Bono offered something different by calling for a non-partisan agenda that is both God-inspired AND driven by charity, justice, and equality.First, Bono challenged the hijacking of God, especially by those who profess to be its keepers. "[R]religion often gets in the way of God," he said. He rejected what some religious people - "God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels" - have done in His name.
Bono's fundamental message, however, was this:
"[W]hatever 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."He used the words of the Bible itself, noting that poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times.
"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).Bono makes a last point that really socks it to conventional thinking in the US and the West overall. "Finally," he said, "it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice." We are good at charity, he offered, but we are lousy at justice.
Africa is Bono's marking point. Despite our current level of giving, he noted, "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 about Justice and Equality."
In a way that no politician can, but that poets always do, Bono opined, "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." Extraordinary.
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