Picking the Right Fights: Waging War Against Silly Controversies & Irreverent Babble

Some thoughts regarding Bono's prophetic voice, Timothy's instructions to pursue "good" warfare, staying away from foolish & nonsensical talk, and the fights that ultimately define our lives.

**painting above is “The Fight” by Francisco Goya

Bono — U2’s legendary Irish frontman & lead singer — is famous for many things, wherever he goes: he is activist, ethicist, philanthropist, conservationist, rock legend. But until I had listened to this interview he did with Christianity Today’s Mike Cosper, I had never understood his (distinctly Christian) prophetic voice.

At one point in the interview, Cosper effectively asks him: “what made U2 so different from the rest of the pop-punk movement it was a part of?” Bono’s response still sticks with me: “I think we were interested in a different kind of battle…I think we chose the right enemy…I think we picked a more interesting fight.”

While the rest of the podcast is gold (please, listen to it), I want to focus on this idea that drove U2’s art for decades: picking the right fight. Bono’s point is that while many of his Belfast contemporaries were raging against England, the establishment, or “the man”, Bono and his mates were focused on a better fight: the soul’s fight against the self.

“Choose your enemies carefully, because they will define you. Make them interesting, because in some ways they will mind you.” (Cedars of Lebanon, by U2)

To that degree, I wonder if the people of God have become known for choosing the wrong enemies, or picking silly fights, or jumping into wars not worth waging. I wonder if we have become known for “irreverent babble” (the Apostle Paul’s words, not mine) — which, he goes on to point out later, spreads like gangrene. I wonder if we have become known for unfitting, foolish talk that borders on obscenity.

I wonder if we are picking the right fights.

On each and every side of the political spectrum, Christians are finding ways to heat up their respective culture-war stoves to bring all sorts of fights to their collective boiling points: whether that be a fight against wokeism, or Donald Trump, or DEI, or Tesla, or whatever else, Christians are certainly not seen as strangers to controversy these days within the public square. Nor should we be!

But again: I wonder if these fights are the right fights.

Truthfully, fighting is not bad. We all want a grand fight that we can participate in; a dangerous, daring, and courageous battle that might define our lives. As a matter of fact, this kind of “cosmic” fight is biblical. But the fights we pick seem so…bad. So unimportant. So dull.

We are content to let young men think the most important battle they may fight is growing their sports-betting acumen (even though there was a reported 26% increase in problem gambling-related calls to the NY Office of Addiction Services last year). We are content to let young women think the most important battle they may fight is for another couple dozen likes on an Instagram “life lately” photo dump. We are content to let our elders think doomscrolling and Facebook-spamming are effective battle tactics. We know we are wired to fight for something, but we are so doggone tired of fighting, and so we have turned to fighting about things that don’t really matter. Our fighting has become so very bad.

Even recently, my alma mater got embroiled in a bit of a controversy that created an Evangelical-specific heavyweight fight amongst Wheaton alumni, students, faculty, parents and the like. The fight — which culminated in letters calling for the president’s removal and for accountability from its trustees — was initially ignited over a deleted Facebook post. Yet this particular fight was picked up and tended to by a number of national media outlets (even Elon Musk tweeted about it); I suppose this is just the kind of infighting Christians are becoming known for.

Now, I don’t have mud to sling in any specific direction. I am just as guilty for engaging in silly, petty, fruitless culture wars. I’d imagine we all are, or we all have been. Such is the social-spiritual climate we live in, in the year 2025. But when the Christian public witness becomes more renowned for calling other saints all sorts of names, or more akin to dragging fellow Christians into court (as we see in 1 Corinthians 6), my sense is that we have picked the wrong kind of fight. We have waged bad warfare, and not the good kind.

Paul’s letters to Timothy have quite a bit to say about “picking the right fights” — I can’t help but think Bono did a good bit of reading in 1 and 2 Timothy during his Ulster days as he was writing “Boy”, “October”, and “War”. I’ve pulled out some texts across those two letters, so perhaps you might see my point:

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith…” (1 Tim. 1:18).

“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Tim. 6:12).

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (2 Tim. 2:1-4).

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

What’s interesting to me here is that Paul qualifies to Timothy the nature of fighting: there can be such a thing as good fights (notice how he uses that distinction in each of these images), which would logically suggest that there can be such a thing as bad fights. Frankly, it can be difficult to discern the fine line between the two — but perhaps this is precisely why Paul exhorts Timothy so ardently: “take hold of that which is truly life!”

“Took hold of that which was truly life” is the kind of thing I might like to have etched into my gravestone, when it’s all said and done. Yet the data of my life would show that I so often engage in what Paul calls “foolish, ignorant controversies” (2 Tim. 2:23) — he even goes so far as to make the point that those controversies only produce more quarrels (sounds awfully familiar). In other words, our irreverent babble and silly fighting give birth to children named “Quarrel” and “Division”. Political hot takes, workplace gossip & general spilling of the tea, regurgitating Andrew Tate’s jargon, whining about your neighbor’s irritable nature, arguing about LeBron James…silly or trivial as these things may seem, they end up being the fights that define our lives.

Yet, “fighting the good fight” (as Paul defines it) does not kid itself: “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Our enemies are so much greater than we realize, and yet we are caught up playing Nerf-gun fight with our fellow brothers and sisters.

Our enemy is darkness. Our enemy is the possibility of people that we rub shoulders with each day never knowing the kind of death-to-life power that Christ has freely offered to them (this is more urgent than we realize; life is incredibly brief). Our enemy is sin, every kind of evil, death itself. Our enemy is active, engaged, and combative — and so we must be active, engaged, and combative against him.

Which is to say, if Christians are supposed to pick a good fight, then they must choose the right enemy. The phrase “keep the main thing, the main thing” is a bit nauseating and at times, overused — but it helpfully applies in our current Christian moment. We must keep the centrality of Jesus “the main thing”: he waged war against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. What’s more: he won! He has defeated death itself and will one day, at long last, return to our world with eyes like fire whilst perched atop a white horse to pick the last, greatest fight in history.

I want to fight in that battle. It would seem that Jesus has already thrown (and landed) the first punch. It will not just be a good fight; it will be the best of fights.

May our fighting in the year 2025 be a kind of training ground for that last great fight — where we will follow the King of kings, and the Lord of lords into battle. May we be known less for “endless myths” and the kind of “irreverent talk” we so often get caught up in. May we instead heed Paul’s words to Timothy:

“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim 2:22-25).

I’ll conclude with some words from a Duke theologian, Stanley Hauerwas (who for whatever reason, I’m assuming would have gotten along great with Bono, if they don’t already know one another):

“God has entrusted us, His Church, with the best story in the world. With great ingenuity we have managed, with the aid of much theory, to make that story boring. Theories about meaning are what you get when you forget that the Church and Christians are embattled by subtle enemies who win easily by denying that any war exists. God knows what He is doing in this strange time between "worlds," but hopefully He is inviting us again to engage the enemy through the godly weapons of preaching and sacrament. I pray that we will have the courage and humility to fight the enemy in Walter Rauschenbusch's wonderful words, with ‘no sword but the truth.’”

Brothers and sisters, fight the good fight today.

Keep going.