{"id":216,"date":"2004-11-24T16:26:39","date_gmt":"2004-11-24T20:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/2004\/11\/24\/u2-wide-awake-in-falluja\/"},"modified":"2004-11-24T16:26:39","modified_gmt":"2004-11-24T20:26:39","slug":"u2-wide-awake-in-falluja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/2004\/11\/u2-wide-awake-in-falluja\/","title":{"rendered":"U2: Wide Awake in Falluja"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been consuming U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb<\/a>
\nnonstop since buying it last night. The final track, the audaciously
\nnamed “Yahweh,” caught my attention immediately. U2 is well-known not just as a rock band, but as a Christian<\/i>
\nrock band, and quite possibly the only commercially successful
\n“liberal” Christian rock band. A song titled “Yahweh” is a presumptive
\nstatement of their faith, and in fact it doesn’t disappoint.<\/p>\n

I’ll
\nleave the deeper biblical exegesis to Rachel, though the lyrics are
\nfairly transparent. (The overall mood is much like Christmas eve, a
\nprayerful waiting). To me the part that leaped out was the last verse
\nof the song and of the album, the first half of which reads…<\/p>\n

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
\n
Take this city
\n
If it be your will
\n
What no man can own, no man can take\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

… if only because there has been so much news
\nrecently about U.S. armed forces “taking” the city of Falluja.
\nCertainly Falluja is no city on a hill, and if it is a rebuke to say
\nthat it “should be,” the question of who ought be responsible is an
\nopen one. Yet if it is not our right to “take” the city, it’s also true
\nthat neither did the insurgents “own” it. The actual city of Falluja
\nitself is not its buildings but rather the huddled homeless refugees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nTake this heart
\n
\nTake this heart
\n
\nTake this heart
\n
\nAnd make it break<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The song’s final plea is not the usual one for world peace<\/a>,
\nbut rather something both simpler yet equally impossible. Bono prays
\nnot for our hearts to heal but to break<\/span>.
\nTo love our neighbors and
\nindeed our enemies is to hurt that they hurt, whoever or whatever may
\nbe responsible for the pain. It is not a prayer for compassion, though
\ncompassion is implied; it is not a prayer for love, though love is
\nnecessary; it is not a prayer for justice, though justice would result.
\nIt asks us just the simple question: do our hearts break for the city
\nof Falluja?\n<\/p>\n

\n

(Why is the song titled “Yahweh,” and does the line “Always pain
\nbefore a child is born” imply a latent antisemitism? This is a
\ntroubling question that’s close to the root of historic
\nJewish-Christian tensions. I can’t really judge this, but simply refer
\nfor now to Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby’s claim<\/a>
\nthat Judaism countenances — indeed, sometimes commands — hatred of
\nevildoers, with the added caveats that (1) he shows a lot of chutzpah <\/span>speaking on behalf of such a diverse faith, and (2) he’s an idiot<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been consuming U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb nonstop since buying it last night. The final track, the audaciously named “Yahweh,” caught my attention immediately. U2 is well-known not just as a rock band, but as a Christian … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}