"Let us sit together in the dark until the moment comes."
Nick Cave

"Hey, Jesus of Rio?
It's when I'm with you
I miss you the most."
U2

In the carnal and lukewarm alike, the Jesus hangup dies hard.  The reason for this is that the soul cries out for God, and since Jesus is God, He is a topic that refuses to let go.  More interesting (if exponentially less obvious and important) is how artists whose souls are drowning in a sea of money and fame navigate this conviction of the conscience.  In this article, I will use 2 examples of the Jesus hangup to provide a warning against dodging the question, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36).  Nick Cave (the carnal) and U2 (the lukewarm) answer the question in different ways.  God does in fact have a preference, and prefers the cold to the lukewarm, but I believe the answer lies somewhere in the discography of Johnny Cash.

Let's begin.

As an old fan from the 80s and 90s, I am in awe of U2's ability to walk the line between faith and heresy in almost every song they've ever written.  From "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," in which Bono declares his dissatisfaction with what he found from He who "broke the bonds and loosened the chains," and "carried the cross" of his shame, through "The First Time," in which he declares that he "threw away the key" to the kingdom of God, which is clearly referenced in the lyric,

All the way to "Silencio," which was released today, it's obvious Bono's conscience won't let him sleep.  Even though I am sure his physical sleep is as comfortable as it gets this side of paradise, and the effect hundreds of millions of dollars must have on his self-doubt make it hard to sympathize with what must be an incredibly luxurious struggle,

It's obvious his soul is still tormented, and that he is sleeping in a bed of quicksand, gilded though it be.

Nick Cave takes a more honest, courageous route.  Instead of taking decades to muster the guts necessary to sing the "F" word, a remedial step that any true believer will have long-since moved past, but which Bono finally gets around to in "Silencio" ("Mothersucking rock & roll" from 1996's Pop album remains one of the all-time worst lyrics I have ever heard), Nick Cave empties entire dumptrucks of poetry on his conscience in an attempt to bury it.  In fact this moral tug-of-war runs like a recurring theme through his entire discography.  But at least he has the guts to pick a side.  Cold though it be, there is artistic power in the line, "let us sit together in the dark until the moment (of our death) comes."  If you're going to go for God, or the devil,

Go all the way.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold
nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:16

In Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt," he changes the lyric from "crown of _____" to "crown of thorns."  He isn't a poor man; he's been working constantly for decades, and has the respect and adulation of millions of people.  He is considered an iconic legend everywhere he goes.  But he has enough moral courage to follow his convictions to the end, and change a lyric (or a lifestyle) if it contains a bad word.  He doesn't have to.  He's Johnny Cash.  He can do whatever he wants, and somebody will applaud him for it.  And while he understands that a song isn't inherently, explicitly evil because it isn't about Jesus (a ubiquitous problem today), Johnny Cash is also aware of the dangers of keeping one foot in Heaven and one foot in Hell.

This screenshot from U2's "Silencio" depicts a priest smoking a joint, which is an aesthetically-interesting way of telling millions of people they don't have to repent.  I'm not even anti-weed.  God called me away from it 6 years ago, but I tend to see its legalization as a win for Constitutional freedom, rather than a sign of civilizational decline.

But potsmoking religious middlemen in a music video?

In 2026?

You can't walk no line.

So, are U2 employed by the devil, however unwittingly, to make people comfortable with being lukewarm?

Is Nick Cave compensated for keeping company with people in the cold?

Is Johnny Cash's lyric change in "Hurt" an improvement on the original?

Is there a difference in the carnal and the secular?

Is Bono right when he claims that "In the silence, the devil rock and rolls?"

I'm inclined to say yes.  To all of the above.  Considering that Lila Downs' song "El Silencio" is about the funereal lifelessness of the streets during the Covid lockdowns, Bono may have a point.  The devil certainly does hate it when people are happy.  Because Jesus is not only the Lord of lords and King of kings, but also the Genius of geniuses, Satan does everything he can to undermine the ability of people to exercise any creative impulses they may have.  The Covid lockdowns were a preview of the coming Antichrist attraction.  If you enjoy being divided against your neighbor on every line imaginable, parsed into neat little cubicles of furious, unrequited desires that get stronger, more expensive, and less bearable by the hour, you're going to love the main event.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Romans 10:9

But if you'd rather skip for joy down the narrow path, free of all tiresome burdens of booze and weed and lust, dancing with the Genius of geniuses on streets of singing gold,

Pick a side, and give your life to Christ today.

You can't walk the line.