Thursday, February 09, 2006

The new Pope of the Emerging church?

Well maybe he is just a cardinal since Brian Mclaren may be the Pope.

In my wanderings around the web it is interesting to see how often Bono, of U2 fame for those that do not know, is looked to as some sort of enlightened follower of Christ. People seem to clamor to see if he is a Christian or not, obviously his answers to this question are not enough or they would settled the issue long ago. In reality he answers questions with regards to his faith as clearly as most in the Emergent movement. His rhetoric is essentially focused on social issues and as a Christian I would agree that often we fall short in doing what we can. But when it comes to the spiritual bankruptcy of the world he appears to leave well enough alone or is quite vague.

This all leads me to ask: Why is it that Christians are forever looking for that silver bullet to slay the dragon? The Christian community is looking for the next author (Anne Rice), movie star (Jane Fonda), or Rock Star (once it was Bob Dylan and now it is Bono) to cling on to so as to sort of say to the world look who we have. We do the same with other cultural trappings such as movies (The Passion). Well for one I do not see any thing greater about the salvation of a movie star than the salvation of a neighbor or co-worker. We are a culture of excess and it has invaded the Christian world. We have bought into the celebrity-itus, I am sure that is not a word, and constantly laud praise on those that are famous who proclaim to know Christ. We neglect to see that throughout scripture God did not use the famous as much as He used the unlikely; Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David (among others) all leading up to the most unlikely, in the eyes of the world, Christ.

Back to Bono, here are some articles:

Andy Stanley and Bono: Together at Last!
Bono Lauds, Prods Prayer Breakfast
St. Bono Help of Christians

No comments: