The Gospel according to Bono
The Illawarra Mercury, 11 Novermber 2006
Cathedral Newsletter – 24 September 2026
Friends in Christ, the Irish rock band U2 once got me a front page in the Illawarra Mercury! They were – and still are – my favourite band growing up in the 80s (when they made their best music)! And tomorrow, 25 September, marks 50 years to the day when their drummer Larry Mullen stuck his sign up on his school notice board wanting to form a band in 1976.
Three of the four members identify as Christian, most notably Bono, their lead singer, although they have kept some distance from institutional Christian religion. And they rejected the label of ‘Christian rock band’. Yet constantly over decades their song lyrics have weaved spiritual themes and prayer into their output – one website counted at least 62 songs with direct biblical quotes!
So on this 50th anniversary, I’m reflecting on the ‘Gospel According to Bono’, whom Time Magazine once chose as Person of the Year, not just for his rockstar status, but because of his high profile social justice advocacy.
All direct quotes come from Bono on Bono: Conversations with Michka Assayas.Bono might not say things exactly the same today, but the themes keep coming in his more recent music!
Ephesians 2:8-10
So what is the ‘Gospel according to Bono’? I sum it up in 3 verses from the Bible, Ephesians 2:8-10. These are some of the first verses I ever memorised, when I was doing the Christian custom of Confirmation. I was 14 years old. And this was the same age I was getting into U2’s music, with the release of their breakthrough album, War.
Ephesians 2:8-10 goes this way.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Three things to notice in those verses. Three things central to understanding Bono’s take on God and the Bible. No. 1 – We humans need to be saved. No. 2 – Grace. The gospel is all of grace. No. 3 – The place of Doing Good.
Bono on Being Saved
So what does Bono say about our need to be saved? He is not starry eyed about the human condition. He may not use the word much, but I reckon Bono believes in that old fashioned concept of sin and transgression. How’s this for a searing critique of us in the West?
“Sixty-five hundred Africans are dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease. And it is not a priority for the West: two 9/11s a day, eighteen jumbo jets of fathers, mothers, families falling out of the sky. No tears, no letters of condolence, no fifty-one gun salutes. Why? Because we don’t put the same value on African life as we put on a European or an American life. God will not let us get away with this… We don’t really deep down believe in their equality. […] In the Global Village, distance no longer decides who is your neighbour, and “Love thy neighbour” is not advice, it’s a command.”
Bono is just as severe on religious people. Speaking of American televangelists, he says, “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 could never figure out why the same people were never questioning the deeper, slyer problems of the human spirit like self-righteousness, judgmentalism, institutional greed, corporate greed.”
Of course, many Christians question Bono for not being a very good Christian. And some of his views do appear doctrinally unsound. So I can imagine re-telling Jesus’ parable (Luke 18:9-14)… “The Anglican stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this rock star. I don’t swear and I certainly don’t get drunk. I’m not leading a filthy rich celebrity lifestyle. I go to church every week like clockwork.’ But the rock star stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.”
…Here’s what Bono says about himself. “I wish I could live the life of someone you could describe as pious. I couldn’t preach because I couldn’t practice. It’s plain the see I’m not a good advertisement for God. Artists are selfish people… I can’t live up to the songs. These songs are better than me. Don’t fence me in as a good person, because I’m going to let you down.”
This is Bono on why people need saving. And he’s pretty blunt, “I think when you die, you’re dead. Next up, judgment.”
Bono on Grace
And that’s why Bono’s so keen on grace. You can see it right there in Ephesians 2:8 – “For it is by grace you have been saved.” In fact it’s the third time the word ‘grace’ is used in that chapter of the Bible.
And it’s this word Bono picks up in his song of the same name: “Grace, she takes the blame / She covers the shame / Removes the stain […] Grace, it's the name for a girl / It's also a thought that could change the world.”
He repeats this idea with the French journalist Assayas. Bono says, “…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. […] 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 you will 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.”
What is grace? Grace is God being kind to us when we don’t deserve it. Grace is God offering to forgive us instead of condemning us for the things we’ve done wrong. It’s got nothing to do with us being religious or somehow doing enough to make it up to God.
And how is God’s grace seen? In Jesus and the cross. Earlier in Ephesians 2:4-5, it says,
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.”
And Bono says exactly what the Bible says. He says, “I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. 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.”
Assayas replies: “The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.”
Bono answers: “But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a 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.”
Bono on Doing Good
Bono sings in his song, “What once was hurt / What once was friction / What left a mark no longer stings / Because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.”
I’m certain that grace is Bono’s motivation for doing good. Certainly it’s the Bible’s motivation. Eph 2:8-9 says we are saved by grace and not by our good works. But immediately then, Eph 2:10, the Bible says we are saved for a purpose: “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.”
God has made us to make a difference. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works.
Bono says, “I don't let my religious world get too complicated. I just kind of go: Well, I think I know what God is. God is love, and as much as I respond 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.”
So he begins with the grace and love of God – seen in Christ – and the demanding Christian life of love flows out of that.
And that’s why he campaigns for human rights for the unjustly imprisoned like Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. That’s why he threw himself into the Make Poverty History campaign. That’s why he campaigned for fair trade. That’s why he works with Bill Gates on reducing deaths from preventable diseases like HIV and TB and malaria.
You know I believe it!
I think there are two possible responses we can make to the gospel of Jesus.
Both come from lines in Bono’s song “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”.
The first is to say, “You know I believe it”. God, you know I believe in the kingdom come… “You broke the bonds and you / Loosed the chains / Carried the cross / And my shame / All my shame / You know I believe it.”
You may be a convinced Christian. You may have found exactly what you’re looking for in Jesus.
Then I think Bono would say: Don’t just have a privatised faith. Show your faith by your deeds. Live out your faith in the public arena in all the ways the Bible says. Certainly in costly good deeds of love, in radical care for the poor and under-privileged.
In the book, he says, “You can’t fix every problem. But the ones you can, you must. To the degree we are responsible, we must fix.”
Still haven’t found it?
But the other response to Bono’s gospel, or rather to the Bible’s gospel, might be to say, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” It sounds good, but I’m not sure.
It’s OK to have questions. Bono says, “I’ve many questions to ask God about the universe. There’s some explaining too, not just by me, but by Him.” But he says, “I’m sure He’ll have a lot better answers than I will for my bad behaviour.”
Bono says being cool is the enemy not only of great music and art, but also of relationship with God. “Coolness might help in your negotiations with people through the world, maybe, but it’s impossible to meet God with sunglasses on. It is impossible to meet God without abandon, without exposing yourself, being raw… You don’t know what’s going on behind those glasses, but God, I can assure you, does.”
The French journo is attracted to Bono’s idea of Jesus: “Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?”
Bono replies: “No, it's not farfetched to me. 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." […] So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase.”
Bono says it all comes down to how we regard Jesus: “So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that's the question.”
Happy 50th birthday, U2 fans, and I pray you find what you are looking for – in Jesus!
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney