U2 explores spirituality on band’s own terms

Yearning for answers, relationship with God underpins its theology

Years before becoming an Anglican priest, Andrew Asbil felt drawn to Irish rockers U2 and their message of hope and salvation.

“I’ve been a huge fan since the first album, Boy, came out,” says Asbil, 48, now minister at Toronto’s Church of the Redeemer.

Boy, released in 1980, set U2 apart, he says. It wasn’t the fluff the 1980s became known for, instead challenging fans to find meaning in life. In his first year of university, Asbil was hooked, and remained a fan as his studies led him to theology.

“When I started my seminary work, I began looking at the lyrics in a different way and began to see a lot of the biblical narratives.”

The band’s lyrics seeped into his conversations and sermons. Last spring, he even featured “The Moment of Surrender” from U2’s latest album in Good Friday services.

“It’s a song that says there come moments in your life when you have to surrender to love,” he says.

Full Toronto Star Article

Posted in Spiritual, U2 | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness

  • I came across something yesterday that made me search the Google for Tabitha Soren.  For those of you that don’t have an idea of who she is, you didn’t grow up with MTV.  But what I didn’t know was that she is married to Money Ball author Michael Lewis.
  • One of the links provided in my search results was the URL for her name, which oddly enough isn’t for her but for a photographer that goes by the same name.  There’s some artsy pictures, and in one set about motherhood you see a woman wearing a blue shirt with leaking breasts and a child flipping off the camera.  All that to day, when searching for one thing on the Internet, you never know what you may run into.
  • Sometimes I get confused using “into” and “in to.”
  • Good idea that makes me wonder why it hasn’t been used before – using prisoners to garden and sending the food to food shelters.
  • You may recall me writing about New Year’s Eve glasses, and wondering what will they do when a circle doesn’t appear in the year.  Well, I have an answer now after looking at this pair on the right.
  • Talk about a waste of money, you were those glasses for one evening, then nada.
  • The creator of 60 Minutes was behind the man behind the idea of the first televised presidential debate.
  • My favorite columnist has a new book coming out this fall.
  • Deion Sanders was on The Ticket yesterday and mentioned he has three maids.
  • Coldplay’s plane was down, so U2 loaned their plane to them.  It’s referenced towards the bottom of this post.
  • Real life Candyland on San Francisco’s Lombard Street
  • Grace
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments

Crazy Mama

A Houston-area mother convicted of mutilating her infant by cutting off his genitals two years ago was sentenced Monday to 99 years in prison.

But minutes after the jury’s sentence was read, Katherine Nadal, 28, yelled out that she did not hurt her son, prompting the boy’s father to storm out of the courtroom.

Jurors deliberated for two hours Monday night before returning the sentence, which also included a $10,000 fine. The same jury had convicted her last week of first-degree felony injury to a child.

Full Article

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