Related articles and links |  1 of 2

While every celebrity seems to have a cause, few stars get their inspiration from Scripture.

That is what sets lead U2 singer Bono apart. Sporting his trademark tinted sunglasses, the rock star spoke to an audience of more than 3,000 at the National Prayer Breakfast February 2, imploring them to respond to the United States' urgent responsibility to help "the least of these."

Two passages drive his message, Bono says: the call in Leviticus 25 for a Year of Jubilee and debt forgiveness, and the command in Isaiah 58 to share with the hungry and provide for the poor.

"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 forth, then your Lord will be your rear guard," Bono quoted from Isaiah 58:7-8.

"I appreciate the absurdity of being a rock star and quoting the Scriptures," Bono joked in his typical self-effacing style at a private meeting with half a dozen journalists following his address.

Wearing jeans, a brown corduroy jacket, and a black, open-collared shirt, the rocker was relaxed as he snacked on fruit and muffins while taking questions from journalists. He expounded on his work in Africa, the role of the church, and some of his favorite verses.

"It's absolutely the prophetic utterance of this moment in time," he exclaimed, referring to Isaiah 58:7-8. "What it really suggests is that if we do God's business, God will be more in ours. To use the colloquial, it's God watching our back. It literally means God will watch your back!"

Bono said there are manifold problems when a religious nation ignores God's business, particularly in light of growing anti-Americanism. "The religiosity of this country is offensive to a lot of people in Europe because they see hypocrisy in the heart of it," Bono said. "They see that for all their talk, prayer breakfasts, and overt religiosity, these people are giving the least to the least of these."

While crediting President Bush with a 0.5 percent increase in the nation's foreign assistance budget since he took office, Bono said that according to polls, "the reason why people don't want to increase foreign assistance is they think it's already up to 15 or 20 percent. … But it's actually a tenth of even the lowest estimations."

The lack of greater foreign assistance and availability of life-saving antiretroviral drugs "is not a good enough reason to die anymore," he said.

Bono described a 2002 visit to Soweto, South Africa, where he talked with a young widower trying to decide whether to keep his life-saving AIDS drugs for himself or give them to the woman he had come to love. "He said, 'I can give her my drugs and my children can lose their last parent, or we can share the drugs and both die slowly, or I can keep the drugs and lose, for the second time, my love,' Bono recalled. "I stood there thinking, This is barbaric. This is actually barbaric."

Fortunately, he said, the church is responding. "In the past, the church has been behind on some issues, but the church hasn't missed this one," Bono said. "The church is leading. It's amazing. If I, 10 years ago, had heard what I am saying [now], I wouldn't have believed me."

That is because 10 years ago, as Bono explained during his breakfast speech, he didn't think much of the church, Christianity, or overt religion. "You see, I avoided religious people most of my life," he said. "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."

next page... |  1 of 2

February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50