ANTI-RELIGION
Well, religion has torn this country apart. I have no time for it, and I never felt part of it. I am a Christian, but at times I feel very removed from Christianity. The Jesus Christ I believe in was the man who turned over the tables in the temple and threw the moneychangers out ー substitute TV evangelists if you like. There is a radical side to Christianity I’m attracted to. And I think without a commitment to social justice, it is empty… When I see these racketeers, the snake-oil salesmen on these right-wing televisions stations, asking not for your $20 or your $50, but your $100 in the name of Jesus Christ, I just want to throw up. October 8, 1987 ー “Bono: The Rolling Stone Interview” by David Breskin (Rolling Stone)
I think a change of heart… is what we need. Sunday Bloody Sunday is not a rebel song. It simply says why are we so wrapped up in this struggle over a piece of land, and supposed differences and doctrine? When the real battle ー which is putting the city back on its feet again, which is putting food in people’s bellies around the world… While the real battle rages, we are fighting over small, insignificant, aspects of politics. February 1983 ー Interview with Vara Radio (Netherlands)
I don’t see Jesus as being part of any religion. Religion to me is almost like when God leaves ー and people devise a set of rules to fill the space. February 1982 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
Who in Ireland could have too much respect for organized religion? We've seen it tear our country in two. My mother was a Protestant. My father was a Catholic. And I learnt that religion is often the enemy of God. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I don't doubt God. I have a firm faith and absolute faith in God. It's religion I'm doubting. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I’m not often so comfortable in church. It feels pious and so unlike the Christ that I read about in the Scriptures. March 1, 2003 ー "Bono's American Prayer" by Cathleen Falsani (Christianity Today)
Religion often reduces the size of God. God is so big. It's a gigantic concept: God. The idea that a God might love us and be interested in us is kind of huge and gigantic, but we turn it, because we're small-minded, into this tiny, petty, often greedy version of God, that is religion. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I don’t consider myself to be a very religious person. Religion where I come from, which is Ireland, Dublin Ireland, is an ugly word ー it’s torn our country in two. I’m more interested in the root of religion. I am a Christian, but I don’t talk about it so easily. I think there’s too many people shouting their mouths off about too many things... so I just try to be quiet. April 23, 1983 ー Interview with WKZL (North Carolina, USA)
I think the Church is a big problem. February 1981 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
I think people understand now that I’m not religious, they understand that I’m nearly anti-religion… when I talk of religion I’m talking about the force that’s cut this country in two. February 1982 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
Religion frightens me. Our country has been torn in two by religion. I don’t think Jesus Christ would have much time for a lot of the fighting and bickering that goes on. April 1985 ー Interview with WAPP Hot 103 (New York, USA)
I think everyone [in Ireland] was waking up to the fact that religion was probably the enemy of God, and that God was a bigger subject than religion. June 25, 2013 – Interview with Gay Byrne “The Meaning of Life” (RTE One, Ireland TV)
The Church is an empty, hollow building. It’s the edifice. The established Church is the edifice of Christianity. It’s as if when the Spirit of God leaves a place, the only things that are left are the pillars of rules and regulations to keep its roof on. January 1985 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship. 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
...my Goliath became religion itself: I began to see religion as the perversion of faith. I began to see God everywhere else. In girls, fun, music, justice and still ー despite the lofty King James translation ー the Scriptures. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons
Religion is the artifice, you know, the building, after God has left it sometimes, like Elvis has left the building. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I think we were trying to contrast East Sunday with Sunday Bloody Sunday which is an incident in Derry where thirteen people were shot dead by the British paratroopers, something that’s still under investigation. And I think we were just trying to say, isn’t this mad these religious people fighting amongst each other, when the heart of both of their belief systems is this idea of Easter Sunday. August 2001 ー Radio Broadcast "Elevation: The U2 Story"
We thought they were trampling over the most precious thing of all: the concept that God is love. These televangelists, they were the traders inside the temple, that story where Jesus overturned their tables. They were putting people off God, especially young people who didn’t want to admit to being Christians anymore. Because in clubs, on campuses, everywhere, people would say: “You’re part of that. They’re nuts!” 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
What’s often bothered me about the fundamentalists is that they seem preoccupied with the most obvious sins. If those sins, sexual immortality and drug addiction, come out of unhappiness, then I’m sure God wants to set people free of that unhappiness. But I couldn’t 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. 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
Sex and music is all a lot of people got right now, because organised religion is in demise, and I personally won't miss it. I don't think religion has anything to do with God anymore or very rarely has. October 1, 1992 ー "U2 Finds What It's Looking For" by David Frick (Rolling Stone)
CONTRAST
Let’s not get too hard on the Holy Roman Church. The Church has its problems, but the older I get, the more comfort I find there. The physical experience of being in a crowd of largely humble people, heads bowed, murmuring prayers, stories told in stained-glass windows, the colors of Catholicism ー purple, mauve, yellow, red ー the burning incense… 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
My mate Gavin Friday used to say: "Roman Catholicism is the Glamrock of religion" with its candles and psychedelic colours ー cardinal blues, scarlets and purples ー smoke bombs of incense and the ring of the little bell. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons
I used my background in the Scriptures to speak to [Church leaders] about the so-called leprosy of our age and how I felt Christ would respond to it. And they had better get to it quickly, or they would be very much on the other side of what God was doing in the world. Amazingly, they did respond. November 3, 2005 ー Interview with Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone)
I was kind of angry ー angry at the Church as well because the Church was very slow to respond to the AIDS emergency, very judgmental about people with AIDS. They have since changed their position, and I’m very impressed; they’re all starting to wake up and realize that AIDS is leprosy, you know, just read your Gospels and figure it out. March 1, 2003 ー "Bono's American Prayer" by Cathleen Falsani (Christianity Today)
These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions… making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people. February 2, 2006 ー National Prayer Breakfast Speech (Washington DC, USA)
I think a change of heart… is what we need. Sunday Bloody Sunday is not a rebel song. It simply says why are we so wrapped up in this struggle over a piece of land, and supposed differences and doctrine? When the real battle ー which is putting the city back on its feet again, which is putting food in people’s bellies around the world… While the real battle rages, we are fighting over small, insignificant, aspects of politics. February 1983 ー Interview with Vara Radio (Netherlands)
I don’t see Jesus as being part of any religion. Religion to me is almost like when God leaves ー and people devise a set of rules to fill the space. February 1982 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
Who in Ireland could have too much respect for organized religion? We've seen it tear our country in two. My mother was a Protestant. My father was a Catholic. And I learnt that religion is often the enemy of God. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I don't doubt God. I have a firm faith and absolute faith in God. It's religion I'm doubting. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I’m not often so comfortable in church. It feels pious and so unlike the Christ that I read about in the Scriptures. March 1, 2003 ー "Bono's American Prayer" by Cathleen Falsani (Christianity Today)
Religion often reduces the size of God. God is so big. It's a gigantic concept: God. The idea that a God might love us and be interested in us is kind of huge and gigantic, but we turn it, because we're small-minded, into this tiny, petty, often greedy version of God, that is religion. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I don’t consider myself to be a very religious person. Religion where I come from, which is Ireland, Dublin Ireland, is an ugly word ー it’s torn our country in two. I’m more interested in the root of religion. I am a Christian, but I don’t talk about it so easily. I think there’s too many people shouting their mouths off about too many things... so I just try to be quiet. April 23, 1983 ー Interview with WKZL (North Carolina, USA)
I think the Church is a big problem. February 1981 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
I think people understand now that I’m not religious, they understand that I’m nearly anti-religion… when I talk of religion I’m talking about the force that’s cut this country in two. February 1982 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
Religion frightens me. Our country has been torn in two by religion. I don’t think Jesus Christ would have much time for a lot of the fighting and bickering that goes on. April 1985 ー Interview with WAPP Hot 103 (New York, USA)
I think everyone [in Ireland] was waking up to the fact that religion was probably the enemy of God, and that God was a bigger subject than religion. June 25, 2013 – Interview with Gay Byrne “The Meaning of Life” (RTE One, Ireland TV)
The Church is an empty, hollow building. It’s the edifice. The established Church is the edifice of Christianity. It’s as if when the Spirit of God leaves a place, the only things that are left are the pillars of rules and regulations to keep its roof on. January 1985 ー Bono: In His Own Words ー Dave Thompson (Published 1998)
Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship. 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
...my Goliath became religion itself: I began to see religion as the perversion of faith. I began to see God everywhere else. In girls, fun, music, justice and still ー despite the lofty King James translation ー the Scriptures. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons
Religion is the artifice, you know, the building, after God has left it sometimes, like Elvis has left the building. You hold onto religion, you know, rules, regulations, traditions. I think what God is interested in is people's hearts, and that's hard enough. December 1, 2002 ー Interview with Larry King (CNN)
I think we were trying to contrast East Sunday with Sunday Bloody Sunday which is an incident in Derry where thirteen people were shot dead by the British paratroopers, something that’s still under investigation. And I think we were just trying to say, isn’t this mad these religious people fighting amongst each other, when the heart of both of their belief systems is this idea of Easter Sunday. August 2001 ー Radio Broadcast "Elevation: The U2 Story"
We thought they were trampling over the most precious thing of all: the concept that God is love. These televangelists, they were the traders inside the temple, that story where Jesus overturned their tables. They were putting people off God, especially young people who didn’t want to admit to being Christians anymore. Because in clubs, on campuses, everywhere, people would say: “You’re part of that. They’re nuts!” 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
What’s often bothered me about the fundamentalists is that they seem preoccupied with the most obvious sins. If those sins, sexual immortality and drug addiction, come out of unhappiness, then I’m sure God wants to set people free of that unhappiness. But I couldn’t 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. 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
Sex and music is all a lot of people got right now, because organised religion is in demise, and I personally won't miss it. I don't think religion has anything to do with God anymore or very rarely has. October 1, 1992 ー "U2 Finds What It's Looking For" by David Frick (Rolling Stone)
CONTRAST
Let’s not get too hard on the Holy Roman Church. The Church has its problems, but the older I get, the more comfort I find there. The physical experience of being in a crowd of largely humble people, heads bowed, murmuring prayers, stories told in stained-glass windows, the colors of Catholicism ー purple, mauve, yellow, red ー the burning incense… 2005 ー Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
My mate Gavin Friday used to say: "Roman Catholicism is the Glamrock of religion" with its candles and psychedelic colours ー cardinal blues, scarlets and purples ー smoke bombs of incense and the ring of the little bell. 1999 ー Selections from the Book of Psalms (Introduction by Bono) ー Pocket Canons
I used my background in the Scriptures to speak to [Church leaders] about the so-called leprosy of our age and how I felt Christ would respond to it. And they had better get to it quickly, or they would be very much on the other side of what God was doing in the world. Amazingly, they did respond. November 3, 2005 ー Interview with Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone)
I was kind of angry ー angry at the Church as well because the Church was very slow to respond to the AIDS emergency, very judgmental about people with AIDS. They have since changed their position, and I’m very impressed; they’re all starting to wake up and realize that AIDS is leprosy, you know, just read your Gospels and figure it out. March 1, 2003 ー "Bono's American Prayer" by Cathleen Falsani (Christianity Today)
These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions… making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people. February 2, 2006 ー National Prayer Breakfast Speech (Washington DC, USA)