Bono's best sermon yet: Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast
[RUSH
TRANSCRIPT: CHECK AGAINST DELIVERED REMARKS]
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. Which leaves one possible explanation:
I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.
Yes, it's true.
And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.
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'd like to
talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And
I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one
serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course,
they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.
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.
I remember how
my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait
outside. 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...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen
on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the
world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from
certain corners of the religious establishment...
I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.
Even though I was a believer.
Perhaps because I was a believer.
I was
cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)
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. They had the
audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who,
from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to
the Almighty.
'Jubilee' - why
'Jubilee'?
What was this
year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?
I'd always read
the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)...
'If your
brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you
shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give
him your food for profit.'
It is such an
important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a
young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people
are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done
much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before...
When he does,
is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says,
'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus
proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of
Jubilee (Luke 4:18).
What he was
really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.
So fast-forward
2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of
all kinds of 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 behaviour. Even on children...even [though
the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were 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.
Moving people
of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to
meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay
community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and
quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets
on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Popes were seen
wearing sunglasses!
Jesse Helms was
seen with a ghetto blaster!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
It was
breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its
tracks.
When churches
started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches
starting organising, petitioning, and even - that
most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health,
governments listened - and acted.
I'm here today
in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the
world.
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 we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is
with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the
slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence
of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their
lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris
of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.
"If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and
speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the
desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom
with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy
your desire in scorched places."
It's not a
coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times.
It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the
only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have
done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew
25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
Here's some
good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told
In fact, you
have doubled aid to
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.
Sixty-five
hundred 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.
Because there's
no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude
that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else
in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in
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."
And eventually
the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not
the blacks."
"Not the
women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."
So on we go
with our journey of equality.
On we go in the
pursuit of justice.
We hear that
call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million
Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live
should no longer determine whether you live.
We hear that
call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta
Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but
is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they
just change shape and cross the seas.
Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products
while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to
ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a
justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office
of Patents...that's a justice issue.
And while the
law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the
subject.
That's why I
say there's the law of the land¿. And then there is a higher standard. There's
the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us,
so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African
farmers to do the same, to earn a living?
As the laws of
man are written, that's what they say.
God will not
accept that.
Mine won't, at
least. Will yours?
[ pause]
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
This is not a
Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due
respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
'Do to others
as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.
'Righteousness
is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of
kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the
emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177).
Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house,
when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn
and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear
guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a
powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to
me, right now.
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.
And that is
what he's calling us to do.
I was amazed
when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe.
Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that
compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How
much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less
than 1%.
Mr. President,
Congress, people of faith, people of
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 1% of the
federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is 1%?
1% is not
merely a number on a balance sheet.
1% is the girl
in
1% is a new
partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward
1% is national
security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled
into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.
These goals -
clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end
to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the
Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more
than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised
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 1% more
is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.
There is a
continent -
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
to - to put the fire out in
History, like
God, is watching what we do.
Thank you.