This blog is caught up in the ATTBI-to-Comcast transition, and the new email addresses do not seem to be working. So if you have trouble emailing me any time soon, keep trying; I'm currently number 128 in the customer support queue.

Edit, nearly 2 hours later: My Comcast customer service rep suggests that I am getting bounce messages from their server because I have an antivirus program. His suggested solution to the bounce messages is that I turn off my antivirus program so that it will stop scanning my email for viruses, or that I just do all my email on their website.

An article in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on the Alive Christian Music Festival quotes Dan Haseltine, lead singer and songwriter for Jars of Clay, as follows:

"Last December, Bono of U2 came to Nashville and met with a bunch of us to talk about his AIDS Project in Africa. But before he began, he talked about songwriting. He said, 'Every song does not have to be a commercial for God. If you're a Christian, you see the world through Christian eyes. That will be reflected in everything you write.' "

Here is a long, interesting review/retrospective on U2's Pop from a Christian and post-ATYCLB perspective at The Rebel Base, whose motto is "digging deep for truth, relevance, and creativity in pop culture."

Another not in the book-type U2 sermon, but I thought I�d mention that this late-2001 homily by George Councell, who was elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey a month or so ago, kicks off with Bono�s Harvard address.

Oh, look, we got linked at e-kimberling.com.

I just got an email from someone who did a Biblical Studies and English Lit dissertation entitled U2 as Modern-Day Psalmists, on the themes and stylistics of U2's work and its similarities to the Psalms. Some highlights were: WUDM and 'Mofo' as Psalms of Lament, Psalms of Praise such as 'Gloria' and 'Streets'; the subversion of the blues and gospel genres and justice, the significance of 'love' as an analogy of God, and the place of inverted proverbial phrases in songs such as 'The Fly' and 'Zooropa'.

Now that's my kind of dissertation.

A propos of my post on the 15th: if any of my readers are invested in the Calvinist-Arminian debate -- and part of the half of it for whom seeing a Presbyterian pastor mention Bono�s attending his church would give you a thrill -- let me quickly point out that Bono also has spoken in print of enjoying involvement with Glide United Methodist.

Our book collects U2 sermons in the sense of sermons that use U2 songs, not sermons on good works by the members of U2. Still, following up on my previous post, here is a sermon --not in the book-- that cites the Larry King interview, from the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

The relevant portion: I happened to be surfing through the television channels this past week, and I came across an interview with Bono, the lead singer of U2. Since Bono worships with us when he's in Los Angeles, it occurred to me that this might be a useful thing for me to hear. It was. One of the things that he articulated was a belief that everyone had a gift. The tragedy is that most people never realize their true destiny. He mentioned that there were probably people sleeping in the streets who had been destined to be a world-renowned cellist but that they would never realize that destiny. The interviewer then asked him, "If you were not a song writer, what might your life look like?" Bono smiled and said, "I might be one of those people sleeping in the street!"

I thought I�d put this up. It�s from when Bono was on Larry King Live for World AIDS Day. They are in the middle of a conversation in which Bono has described resisting his own impulses to evil (specifically, not being faithful, and violence); you can tell Larry King is somewhat discomfited by Bono�s conviction that trying to do so is important. I thought I saw Augustine of Hippo peek in for a second here at the start.
KING: I never saw -- I never saw a 2-year-old evil kid. What would make...
BONO: You haven't met my kid.
KING: What makes a kid get evil? What makes a man...
BONO: What makes man evil?
KING: Yes.
BONO: I think -- I mean, if you ask a big question like that, you have to look into -- you have to be responsible and follow those questions through to the people, and study the people, who have asked them over eons, over centuries. And you get to the great books of wisdom, and you get to the scriptures, in my case. And you know, I've -- listen, I am the worst -- I am at the very bottom of the list of the food chain of -- you know, I�m a sort of �need to practice a whole lot more� Christian. But...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: ... but you are a Christian.
BONO: That's what I hold onto.
KING: Right back with Bono; it's World AIDS Day.

How about I post something about the book...
What's happening right now is simply that the publisher is at work on the manuscript, which will be copyedited and otherwise prepared for publication over the summer, along with the creation of a cover design, etc. We're beginning to collect lists of people who will likely want to review Get Up Off Your Knees, host signing events, and so on (if you are one, mail me or leave a comment!), as well as making some other initial plans for promotion. I think everything's still on track for Oct/Nov as the publication date.

Clergy can't really travel to weekend events like this much, but I hope anyone who is going to Saturday's U2 Fan Celebration at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland has a great time.

Other than the fact that the reviewer wrote a well-known piece on U2's spirituality, and the fact that there's a very obvious U2 thematic connection here, there's really no reason for me to link this review of Home Is Always the Place You Just Left: A Memoir of Restless Longing and Persistent Grace by Betty Smartt Carter, which I found on Thunderstruck.

A May 27 entry (scroll down) on the blog of tallskinnykiwi, who doesn't have permalinks (but then neither do I) or a commenting option (I have a commenting option, but shy readers, apparently) opines that this blog's "awful pink background would make Bono embarrassed," but also finds things to commend: "good links, well written in an honest, blog-like manner, and a great topic."

Well, I had a lame rationale: The pink, which matches the copy of the Streets Prayer on the real webpage was supposed to be a sort of arcane "Streets" reference.

("Streets," the archetypal 6 minutes of eschatological glory in any U2 concert? The archetypal "Streets" red glow, faded down to legible? You know, like this? ...No? ...Anybody? ...Buehler?) Now honestly, people -- do you want me to change it? This is why I had parishioners, not me, pick the new colors for our parish hall and our nave...

Seriously, tallskinnykiwi does run a fine blog about emerging church stuff; it is a lot more professional than this and you should go look at it.