Why Didn't U2 Sell Their Faith?

David Marchese asks whether U2 knew that closing concerts with 40, an adaptation of a psalm, brought a crowd sing-along rooted in religious feeling. Bono says they were aware of that feeling. They were not seeing it as a selling point. They were seeing it as the thing they have to speak about, because it is where they come from as people. Leaving that faith out of the work would have been hugely dishonest.

People have said U2 is the band that people who do not know they believe in God like. Bono says the line is personally true. Faith sits in the work in a natural way, with no polemic. It is their search and their inquiry. U2 is not part of any religious movement, doctrine, or sect, so the journey is the same quest, and it involves so much doubt. Bono says that because the faith is not dogma, it stays constantly in flux and up for grabs.

Bono says he is sort of agnostic about half of the week and holds an incredibly strong faith the rest of the week. The faith is always changing and always ready to be upgraded.