Bono At The National Prayer Breakfast
Thanks to Baloghblog, I got this link to the transcript of a speech that Bono, the lead singer for the band U2, gave at the most recentNational Prayer Breakfast. I have several reactions, both theological and political.
First, Bono has long been religious, but also a very healthy sceptic (see "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"). The major point I take away from what he calls his homily is this--religion can get in the way of God. Bono grew up in a culture that literally fought over the correct way to believe. His parents could not worship in the same church. Families were torn apart, society segregated and people died for their particular manner of worship.
It's been this kind of horseshit that has always kept me away from organized religion. The stakes aren't the same in our country, but the effect has been the same. True believers trying to limit other people's access to the divine because they don't sing the same hymns, read the same books or pray the same way. Bono speaks to those of us who have been turned off by God's followers--ignore them, find God for yourself.
Bono has found God by meeting him where he lives--with the poor: " 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."
Bono follows this up with a call to make your religious values real: work to end the poverty and disease that is causing 150,000 people a month to perish in Africa. The crisis in Africa is a direct challenge to our sense of ourselves as religious people, not to act is to be complicit in an order that allows people to in Africa to die from the kind of diseases and poverty that the western world has eradicated.
It's the political nature of Bono's call that has excercised some people. Ironically, Bono has gotten more criticism from the left than the right. This website's posting by several left-leaning music and pop culture critics is typical: Bono Must be Stopped. Messianic and egotistical are the ad hominem attacks. The more serious charge is that he is compromising the attack on GW Bush from the left.
My take is different. Bono admits to the ego part. In another speech Bono poked fun at that most frightening modern phenomenon: "The rock star with a cause." But is Bono playing footsie with right-wingers and hurting the cause? I don't believe so. He has decided what his goal is--eliminate suffering in Africa--he is not going to dilute his message and become a billboard for each and every cause, no matter how valid. This attack is a re-working of the right-wing ad hominem argument against activists: "If you're so concerned about peace & justice for X, why aren't you working for Y as well?" People can only do so much, especially if you want to be effective.
As for playing footsie with right-wingers, Bono uses his access to speak truth to power, in a language that his adversaries can understand. He gets to quote scripture to politicians, religious leaders and business types to ram home the point that right-wing policies do not live up to the standards of basic religious tenents. How many lefties get invited to the National Prayer Breakfast to say this to the collected conservative religious folks:
"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. . . 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."
First, Bono has long been religious, but also a very healthy sceptic (see "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"). The major point I take away from what he calls his homily is this--religion can get in the way of God. Bono grew up in a culture that literally fought over the correct way to believe. His parents could not worship in the same church. Families were torn apart, society segregated and people died for their particular manner of worship.
It's been this kind of horseshit that has always kept me away from organized religion. The stakes aren't the same in our country, but the effect has been the same. True believers trying to limit other people's access to the divine because they don't sing the same hymns, read the same books or pray the same way. Bono speaks to those of us who have been turned off by God's followers--ignore them, find God for yourself.
Bono has found God by meeting him where he lives--with the poor: " 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."
Bono follows this up with a call to make your religious values real: work to end the poverty and disease that is causing 150,000 people a month to perish in Africa. The crisis in Africa is a direct challenge to our sense of ourselves as religious people, not to act is to be complicit in an order that allows people to in Africa to die from the kind of diseases and poverty that the western world has eradicated.
It's the political nature of Bono's call that has excercised some people. Ironically, Bono has gotten more criticism from the left than the right. This website's posting by several left-leaning music and pop culture critics is typical: Bono Must be Stopped. Messianic and egotistical are the ad hominem attacks. The more serious charge is that he is compromising the attack on GW Bush from the left.
My take is different. Bono admits to the ego part. In another speech Bono poked fun at that most frightening modern phenomenon: "The rock star with a cause." But is Bono playing footsie with right-wingers and hurting the cause? I don't believe so. He has decided what his goal is--eliminate suffering in Africa--he is not going to dilute his message and become a billboard for each and every cause, no matter how valid. This attack is a re-working of the right-wing ad hominem argument against activists: "If you're so concerned about peace & justice for X, why aren't you working for Y as well?" People can only do so much, especially if you want to be effective.
As for playing footsie with right-wingers, Bono uses his access to speak truth to power, in a language that his adversaries can understand. He gets to quote scripture to politicians, religious leaders and business types to ram home the point that right-wing policies do not live up to the standards of basic religious tenents. How many lefties get invited to the National Prayer Breakfast to say this to the collected conservative religious folks:
"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. . . 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."
i do find it quite ironic that it is radical liberals who despise bono with such vitriol. if he stayed on their side of the fence and just threw stones at the govt. he would be more respected by the far left than he is - despite the fact that by crossing the fence and meeting with the right he is being much more effective. i think his phrase was that many on the far left choose to "go down with the ship" based on principle, while he chooses not to do so because he "is not the only one on the ship."
Posted by
c |
2:23 PM