Bono shames the Prez

This year's National Prayer Breakfast came and went with little fanfare on Feb. 2 because, I presume, most of us don't have the stomach anymore for Dubya's predictable and nauseating lip service to compassion, tolerance and faith.

But this year's event was actually worth watching simply for the curiosity of it. The typical Jesus crowd (the event is hosted by the evangelical Fellowship Foundation) gave some room at the pulpit for Muslims, Jews… and a rock star. The prayer breakfast was co-chaired for the first time in history by a Jew -- Sen. Norm Coleman. And the keynote address was given by King Abdullah II of Jordan, marking the first time a Muslim head-of-state spoke at the prayer breakfast. The highlight of the event, however, was a speech by U2's Bono.

Bono, a vigorous advocate for fighting AIDS in Africa, delivered something of a public shaming of America. After giving brief praise of U.S. aid to Africa, he launched into a critique of the U.S. government's lip service to justice and equality:

"This is not about charity, it's about justice. And that's too bad. Because we'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, and it questions our commitment.

Six and a half thousand 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 would not let it happen anywhere else. If we really accepted that Africans are equal to us ... Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." Well, in Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe…"

He ended with a call for Bush to take his "faith" seriously and actually pay tribute to the "compassionate" part of "compassionate conservatism":

"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? Well, it's less than 1%.

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 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 Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water… Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around."

Of course, it would be naïve to expect anything to come of Bono's call for justice and aid, but at least I didn't have to listen to the same old bullshit that I've come to expect from these prayer breakfasts.

In later interviews, Bono told journalists that "The religiosity of this country is offensive to a lot of people in Europe because they see hypocrisy in the heart of it. They see that for all their talk, prayer breakfasts, and overt religiosity, these people are giving the least to the least of these."