On May 25, the people of Ireland are set to vote on repealing the eighth amendment of their constitution, which recognizes that children in the womb have a right to life. As you can imagine, this has sent a country long riven by passionate disputes over religion into a frenzied debate. Naturally, Ireland’s largest cultural export—sorry, James Joyce—felt the need to weigh in. On their official Twitter and Instagram accounts, rockers U2 sent out an image that says, “Repeal the 8th,” inside a heart. After all, what could be more loving than abortion?
In some respects, this shouldn’t have been surprising. In the 1980s, lots of rock stars embraced social and political activism, but few did it with the fervor of U2. In just over a decade, rock and roll went from the Sex Pistols’ ironic and bitter “God Save the Queen” to U2’s anthemic embrace of Greenpeace’s crusade to save the whales. To its fans, the band’s earnestness was as painful to watch as it was admirable. Thus the old joke about U2’s grandiloquent frontman: A musician dies and goes to heaven, where he eagerly attends a concert by an all-star band of dead rock stars. When U2’s Bono walks out on stage, the recently deceased musician gasps and turns to St. Peter: “I didn’t know Bono died!” “Oh no,” replies Peter, “That’s God—he just thinks he’s Bono.”
However, being occasionally insufferable rock stars engaged in liberal activism didn’t make U2 unique. The band’s musical gifts notwithstanding, their political posturing was more tolerable than most because of a saving grace: The band is explicitly Christian (bass player Adam Clayton excepted). They’d spent time at a Christian commune early in their careers and very nearly gave up their rock star ambitions as a result. They’ve never been a full-on Christian rock band (thank God) but even after 30 years, it’s still refreshing to hear songs such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” on the radio for no other reason than that Bono is explicitly singing about Jesus.
So you can begin to fathom the anguish legions of U2’s Christian fans have experienced this month, with messages all over social media about ripped up tickets for the band’s summer tour. No one doubted that U2 was liberal, but the group was also for years a harbor in a culture that too often mocks and assails Christian values. And for millions of devout Christians, there’s no value more sacred than the right to life.
The band for its part seems half-ashamed of the stand it’s taken. Bono, who typically indulges his trademark logorrhea at the drop of a hat, is nowhere to be found on this issue. It was the normally taciturn guitarist/sonic engineer David Evans, aka “The Edge,” who was trotted out to meekly explain their stance to the Irish Independent.
“I think that we acknowledged that we have very strong feelings on both sides,” he said, adding, “I personally am in favour of repealing, but I do understand why people might have a problem with that. The important thing is to vote.” The band has also conveniently noted that, in the midst of a world tour, members won’t make it back to Ireland for the referendum. So much for the importance of voting.
Before judging U2 too harshly, it should be remembered that Bono has played a key role in funding and implementing life-saving AIDS initiatives in Africa, among other things. Further, that the band publicly retains its Christian identity is no act. Bono at least gave a startling interview to Irish broadcaster RTÉ a few years back in which he quite dramatically affirmed his belief in Jesus as the literal, miracle-performing son of God.
At one point in the ’90s, Bono was even donning devil horns to play an onstage alter ego dubbed “MacPhisto”—a character he said was explicitly inspired by C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. In that book, the titular demon lays out his strategy pretty clearly: “The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience.”
But if the band was flirting with a sophisticated level of self-awareness then, now it seems to be taking its place in a long line of pop culture figures who have followed the path of least resistance: to support what is culturally and politically convenient rather than speak the unchangeable truth. Killing a child in its mother’s womb is a horrifying practice, and that the state would sanction it should in no way assuage our consciences. As much as Christian forgiveness is freely given, there are still higher laws and divine authority that must be respected. If Bono and the rest of everyone’s favorite Christian rock band possess enough hubris to support the legalization of abortion in Ireland, maybe they really do think they can play God.
