Terry Bradshaw: Football, Fame, and Faith

Posted on September 17, 2006 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

March/April 2006

When I was growing up, I was infatuated with two quarterbacks. One was the long-haired Kenny “The Snake” Stabler of the Oakland Raiders and the other was Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers-the first quarterback in NFL history to lead his team to four Super Bowl championships.

Ever since he was chosen as a #1 draft pick player in 1970, Bradshaw has entertained sports fans as an athlete, broadcaster, and analyst. He led the Pittsburgh Steelers to six AFC championship games and eight straight playoff appearances from 1972-1979. Bradshaw, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, a four-time All-Pro, was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

I watch Bradshaw every Sunday afternoon as the co-host and analyst on “Fox NFL Sunday,” a four-time Emmy Award-winning NFL pregame show. His work on the program earned him two Sports Emmy Awards.

Since his retirement from football, Bradshaw has dabbled in show business, appearing both in feature films and television shows. He was the first NFL player to receive a Star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Currently, he is starring opposite of Kathy Bates as Matthew McConaughey’s father in Failure to Launch, a Paramount film to be released on March 10. Continue reading →

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Review: New World

Posted on September 14, 2006 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

National Review, January 20, 2006

Director Terrence Malick moves at a very distinct and deliberate speed – namely, his own. He’s not in a hurry. He wrote the screenplay for his latest movie The New World about twenty-five years ago. It has just now been released nationwide.

Despite widely heralded acclaim as a writer/director, Malick has only done a handful of major projects since 1973 (Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven, and Badlands). His style is very distinct, unconventional, and recognizable (some would say “slow and plodding,” while others might view it as “poetic and mystical”).

In his new film, Malick focuses his attention on the exotic story of Pocahontas (Q’orianka Kilcher), John Smith (Colin Farrell), and John Rolfe (Christian Bale) – a tale drenched with love, betrayal, sacrifice, deception, abandonment, and discovery. It attempts to chronicle the culture clash of European new comers and “the naturals” during the founding of the Jamestown Settlement in 1607.

The New World also tells the compelling story (through both fact and myth) of the cultural transformation of a young woman who has to give up her native food, faith, and fashion in order to fit into the colonial culture because of a courageous act of self-sacrifice. Continue reading →

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Slightly mystical: Q’orianka Kilcher

Posted on September 14, 2006 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

(Risen, January/ February 2006)

No, I didn’t ask her.

Apparently, it has been the inevitable question in all her previous interviews.

I regret to inform you that if you want to know what she thought about kissing Colin Farrell, you’re going to have to go buy one of those other magazines.

After conducting a worldwide search for an actress to play Pocahontas in Terrance Malick’s The New World, the studio rolled the dice with 15-year-old Q’Orianka Kilcher (yes, she is Jewel’s cousin).

Right up front, let me say that I had low expectations of interviewing someone of such a tender age. While I don’t consider myself an ageist, it was an unavoidable temptation to take her less than seriously. But, I figured that if they weeded through eight kajillion head shots and dug the vibe of a complete unknown like Q’Orianka, there must be more to this teenager than a lip-lock.

I was right.

We decided to meet for breakfast. She showed up with her mother. I felt like I was back in the 9th grade, meeting mom before taking her daughter to the prom. Thankfully, it was far less stressful than when I was meeting parents as a sweaty-palmed 15-year-old. Q’Orianka struck me as a confident, humble, and engaging young woman who had performed publicly around Waikiki Beach from when she was knee-high. She sang and danced, living out her childhood on a stage. During our time together, she spoke almost philosophically, as though she was twice her age. At other times, she spoke whimsically to remind me that she was, indeed, a teenager.

Continue reading →

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LL Cool J on tithing and career longevity

Posted on March 17, 2006 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

2006 Good News

“Every dime I get, no matter what it is, I give 10 percent to the church,” rapper and actor LL Cool J recently said. The interviewer from Hot 97, a hip hop radio station in New York City, said that she had first heard LL Cool J (born James Todd Smith) testify about tithing at Greater Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

“I mentioned earlier longevity, versatility and originality,” LL Cool J said about his success. “What I didn’t mention was spirituality and believing in God.”

His commitment to faith in God and tithing has been highlighted in interviews over the last several years. “I tithe. I’m a life-long tither,” he told Hot 97. “For many years, I’ve been a tither. I believe strongly in giving. I believe you got to have that faith. And I’ve seen it work in my life, because as much as people in the world like to take credit and claim to be geniuses, at the end of the day there’s a higher power than you, and you’ve got to answer to that power. And you have to recognize that power.” Continue reading →

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Daddy Sang Bass: Interview with John Carter Cash

Posted on February 27, 2006 by Steve-O

His lineage is country music royalty. His father was Johnny Cash, whose posthumously released “American V: A Hundred Highways” was recently #1 on Billboard charts. His mother was June Carter Cash, a member of the legendary Carter Family-pioneers of folk, country, and bluegrass music.

John Carter Cash was the associate producer of all his father’s American Recordings albums, produced his mother’s final album “Wildwood Flower” (2003), as well as The “Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family” (2004). He was also the executive producer of the film, “Walk the Line.”

His most recent project (2006) as a producer is “Voice of the Spirit: The Gospel of the South,” a stunning compilation of bluegrass, country, and black gospel music. The album features artists such as Mavis Staples, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Del McCoury, Rodney Crowell, as well as his own father, Johnny Cash. 

Steve Beard had a chance to talk to John Carter Cash about southern gospel, his faith, and his family.

 

Thunderstruck: You were raised in a musical home, the blood in your veins is that of musical pioneers and legends. What was it like growing up hearing stories about the Carter Family and then living in the tornado that was the career of your mom and dad?

Johnny Cash and John Carter Cash 1975

John Carter Cash: To be very honest, I took it for granted. It was just normal to me. I was surrounded by it all the time. I knew that they were larger-than-life figures and that many people—including my peers, and fans and the press—looked up to my family. I had to mature in many ways before it really sunk into my spirit what it was all about. In my late 20s was when I started to realize the impact that my family had had historically on music. The Carter family had—Maybelle Carter’s guitar playing in particular—a wide and varied impact on many people around the world, as did my father. I learned to respect it, but it took a while.

When you gained an appreciation of their reach and influence, was it liberating or confining? In other words, did you feel painted into a corner?

Early in my life it was that way. I felt as if I was surrounded by shadows and that I had to live up to a certain expectation. I think it was liberating, finally. When I looked at it in an intellectual sense, the Carter family’s musical legacy is something that I was respectful of and proud of. I felt that I had an obligation to research it as much as I possibly could. It’s about the freedom. It’s about understanding. It’s about reaching into your heart. As a producer, that’s where I found my peace. It’s looking into the past of music and finding a common thread that leads to the now, and into the future.

As a producer, is there a temptation to lead an artist in the direction of a marketable song rather than one that reflects their gut-wrenching soul?

It’s about the artist’s gut-wrenching soul. What they desire, what they love. It is not about the perfect radio hit, or sounding like the current material that is out there, or fitting into some demographic scale. What it is about to me is following that desire, following the heart, letting it be the lead, enhancing it with the artist if necessary—clarifying it, finding the voice. I don’t like to inhibit an artist or push them in a certain direction. I like to follow their lead, follow their heart.

I think that is quite evident on this album. Despite the fact that it is all within the same genre, the album showcases diverse and eclectic artists who put together a very cohesive message.

Thank you.

What is it about southern singers—perhaps your dad could be looked on as an example—who sang such sanctified hymns and yet also seemed to relish in singing about cheating, drinking, and murder? [Laughter] There is something very unique about the southern artist’s knowledge and experience of sin and redemption.

Well, to know redemption, you have to know sin. We’re all light, we’re all dark. We don’t walk around redeemed and glowing. What we walk around as, hopefully, is an image of that redemption. If we were in all light, would anybody even notice? We have to go through the fire to gain our strength. That’s the nature of us, I believe, as human beings. And that’s where it comes from. That’s where that vision of redemption comes from—is through the pain, through the suffering. And that’s a commonality. That’s around the world with people. And everybody can relate to that. Yes, southern music has a lot of drinkin’, prison songs, and murder songs. But there’s something to relate to there for the listener. I’ve struggled through my pains. I’ve found redemption. And my greatness is because of something bigger than me that forgives me.

It seems as if the Carter family, and your father in particular, seemed to relish singing about both the sin and the redemption.

Yeah, that’s where he got it. He got it from the Carter Family, from Jimmy Rodgers, from male black blues singers that would sing about redemption in one song and murder in the next. It’s an ancient, common thread, if there is such a thing in American music. My dad got it from others who came before him. It sort of became his stamped trademark.

The Carter Family recorded over 300 songs. One was Gospel and the next would be a gallows ballad that the man would sing before he was hung for a murder that he had committed. Songs were written by the Carter Family post-mortum, after the character singin’ the song was dead. But that stems back from old English and Irish folk ballads. I mean, that’s where it all came from. It came from across the sea. So you know, redemption, pain, and suffering are common threads in the Carter Family’s music as it is my father’s.

Your dad had the trilogy, Love, God, and Murder. Have you thought about doing…if this album was considered the God have you thought about doing other albums tapping into this stuff?

You know, it has crossed my mind to do a series on related, in one form or fashion, a Voice of the Spirit series. But the Voice of the Spirit is a lot of different things, so it’s interesting that you would bring that up. But I haven’t looked at it quite that way. But it has crossed my mind.

Your dad sings “Unclouded Day” on the album. What was that recording session like? What was the greatest lesson that you learned from your mom and dad?

Well, my father had…I mean, it was four days after my mother’s funeral and I was working on the Carter Family’s Unbroken Circle record, and I went in to record the Carter Family’s material. And we recorded two Carter Family songs, a gospel take, and another one called “I Found You among the Roses” that is a forlorn love ballad that hasn’t been released. And then he wanted to record some from his heart. And he kept on making music that day, he recorded five or six songs. And “Unclouded Day” seemed to be perfect for this project. So it was a session that he’d done for me that was right before he had gotten back to work on what would be the fifth American record. But it was the very first session after my mother had passed away.

It was recorded in my parents’ house. It was actually recorded in my father’s bedroom. You know, my dad, in understanding who my father was, to him it was therapy. To him it was his way to continue to love my mother. To find a voice. You know, my father’s eyesight was fading and his passion before had come from reading the Bible. He couldn’t do that anymore. He could listen to music and he could sing. And so that was his way of continuance. That was his path even to grieving was to continue to sing, to let his spirit express itself, to have somethin’ to look to, to have somethin’ to look forward to, to have something to plan on. He was very weak, he’d dealt with pneumonia over and over again, but he didn’t stop. And I’d have to say that the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned from my parents—from both of them—was that persistence, was that in the face of pain and adversary and suffering, you don’t quit. That’s what it was about to my dad. That’s why he kept going.

You’ve had three years to cope with the loss of your dad. He was a King of the Jungle to everybody else, but to you, he was your dad.

The thing about it is, no matter the faith or the strength of the entertainer, we are all human. And under the human first and foremost, and under the man, I knew the simple man. The allure had long since past from my view of stardom in general. I knew the man in his simple form. But the lion I knew wasn’t based upon the world looked at him, it was based upon his continuance, the strength he had inside. I mean, he nearly died many, many times, and had risen back up through interior strength provided by God. And that’s who he was. That’s the lion. The lion, my father would have said, was not him, the lion was Judah, the lion was God, the lion is strength through him.

What is it about your desire in tapping in to your parents’ treasury of the musical form of your family. This album has a very distinctive Christian, obviously Gospel. What is it about all the song subjects that attracted you to this particular set of songs and this particular theme—what does faith mean to you?

A project like this takes on its own form as it’s built. I didn’t set out to make it just the way that it was. I sort of let the Spirit develop it. So it came about based on the artists’ love, what the artist was feeling at the time. Some people took my direct suggestions to sing those songs. And some people had ideas of their own. It takes on a form based on a whole larger than the sum of the parts. That’s what it becomes. And I believe that the Spirit is in there, I truly do.

Some of the people I had just wanted to work with before. And they were on a list of ideal artists, but the list took on different forms. And a lot of that was the people that are on the record, they had the inspiration to do it. That’s what the record was about.

Was Walk the Line painful or cathartic?

Well, it was both. Working on WTL was something my parents themselves had set in motion far before. My involvement in WTL was with the script, was working with the producers pre-production. That’s getting it all set up with FOX and all that. That was my involvement. And you know, I mean, I don’t know if I’d ever do another movie again. I like to work in the studio and make music. There’s a lot in the movie industry that would keep me away.

You know, the movie is about my parents’ love affair. That’s what it’s about. If you look for anything else, you might be lacking. Even if you look for a message about spirituality or their relationship with God—what the movie’s about is their love affair. But it tells what they wanted it to tell. If you look for a story of lasting love, you’ll find it. And if you look for anything else, then we’re going to have to make another movie, or make one that’s four and a half hours long.

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Rock Star as Theologian: Bono’s Blue-Tinted Witness

Posted on December 10, 2005 by Steve-O

By: Steve Beard

A review of Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas by Michka Assayas (Riverhead, 2005).

Life is a stage for Bono. The charismatic Irishman has lived under the spotlight of countless venues around the globe. His bleeding-heart social activism on behalf of the poor and suffering in Africa has landed him behind podiums next to the most powerful politicians in the world. The paparazzi are present to chronicle the overwhelmingly hip, blue-tinted sunglasses in a room of dramatically un-hip policy wonks.

Screen Shot 2015-03-10 at 4.54.48 PMEverything seems larger when it deals with Bono—the issues he addresses, the questions he ponders, and the forums he is granted. Nowhere is that more clearly displayed than in the recently published 323-page Q&A, titled Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas.

Assayas is a French music journalist who has covered the band U2 from its inception. Over the period of two years, Bono and Assayas explored Bono’s childhood, the emergence of the band, his marriage, his social activism, the peculiar nature of celebrity, and the way he works out his Christianity. What arises as the most interesting aspect of the book is Bono’s fearless and winsome witness to faith.

At the height of his success and fame, Bono and his father would often go down to a local pub and drink Irish whiskey on Sunday afternoons. On one occasion his father told him, “There’s one thing I envy of you. I don’t envy anything else. You do seem to have a relationship with God.” Bono asked: “Didn’t you ever have one?” “No,” he said. “But you have been a Catholic for most of your life,” Bono responded. “Yeah, lots of people are Catholic. It was a one-way conversation. . . . You seem to hear something back from the silence!” Bono said: “That’s true, I do.”

“How do you feel it?” His father asked him. “I hear it in some sort of instinctive way, I feel a response to a prayer, or I feel led in a direction,” Bono replied. “Or if I’m studying the Scriptures, they become alive in an odd way, and they make sense to the moment I’m in, they’re no longer a historical document.”

According to Bono, his father was “mind-blown by this.” I imagine that many readers may share the surprise at this rock star’s intimate faith.

SPIRITUAL PROVOCATEUR
For more than twenty-five years, Bono has been one of the most effective and enigmatic spiritual provocateurs. Who else talks to rock journalists about the theological superiority of grace over karma, writes the foreword to a specially-packaged book of Psalms, launched a conscience-raising line of clothing called Edun, and was seriously endorsed by the Los Angeles Times to head the World Bank? He makes pitches for the Bible (The Message) and has been nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes.

Pope John Paul II wanted to wear his sunglasses when they met. Arch-conservative Senator Jesse Helms cried when he heard Bono describe the plight of hungry children in Africa. The U2 frontman single-handedly has done more to relieve third-world debt than all the Armani-clad finance ministers that could be packed into a United Nations conference room. He has a mysterious charisma, an unpretentious grace that affords him the allowance to be the only one wearing sunglasses indoors.

“When you’ve sold a lot of records, [laughs] it’s very easy to be megalomaniac enough to believe that you can change things. If you put your shoulder to the door, it might open. Especially if you’re representing a greater authority than yourself . . . ,” he confesses with confidence. “I promise, history will be hard on this moment. And whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. So these politicians should be nervous, not me.”

SHADE-WEARING FAITH
During his conversation with Assayas, Bono poetically stated: “Coolness might help in your negotiation with people through the world, maybe, but it is impossible to meet God with sunglasses on. It is impossible to meet God without abandon, without exposing yourself, being raw.”

His interlocutor responded: “What about your own sunglasses then? Do you wear them the same way a taxi driver would turn off his front light, so as to signal to God that this rock star is too full of himself and not for hire at the moment?”

Caught red-handed, Bono humbly responds, “You don’t know what’s going on behind those glasses, but God, I can assure you, does.”

Throughout his career, Bono has done his part to puncture the power of nihilism and hopelessness by pointing listeners to a transcendent reality of heaven, hell, angels, demons, deliverance, redemption, grace, and peace. U2’s lyrics unfold a world beyond the things that can be merely seen and rationally grasped.

Whether we want to or not, most of us create within our minds a picture and concept of God that fits neatly within a three-volume systematic theology text that we can proudly display on our bookshelves. Bono doesn’t buy that. He is a fan of the Psalms, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and Job—books filled with anxiety, doubt, and loaded with questions. As he wrote in the foreword to the Psalms, “my religion could not be fiction, but it had to transcend facts. I could be mystical, but not mythical and definitely not ritual.”

During one conversation with Assayas about theology, Bono says, “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.

“You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the Universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that ‘As you reap, so will you sow’ stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff. . . . I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”

DEALING WITH JESUS
The statement about Jesus on the cross sparks one of the most intimate and frank discussions in the entire book. “The son of God who takes away the sins of the world, I wish I could believe in that,” confesses Assayas.

“But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb,” Bono replies. “I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there’s mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let’s face it, you’re not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled. . . . It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.”

Still unconvinced, Assayas states frankly: “Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?”

“No, it’s not farfetched to me,” replies Bono. “Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. . . . He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah.’ I’m saying: ‘I am God incarnate.’ And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the ‘M’ word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you.”

Stepping into the argumentation of C. S. Lewis’s classic apologetics, Bono continues: “So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson . . . The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that’s farfetched.”

RELIGION IN ANSWERS

“How come you’re always quoting the Bible?” asks Assayas with a certain exasperation. “Was it because it was taught at school? Or because your father or mother wanted you to read it?” In response, Bono tells the story of attending a Christmas Eve service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin and describes the moment when the incarnation really made sense to him.

“The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough,” he said. “That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in [excrement] and straw . . . a child . . . I just thought: ‘Wow!’ Just the poetry . . . Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable.”

Behind a huge pillar, during the singing is when the epiphany occurred. “I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this,” he said of the birth of Christ. “Love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. It’s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.”

I am fairly confident that much of this conversation is jaw-dropping to many U2 fans around the world—as well as to some Christian critics of Bono and the band. After all, these are not the kinds of public conversations a reader expects to hear from a jet-setting rock star.

One of the chapters is titled “Add Eternity to That,” and it is a log of their conversation that took place one week after the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2004. The terrorist attack left 191 dead and more than 1,800 injured. During this interview, Bono attempts to clarify between faith in Christ and the fanaticism of terrorism.

“My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. What does that mean? What it means for me: a study of the life of Christ,” Bono says. “Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable situation of all, without honor. . . . God is love, and as much as I respond [sighs] in allowing myself to be transformed by that love and acting in that love, that’s my religion. Where things get complicated for me, is when I try to live this love. Now, that’s not so easy.”

Perhaps these conversations with a French journalist help explain the beauty, relevance, and longevity of Bono’s career. He is brutally honest about his shortcomings, as well as his hope for redemption. “But with Christ,” he testifies, “we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.”

Steve Beard is the creator of Thunderstruck.org. This article first appeared in the December 2005 issue of BreakPoint WorldView magazine. 

 

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Bono: The enigmatic spiritual provocateur

Posted on December 10, 2005 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

His father called him Paul, the White House affectionately calls him The Pest, and the rest of the civilized world simply refers to him as Bono. He is as well known to presidents and prime ministers for his dogged political lobbying as he is to music fans as the lead singer of the Irish rock band, U2. In 2000, the cover of Newsweek asked, “Can Bono Save the Third World?” Two years later, the cover of Time upped the ante by asking, “Can Bono Save the World?” How is that for heightened expectations for a man who once sang “I don’t believe that rock ‘n’ roll can really change the world”?

bono

Original art by Zela Lobb – zelalobb.com

The band he leads has sold more than 100 million albums around the globe since the release of Boy in 1980. In late November, U2 sold more than 840,000 copies of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb during its first week of release—the band’s largest debut ever.

They collect Grammys (14 in all) as if they were baseball trading cards—the recognition spanning from Album of the Year with The Joshua Tree in 1987 to Record of the Year in 2001 for “Walk On.” There are several bands whose longevity spans 25 years; U2 is the only one, however, that still matters in a culturally innovative sense.

Bono is rock ‘n’ roll’s most effective and enigmatic spiritual provocateur. He sees every stage as a pulpit and every coliseum as a cathedral. Who else talks to rock journalists about the theological superiority of grace over karma, writes the forward to a specially-packaged book of Psalms, convinces Sen. Jesse Helms to help African AIDS victims, and uses his time on national television to pray the Scriptures?

He makes pitches for the Bible, gets nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and then makes news for getting pardoned by the FCC for using the F-word on television. He is a walking contradiction. Some Christians dismiss him because he drinks, smokes, and swears. Other believers scour U2’s lyrics looking for the double entendres like code-breakers in World War II movies. Is he talking about the Second Coming of Christ or a nuclear holocaust? Is he referring to a lover or the Holy Spirit? Is Grace a girl or a theological concept?

British poet and music biographer Steve Turner observes, “More than any other act in the history of rock, they [U2] have forced God, Jesus, the Bible and a Christian worldview on to the agenda. Rock critics could ignore the Jesus rock of the 1970s (and they did!), but they couldn’t ignore U2; they had to voice an opinion about the values [U2] stood for.”

While America was still reeling from the September 11 terrorist attacks, U2—an Irish band—was asked to perform at the 2002 Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans. As the names of the victims were displayed over a huge backdrop, Bono began to pray Psalm 51:15: “O Lord, open my lips, so my mouth shows forth thy praise. O Lord, open my lips, so my mouth shows forth thy praise.” U2 then launched into a stunning version of “Where the Streets Have No Name.” In the firepower of the moment, Bono pulled open his jacket to display the Stars ‘n’ Stripes sewn into the lining. You could almost hear the collective national gasp before the cheers crescendoed into madness. He is 100 percent Irish, but he lives the life of a resident alien that knows no borders.

Whereas John Lennon invited us to imagine a world without a heaven, Bono inverted the plea to ask us to imagine heaven in a closer proximity. “I don’t expect this pie in the sky when you die stuff,” he once remarked. “My favorite line in the Lord’s Prayer is ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:10). I want it all, and I want it now. Heaven on earth—let’s have a bit of that.”

He belligerently pursues that desire through his activism. While most of the world is tired of being berated and tutored about social issues by spoiled and over-paid rock stars, we still give an audience to Bono whose heart bleeds with the best of them. Pope John Paul II wanted to wear his sunglasses when they met. Arch-conservative Senator Jesse Helms cried when he heard Bono describe the plight of hungry children in Africa. Bono has done more singlehandedly to relieve Third-world debt than all the Armani-clad finance ministers that could be packed into a United Nations conference room. He has a mysterious charisma, an unpretentious grace that affords him the ability to be the only one wearing sunglasses indoors without coming off as a megalomaniac.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to ask him how his Christian faith inspired his activism. He said, “Well, you know, I am not a very good advertisement for God. So, I generally don’t wear that badge on my lapel. But it is certainly written on the inside—I am a believer. There are 2,103 verses of Scripture pertaining to the poor; Jesus Christ only speaks of judgment once. It is not all about the things that the church bangs on about. It is not about sexual immorality, and it is not about megalomania, or vanity,” he said jokingly as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Bono is a tippy-toe talker, holding on to the side of the lectern, leaning in—engaged. You can see the Irish dander and passion brew even when he tries to be sedate. “It is about the poor; ‘I was naked and you clothed me. I was a stranger and you let me in.’” he said. “This is at the heart of the gospel. Why is it that we have seemed to have forgotten this? Why isn’t the Church leading this movement? The Church ought to be ready to do that.” He’s right.

Bono is the product of a Protestant mother and a Catholic father in a fiercely sectarian Ireland. His homeland is divided with political barbwire and religious quagmires. He says that he grew up seeing “religion as the perversion of faith.” Bono often says he does not feel comfortable in churches, but I think that is more of a throw-away line than heartfelt. As he has become more outspoken on the issue of AIDS in Africa, he has been forced to spend more time with religious activists. He has said that he had to swallow his own prejudice because he tended to tar all traditional Christians with the same brush. Bono discovered that was a mistake. Some of his most enthusiastic audiences are young evangelicals and Catholics who have a heart for the justice and love rock ‘n’ roll.

I became a believer about the same time I started listening to U2 albums such as Boy, October, and War. Their music was an encouragement to me as I tried to figure out how to integrate faith into the rest of life. They were outspoken, non-apologetic about their beliefs, and did it with grit and bang. The music was more sophisticated than a simplistic mish-mash of yummy lyrics about skipping with Jesus through fields of daises. The songs often had a hefty and poetic theological substance that I think would startle St. Paul and would bring a smile to the Psalmist.

During an anti-apartheid sermonette on the 1988 Rattle and Hum, Bono asks, “Am I bugging you? I don’t mean to bug you.” Somehow you knew that was not exactly sincere. For more than twenty-five years, Bono has used his global stage to pester and prod us — lyrically, politically, and spiritually. It is, of course, this last element of sin, redemption, grace, betrayal, angels, demons, guilt, and forgiveness that is most intriguing — especially coming from a rock star.

 

Steve Beard is the creator of Thunderstruck.Org—a website devoted to faith and culture. This article appeared in Good News in 2005.

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An Incomplete Cash: Walking into a ring of fire

Posted on November 18, 2005 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

November 18, 2005, National Review

Looking back on it now, it’s rather ironic that Johnny Cash scored such a major hit with the song “Walk the Line.” “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine / I keep my eyes wide open all the time / I keep the ends out for the tie that binds / Because you’re mine, I walk the line.” Ah, unhinged love – ideal and passionate.

Many fans think of Johnny singing, “I find it very, very easy to be true,” to his beloved June. Actually he wrote it as a pledge of loyalty to his first wife, Vivian Liberto. It was his song of fidelity. It’s no secret that when Johnny and June first fell in love, they were married to other people. The situation was a mess. He was strung out on pills, always on the road, and incapable of being the kind of father that his four young daughters deserved back home. There is no reason to sugarcoat it. Cash never did.

Brutal honesty is one of the admirable aspects of the movie Walk the Line, the fascinating and explosive bio-pic of Johnny and June Cash. His exploits on the dark side, as well as the scorching love he found in the arms of June Carter, are brilliantly illustrated in the film, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Walk the Line only portrays a small sliver of Cash’s luminous and industrious career marked by bouts with the minions of hell and the fiery love of June and her parents, the musically trailblazing Maybelle and Ezra “Eck” Carter. The movie is high-octane Johnny Cash, warts and all. Continue reading →

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Steve Harvey: Christ is pretty big! You dig?

Posted on September 18, 2005 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

2005 Good News

“My mama raised me in the church. I was not allowed to stay home on Sundays. There was no option. My father didn’t go, but he gave us a haircut and made sure we went,” said comedian Steve Harvey, who gives voice to “Buzz” the horsefly in the new family film Racing Stripes.

Stylish and humorous, Harvey is a radio talk show host, movie actor, as well as long-time host of “It’s Showtime at the Apollo.” After the press screening for Racing Stripes, he sat down with Thunderstruck and other faith-based media to talk about Hollywood, The Passion of the Christ, and his faith.

“I’ve always had God as a part of my life. It’s important out here, too, because it gives you a base, you dig? Out here, it’s like Sodom and Gomorrah,” he said. “This is Sin City. And if you don’t have a spiritual base, you’ll get caught up in it. It’s inevitable.” Continue reading →

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Rock, religion, and relief

Posted on September 16, 2005 by Steve-O

By Steve Beard

July/August 2005, Good News Magazine

Before they mounted the stage at the United Center in Chicago during their Vertigo Tour, the members of U2 were sent out with the not-so-subtle observation from a friend: The people who want to change the world, don’t seem to know God. And the people who know God don’t seem to want to change the world. For more than 25 years, the Dublin-based quartet has attempted to shake up that off-setting conundrum.

Recalling America’s creative leadership in space exploration, lead singer Bono has been prodding fans to address the dire poverty and death toll from AIDS in Africa. “When America leads, the world follows,” he tells sold-out audiences. “And now a new challenge is here – not to put man on the moon, but to put mankind back on earth and to bring equality to the people of Africa.” He goes on to emphasize, “That’s what we’re saying to President Bush and Tony Blair, ‘Lead and we will follow.’ We’re asking you to end extreme poverty in our lifetime in places like Africa.”

Through guitar riffs, a cell phone call-in campaign, and a gigantic unveiling of the first several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, U2 flexes its musical muscle on behalf of millions of poverty-stricken Africans who can’t afford one of their cds – let alone a concert ticket.

Bono’s motivation? “I’m not sure if it’s Catholic guilt or what, but I genuinely believe that second only to personal redemption, the most important thing in the Scriptures – 2,103 passages in all – refers to taking care of the world’s poor,” he told Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn.

The political minefield and spiritual sawdust trail that he attempts to navigate has garnered its fair share of criticism. Although sympathetic, their manager Paul McGuinness warned the band early on to expect a backlash. “Musicians are supposed to describe the problems of the world, not fix them,” he observed.

Although some dour critics have dismissed him as preachy and pretentious, everyone else has granted Bono grace in doing what he can to appeal to the better angels of our nature. While the singer was encouraging the audience to join forces with The One Campaign to end hunger and poverty, the woman next to me at the concert in Chicago said, “I will join because of him. He can preach to me anytime.” She’s probably not alone. The band is expected to have the year’s highest-grossing concert revenue – more than $300 million. That is higher than last year’s top three touring acts combined.

Bono remains the most significant and provocative celebrity on the planet. He was endorsed by The Los Angeles Times to head the World Bank, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and launched a conscience-raising line of clothing called Edun. His concerts attract everyone from United Nations leader Kofi Annan to conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly. He hangs out with the Kennedy clan and knows his way around the Bush White House. In between shows in Boston, he flew down to Washington D.C. to have lunch with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and lobby her for more foreign aid.

Bono has been utilizing his current tour to promote The One Campaign (One.org) – an effort launched by anti-poverty groups and faith-based hunger ministries such as World Vision to increase federal spending for dramatically impoverished nations. It seeks to boost U.S. development spending by 1 percent of the budget – roughly $25 billion.

The cause has attracted an eclectic alliance between Nelson Mandela, Sun Microsystems, hip hop mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson (“God calls us to lift up the poorest people of the world,” says the 700 Club host).

Writing in The New York Times, conservative columnist David Brooks observes that “we can have a culture war in this country, or we can have a war on poverty, but we can’t have both. That is to say, liberals and conservatives can go on bashing each other for being godless hedonists and primitive theocrats, or they can set those differences off to one side and work together to help the needy.

“The natural alliance for anti-poverty measures at home and abroad is between liberals and evangelical Christians. These are the only two groups that are really hyped up about these problems and willing to devote time and money to ameliorating them. If liberals and evangelicals don’t get together on anti-poverty measures, then there will be no majority for them and they won’t get done.”

Having attended a U2 concert with a group of evangelicals who joined forces with Bono’s cause, Brooks observes that the singer “is at the nexus of a vast alliance between socially conservative evangelicals and socially liberal [non-governmental organizations].”

Is it the power of the cause, rock ‘n’ roll, or the Spirit? Perhaps it’s a concoction  of all three. Unlike any other celebrity, Bono has the charm or anointing to draw incongruent elements together for a common cause.

“Bruce Springsteen comes close, but his message is that rock ‘n’ roll has the power to change lives,” observes journalist Donnie Moorhead. “Bono’s message is that God saves lives through rock ‘n’ roll. While you may leave a Springsteen show feeling like you want to do something with your life, you leave a U2 show feeling like you aren’t doing enough.”

In the recently published 323-page Q&A called Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas, the singer describes a humorous story about one of his meetings with President Bush. “He banged the table at me once, when I was ranting at him about the ARV’s [AIDS drugs] not getting out quick enough,” he recalls. “You see, I’m Irish. When we get excited, we don’t pause for breath, no full stops or commas. He banged the table to ask me to let him reply. He smilingly reminded me he was the president. It was a heated debate. I was very impressed that he could get so passionate. And, let’s face it, tolerating an Irish rock star is not a necessity of his office.”

He found Bush to be amusing and quick-witted. “I got quickly to the point and the point was an unarguable one – that 6,500 people dying every day of a preventable and treatable disease would not be acceptable anywhere else other than Africa, and that before God and history this was a kind of racism that was unacceptable.”

According to Bono, the president said: “In fact, it’s a kind of genocide.”

It is a scandalous commentary on our political culture when it takes a rock star to prod politicians to grapple with the vast travesty taking place in Africa. “You know, celebrity is ridiculous,” Bono told Assayas, a French journalist. “It’s silly, but it’s a kind of currency, and you have to spend it wisely. And I’ve learned that much.…

“I see the embarrassment, excruciating at times, of ‘Rich rock star works on behalf of the poorest and most vulnerable.’ I mean, it’s a very embarrassing photograph. Yet, you can’t deny who you are. And if I gave all my money away, I’d just be a bigger star. (Laughs). Right?…I can use this ridiculous thing called celebrity to the advantage of these issues. That’s the only qualification I need. I’m there, I have the loud-hailer, and I’m gonna use it.”

Assayas asks Bono if “the money you have might lead you to develop very unrealistic views about the world. Don’t you tend to forget about the problems that an ordinary person has to face in an ordinary life?”

Undaunted in the righteousness of his cause, Bono responds: “But which reality am I not in touch with? You’re working on behalf of a billion people who live on less than a dollar a day. Isn’t it more important that I’m more in touch with their needs than the normal Western life you describe?”

Steve Beard is the founder of Thunderstruck.

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