[#] Reply to Comments on the Open Letter to Derek Webb

I got this reply to a previous blog update from a fellow traveller:

graceshaker wrote:may i suggest you grab a copy of the book Walk On by Steve
Stockman. easy read - wont take you a couple days.

I actually have this book at the bookstore (it came with the initial shipment 2 years ago). I have also actually read it -- because Stockman is published by the same folks who publish "RELEVANT" magazine. I had a run-in with Relevant over their article on how to deal with Homosexual marriage in a Christian context at their message boards. (that exchange will have to wait for a future BLOG entry)

At any rate, Stockman's book on U2 is, in the best case, speculative. After reading it, I ran into someone talking about Hillary Clinton's faith who said (in words to this effect), "her faith is so integrated into her personality that you don't even know it's there." That view is exactly the view I'd take of Bono.

Let's think about this for a minute, shall we? Here's a short list of famous people:

George W. Bush
Tony Campolo
Bono
Kirk Cameron
Tim Enloe

OK -- now in that list of people, which one(s) needed someone else to write about their faith in Jesus Christ in order to be identified as a "Christian" of any kind? There's only one on that list, and it's not Tim Enloe. :-)

The point of my open letter to Derek Webb was (and is) that our faith is not something that we sneak into a discussion or our lives under the blanket of pop superstardom (or for us lesser mortals, under the disguise of our career): it is something that is the first part of our approach.

Put another way, Jesus certainly fed the 5000 -- but in what context? It was in the context of preaching the Gospel to them. We can debate in-depth about what kind of Gospel and whether He expected any of the 5000 to accept the Gospel some other time: the point is that when they came back to Him and said, "Sure you just fed us: now show us a sign so that we will believe," Jesus said, "I am the sign, I am what saves." He said that if they put their trust in food that spoils, they were wasting their time. He didn't just set up the Loaves and Fishes Bistro and hand out bread and fishes until Judas got caught with his fingers in the till and Jesus had to take the rap for him. In the context of offering the physical ministry, Jesus presented the Gospel in a way which was intended to set Himself in strict contrast with the world.

Bono does nothing of the sort.

Last note on Stockman's work. Check out his latest "And the Rock Cries Out". In this book, Stockman "explores the music of twelve artists who haven't necessarily professed a Christian faith but whose work is undergirded with issues, questions and insights that are very much biblical." (that's from the amazon.com description of the book) I'm very significantly challenged by someone who says that a person who is "not a professed Christian" can at the same time present, provide or possess "biblical insights".