“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2, Sunday, February 12, 2024
When I was a teenager, a guest speaker came to my church to teach the congregants about Satanism in Rock music. The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC--the greatest hits of the master of darkness and the half-truths of his servants. “What about Christian Rock?” asked a smug congregant, who already knew the answer. “It’s all the same,” the shiny-headed guest speaker retorted. He didn’t give a specific example to back up his claim but then went into an asinine theory about syncopation causing hypnosis, which if true, we couldn’t shop in a grocery store without being overpowered by demonic forces. I have to admit that I spent way too much time laughing over conspiracy-riddled websites attacking CCM and Christian Rock artists, finding loose connections to the Satanic world.
I HAVE RUN THROUGH THE FIELDS ONLY TO BE WITH YOU. By the 1980s, Rock music was about 30 years old and had earned a reputation as “The devil’s music.” Growing out of blues and jazz, especially integrating African American styles with performers, rock music slowly pushed social boundaries growing along with counter-culture. Sex and drugs became synonymous with the genre. While many early rock singers like Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Aretha Franklin began their careers as gospel singers, rock ‘n’ roll offered superstardom in a way that church music couldn’t satisfy. I’m sure there’s an interesting dissertation here. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Jesus movement in California had birthed Christian Rock, though the boundaries of the genres seemed to come after hippie singer-songwriters like Larry Norman, Keith Green, Randy Stonehill, and company didn’t chart like their secular contemporaries. Radical counter-counter culture lyrics made the Christian Rock movement insular.
I BELIEVE IN KINGDOM COME. I’d argue that U2 was the first successful (long-lasting Classic Rock status, hit producing) band that came from and stayed (more or less) rooted in Christianity. For the purpose of this argument, we’re looking mostly at lead singer Paul David Hewson, better known as Bono, his statements of faith (and doubt), his lyrics, and his humanitarian work. This is more of an idea for a book than a blog post. I hope to explore this more when I blog about other U2 songs. The Jesus Movement grafted Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash into the fold, and both musicians have had an off-and-on relationship with Christian music. But U2 avoided American evangelicalism, even though, for a time, they were heroes of the Christian Rock movement. U2 were culturally Irish Catholic boys. Bono noticed hypocrisy in the Irish conflict between Protestants and Catholics, yet his faith seemed not to be about group identity, but rather about personal piety and societal change. The band’s biggest album, 1987’s The Joshua Tree, reads as a statement of faith, especially the opening track and third single “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The second single and abutting track, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” though, douses the anthemic optimism of the first track. It seems sacrilegious, but Bono lifts many of the lines from David’s psalms of doubt. Later on the album Bono criticizes Regan, the evangelical’s hero, for the mess America created in Central America in “Bullet the Blue Sky.” U2 became a prototype for the “Christians in a band” model. Of course, their lyrics make it quite easy to identify Bono as a practicing Christian, but there are other bands like Slayer, Alice Cooper, Creed, OneRepublic, Colony House, and many other bands that straddle Christian Radio and drop an occasional F-bomb.
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