I purchased that day was, "Bono in conversation with Michka Assayas." I have wanted to read Bono's biography for a while now, so I was excited to begin. I absolutely am LOVING this book. More than anything, I am surprised and impressed by his deep love for Jesus and desire to put into action Jesus' teachings. I knew he was spiritual and was always interested in the debate it generated amongst the evangelicals. I had the privilege of going to U2's concert last year in Toronto. It was a "God moment" for me...I know it sounds crazy, but the Spirit of God was evident that night....I worshipped God at a U2 concert! (My protestant, Irish B-special grandfather may have rolled over in his grave at that notion!) It was very special! Anyways, I wanted to leave a bit of Bono's discussion of televangelists. ( He was talking about U2's first trip to America and what that was like) In my opinion, he couldn't have said it better than me who grew up in a somewhat - fundamental to Bono - fundamental Christian community! Food for thought:
" Who was the first telebangelist you saw on TV?"
"It was a preacher who was asking his audience in TV land to put their hand against the screen to be healed. So there were people, old ladies with bronchitis, old ladies with boken hips, and probably people with cancer, all over America, getting out of their armchairs and putting their hands on the TV. It broke my heart. But remember I was a believer. Though I understood the power of the Scriptures they were quoting from, and I did believe in the healing powers of faith, I was seeing it debased and demeaned. But unlike a lot of people, I understood the language. What's always bothered me about the fundamentalists is that they seem preoccupied with the most obvious sins. If those sins, sexual immorality and drug addiction, come out of unhappiness, then I'm sure God wants to set people free of that unhappiness. But, I couldn't figure out why the same people were never questionning the deepr, slyer problems of the human spirit like self-righteousness, judgmentalism, institutional greed, corporate greed. You only have to look to unfair trade agreements that keep the developing wolrd in the Dark Ages to see the hypocrisy I'm talking about. These people talk about the debasing of culture. What about the debasing of hundreds of thousands of real lives? "
"Right. These people go to church on Sunday. I guess they're very generous when the plate comes around. So were you angry with those fundamentalists?"
" We thought they were trampling all over the most precious thing of all: the concept that God is love. These televangelists, they were the traders inside the temple, that story where Jesus turned over their tables. They were putting people off God, especially young people who didn't want to admit to being Christians anymore. Because in clubs, on campuses, everywhere, people would say: "You're part of that. They're nuts!" So it was very interesting to be in America at that time. We were fans and critics, getting ready to tell them the best and the worst on The Joshua Tree."
No comments:
Post a Comment