BONO WANTS CHRISTIAN MUSIC
TO GET MORE HONEST
The U2 musician said that he sees a “lot of dishonesty” in modern Christian music.
When U2 musician Bono reads the Psalms, a book of the
Bible filled with ancient hymns, he sees the full range of human emotions: anger, irritation, sadness, bliss. While the
Psalms have been a source of spiritual inspiration for him
throughout his life, Bono has much harsher words for contemporary Christian music.
Modern Christian worship music has often been critiqued
for its mediocrity — the repetition of the same four chords,
the same set of reliably inspirational words, and theological
jargon that leaves outsiders bewildered.
Bono, who has become more outspoken about his Christian
faith in recent years, is advocating for a return to the raw and
honest emotion of the Psalms.
“The psalmist is brutally honest about the explosive joy that
he’s feeling and the deep sorrow or confusion,” the singer said in Fuller Studio‘s newly released documentary “The
Psalms.” “And I often think, ‘Gosh, well, why isn’t church
music more like that?’”
The singer’s comments in the film were part of a wide-ranging conversation he had with Eugene Peterson, a pastor
and scholar who is best known for “The Message,” a translation of the Bible into contemporary language. The film documents the friendship between the unlikely pair, who were
drawn together by their common interest in this ancient book
of the Bible.
Peterson talked about how his translation of the Psalms are
as close as he could get to the original meaning of the text.
“It’s not smooth, it’s not nice, it’s not pretty, but it’s honest,”
Peterson said. “I think we’re trying for honesty, which is very,
very hard in our culture.”
Bono agreed that honesty was hard to find in modern Christian culture. In fact, he said that he found “a lot of dishonesty” in modern Christian art.
“I would love if this conversation would inspire people who
are writing these beautiful… gospel songs, write a song
about their bad marriage. Write a song about how they’re
pissed off at the government. Because that’s what God
wants from you, the truth,” Bono said. “And that truthfulness
.... will blow things apart.”
14 PAGE | ICONIC MAGAZINE