"Soul-Searching" Bono Praises Bush and American Generosity at Prayer Breakfast: Loses Cynicism Toward Church

Teresa Neumann Reporting : Feb 17, 2006
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Of course, BCN does not necessarily endorse any particular views that are reported, but I would contend that many of us know "Christians" who have for one reason or another become bitter or confused or have walked away from their first love only to return later as prodigals. In no way am I implying that such is the case with Bono, but his own confession of skepticism toward the church followed by the admission that he is learning to respect and love the Christian community again is cause for thankfulness.

May we, at the very least, respect those who express even the slightest interest in Christ and pray for their continued growth in the Kingdom, rather than condemning them on perceived minor doctrinal errors or politically correct faux-pas which are often rectified as the person grows in Christ. I include myself in this plea, as I admit I do not personally agree with a good part of Bono's political-social philosophy! - Teresa Neumann, BCN.

The following are excerpts from Bono's speech. To read the transcript in full, click on the link below. (Photo: Paul Morse-White House)

=========================================== Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah, Other heads of State, Members of Congress, distinguished guests…Please join me in praying that I don't say something we'll all regret. If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star...Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural… something unseemly… about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert… but this is really weird, isn't it?

You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind. Mr. President, are you sure about this? It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned . . . ¬I'm Irish!

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here Muslims, Jews, Christians, all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God. I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.

Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here, but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was… well, a little blurry, and hard to see...

One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… I was cynical… not about God, but about God's politics.

Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick¬; my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people.... It wasn't a "bless-me" club… it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions… making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people. But then my cynicism got another helping hand. It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behavior. Even on children. The fastest growing group of HIV infections was married, faithful women.

"Aha, there they go again!" I thought to myself, "Judgmentalism is back!" But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age. Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move. Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing [on which] we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. (MORE . . . )

Here's some good news for the President. After 9-11 we were told America would have no time for the World's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors. In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, [with] your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund,¬ you and Congress ¬have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria. Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.

But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response. And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice. Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice. And that's too bad. Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it. But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.

It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain. You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, ‘equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God...."

I close this morning on … very… thin… ice. This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God… vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity. And this is a town, ¬Washington, ¬that knows something of division. But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these. This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor is it unique to any one faith. Do to others as you would have them do to you.' (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea… And this wise man said: "Stop." He said, "Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing¬ because it's already blessed." Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing...

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. Well, how does that compare to the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than one percent.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America: I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing…. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor. What is one percent? One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water. One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, [but] where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.

These goals...are the Beatitudes for a Globalized World.

Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices. But I can tell you this: To give one percent more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed. I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did, ¬or did not do to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do. Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.