Men in Christian culture often have giant man-crushes on Bono. Pastors who wish to be emergent/relevant sometimes quote him in sermons and work in a U2 lyric mention when they can. Obscure lyrics must be tempting to quote, but the hit songs are quoted most often. (Gen-X pastors likely went through a U2 phase in seminary during which they pondered the
worship/mourning/redemptive elements of Boy and October, but now they need to tailor their sermon references to their demographic. They may assume that most people in their congregation don’t own any U2 albums older than the Joshua Tree, which is a safe assumption unless the church is very, very Acts 29.)

Conversely, many people in Christian culture disagree with Bono’s theology and many pastors’ blogs urge people to “pray for Bono and his bandmates.” This group also often dislikes how he presents his politics and they don’t appreciate the whole Coexist thing, saying he is equating other religions with Christianity. Some of them say in their blogs that Bono is not a believer anymore.

Maybe a lot of breath gets wasted while we’re picking this stuff apart. Maybe revering or villifying Bono can be an idol. Maybe we could pray for ourselves the same way we might pray for Bono, which is that we all might know truth.