Bono (rock group U2’s lead singer) is purported to be a Christian.

There’s a verse in the Bible about not judging lest we be judged. There’s also a verse about knowing people by their fruits.

With these Scriptures in mind…

Bono is at the bottom of a situation in which the Federal Communications Commission slapped a relatively small fine on a TV station for broadcasting comments by the aforementioned rocker that included a banned expletive.

This may prompt the FCC to ratchet up fines from the 5 figure range to the 6 or 7 figure range.

But that’s another story.

My first reaction to hearing that is to bash Bono. My goodness. You, a supposed Christian, involved in something like this? What are you doing? How can you call yourself a Christian and throw around language like that? You’re not a Christian, there’s no way!!!

That’s my first reaction.

But what would Christ’s reaction be? It wouldn’t be to condemn a man for spicy language, wrong though it may be.

He didn’t condemn the woman who was doing a lot more than dropping obscenities. He didn’t even talk to the woman who’d been married multiple times about the wrongness of her actions. He went straight to the heart.

And besides, if I’m saying that about Bono doing something wrong, where does that put me, with all the wrong things I’ve done?

Let’s pray for Bono, and hope that someday, sometime, we can have a chance, via the Holy Spirit, to go straight to the heart of someone whose actions seem offensively immoral to us instead of simply lambasting their offensive immorality.

“They’re cookie cut out of a bubble gum mold.”

A wonderful mixture of (pop) music critic metaphors.

How do you overcome apathy in the materialistic culture we find ourselves in? How do you develop a radical dependence on God alone, when practically speaking (at least regarding things we can see and feel) we don’t need Him?

It’s this kind of radical dependence that is essential to developing a passionate relationship with God.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re not really, really missing something. Ya know, Merry?

I love my sisters.