U2 members bring their whole selves to their music, including their spirituality, and thus go against the grain of the artistic world they inhabit. "We throw everything in, you know, politics, religion, sex, everything that is us. I think that is what's missing now in music, that completely holistic thing. It's like art and music mostly has completely turned its back on anything spiritual for such a long time," observes The Edge, also noting that he thinks that trend will change eventually. U2 is aware of a generation growing up in their native Ireland with the influence of the Catholic church having waned and nothing yet replacing that spiritual influence. Because they believe that to be human is to be spiritual, U2 looks forward to the day when the spiritual element reasserts itself in Western society in general and in the arts in particular.
U2 members are not involved in the institutional church; they rely on their wider community to nurture them in their spiritual lives. The Edge describes this community: "There is that community sense that I would associate with the Christian ideal of looking after your neighbor. But it isn't always pretty; in fact it's often very rough. Like do you care enough about someone to risk confronting them with the truth, if it is going to hurt them? That's love in action, real commitment to one another, real community, and it has nothing to do with being nice to everyone at all times. So in some ways rather than being a once a week concept, it's sort of the way we try and live here. And the challenge is to try to move it out further, so there's not just your immediate small community but it's asking, can you get it to be bigger and bigger?"
From Revealing U2's Soul at Work.
- Peace
1 comment:
It's quite an angle, isn't it? About time someone dealt in print with the community aspect of the band.
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