[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 41 (Tuesday, April 4, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E506-E508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E506]]
     FEBRUARY 2006 NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST WITH REMARKS FROM BONO

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 4, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the Record the 
very profound speech giving by Bono, the world-renowned musician and 
noted humanitarian, during the February 2006 National Prayer Breakfast.
  As the lead singer and lyricist for the Irish rock band U2, Paul 
Hewson, better known as Bono, rose to fame as a socially-conscious 
songwriter who through song has taken many people on spiritual journeys 
while opening their eyes to the plight of the underprivileged and in 
some instances inspired people to change.
  Beyond U2, Bono has extended himself to other projects and causes, 
and has emerged over the years to be a social activist, having rallied 
numerous actors, artists, socialites and activists on behalf of the 
world's poor, particularly those afflicted with the HIV virus in Africa 
and elsewhere throughout the world. While his international celebrity 
status has placed him in a position to relax and enjoy fame and wealth, 
he selflessly dedicates his time to improving our world as a tireless 
advocate for the less fortunate.
  Bono has committed himself to continuing to address issues critical 
to future generations. He faces global crises with conviction and the 
hope that others will see the pain and suffering in the world and come 
together in unity to make the World a better place for all mankind.
  Mr. Speaker: I humbly submit the remarks made by Bono as he addressed 
an audience that included the President of the United States, the First 
Lady, King Abdullah of Jordan, members of Congress and other guests 
during National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C. in February 
2006.

   Bono's Remarks to the National Prayer Breakfast, February 2, 2006


              INTRODUCTION OF BONO BY SENATOR NORM COLEMAN

       In my day, I have introduced the President, I once 
     introduced Dr. Billy Graham, but as a former roadie for 60 
     rock bands, 10 years after, this ranks right up there as one 
     of the high points of my introducing career. Mark [Senator 
     Mark Pryor, Democrat/Arkansas] and I were joking, ``This kind 
     of makes us the rhetorical warm-up act for U2.''
       Our message today comes from a person who has gotten the 
     attention of the world, by walking with God, talking about 
     things that matter, letting his light shine. He's an 
     extraordinary musician, charismatic leader, and unabashedly, 
     uniquely himself. We have an expression that a celebrity is a 
     person who is famous for being famous. But our speaker this 
     morning is known around the world as a person of conscience, 
     a person of influence, but most of all, a person of faith. 
     His organization is called DATA--Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa. 
     They are working to bring people, organizations, leaders and 
     politicians together to make a unified effort to change the 
     future of Africa. On your tables are these white wristbands 
     which are appropriately printed with the word ``ONE.'' He's 
     come to challenge us to reach across the boundaries, to care 
     for the poor and to walk the talk of our faith. Ladies and 
     gentlemen: Bono.
       [applause]


                             BONO'S ADDRESS

       Thank you very much.
       Thank you, Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah of 
     Jordan, Norm [Senator Coleman], distinguished guests . . .
       Please join me in praying that I don't say something we all 
     regret.
       [laughter]
       That was for the FCC.
       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.
       [laughter]
       I'm certainly not here because I'm a rock star. Which 
     leaves only one possible explanation: I've got a messianic 
     complex.
       [laughter]
       It's true. [For] anyone who knows me, it's hardly a 
     revelation.
       Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something 
     unnatural . . . something even unseemly . . . about rock 
     stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, then 
     disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk 
     about a fish out of water. It was weird enough to have Jesse 
     Helms come to a rock show . . . this is really weird.
       [laughter]
       Now, one of the things I love about this country is the 
     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. [Looks over at 
     President Bush, who is seated to his right] Mr. President, 
     are you sure about this?
       [laughter]
       It's very humbling, and I will try to keep my homily brief. 
     But be warned--I am Irish.
       [laughter]
       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 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 way, 
     is why you're all here.
       I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us 
     are here--Muslims, Jews, Christians--are all searching our 
     souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our 
     nation, our God . . . And some of us are not very good 
     examples, despite what Norm says. I am certainly searching. 
     And that, I suppose, is what led me here.
       Yes, it is odd, having a rock star at the breakfast--but 
     maybe it's odder for me than for you. Because you see, I have 
     avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it's 
     something to do with having a father who was a Protestant and 
     a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between 
     the two was, quite literally, often a battle line. Where the 
     line between church and state was . . . at the very least, 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 
     even in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen 
     on their TV cable 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.
       So, even though I was a believer--and perhaps because I was 
     a believer--I was cynical . . . not about God, but about 
     God's politics. There you are, Jim [Wallis, author of the 
     book God's Politics].
       In 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian Christians--
     British, as it happens--went and ruined my shtick--my 
     reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, 
     the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, described this 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. But they got together to declare 
     the year of Jubilee.
       So . . . Jubilee. Why `Jubilee'?
       What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's 
     favor?
       I'd always read the Scriptures, actually, 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.''
       This is such an important idea, Jubilee, that this is how 
     Jesus begins his ministry. Jesus is a young man, he's met 
     with the rabbis, he's impressed everybody, people are 
     talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but, 
     you know, he hasn't done much public speaking.
       When he does, his first words are from Isaiah: ``The Spirit 
     of the Lord is upon me,'' he says, ``because He has anointed 
     me to preach the good news to the poor.'' And Jesus proclaims 
     the year of the Lord's favor, the year of Jubilee. I think 
     that's Luke 4 [Luke 4:18].
       What he was really talking about was an era of grace--we're 
     still in it.
       So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, is 
     now 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 on the streets, get 
     their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their 
     convictions with actions . . . making it really hard for 
     people like me to keep our distance. Ruining my shtick. 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 
     A.I.D.S. And the religious community, in large part, missed 
     it. And the one's that didn't miss it could only see it as 
     divine retribution for bad behavior. Even on children . . . 
     Even if the fastest growing group of HIV infections were 
     married, faithful women.
       Ah, there they go . . . [lightly but firmly pounding on 
     podium] ``Judgmentalism is back,'' I thought to myself.
       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 . . . We had conservative 
     church groups hanging out with spokesmen from the gay 
     community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS . . . 
     See, miracles do happen. We had hip-hop stars and country 
     stars . . . This is what happens when God gets on the move: 
     crazy, crazy stuff happens. Popes were seen wearing 
     sunglasses! Jesse Helms had a ghetto blaster now! Evidence of 
     the Spirit moving. It was really . . . it was breathtaking. 
     It literally stopped the world in its tracks.
       When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments 
     listened--and acted. When

[[Page E507]]

     churches starting organizing, 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; and you changed the world. So, thank you.
       [applause]
       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 in all manner of 
     controversial stuff . . . maybe, maybe not . . . But the one 
     thing we can all agree, all faiths, all ideologies, is that 
     God is with the vulnerable and the 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.
       [applause]
       ``If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of 
     the finger and the 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 even 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. You know, the only time Jesus 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.' I believe that's Matthew 25:40. [Quick glance at 
     President Bush]--see, I've been doing my homework.
       [laughter]
       As I say, good news to the poor.
       Here's some good news--[looks at President Bush]--for you, 
     Mr. President. After 9-11 we were told America would have no 
     time for the World's poor. We were told America would be 
     taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these 
     are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and 
     double-locked the doors.
       In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled 
     funding for global health. And Mr. President, your emergency 
     plan for AIDS relief and support of the Global Fund--you and 
     Congress--have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-
     retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect 
     children from malaria.
       [applause]
       Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive, I think 
     you'll admit. But Historic. You should be very, very proud.
       But here's the bad news. [looks at President Bush] There is 
     so much more to do. There is a gigantic chasm between the 
     scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.
       And finally . . . getting to higher levels, higher 
     callings, this is not about charity in the end, is it? It's 
     about justice . . . the good news yet to come. I just want to 
     repeat that: This is not about charity, it's about justice.
       And that's too bad. Because we're good at charity. 
     Americans, Irish people, are good at charity. 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.
       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 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 let it happen anywhere else. If we really accepted that 
     Africans are equal to us. I say that humbled-[looks over at 
     Senator Barack Obama, Democrat/Illinois, who is seated to his 
     left]--in the company of a man with an African father.
       Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 
     150,000 lives lost to the greatest 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.
       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 in the ass . . . Seriously. I mean, 
     you think of these Jewish sheep-herders going to meet with 
     the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh goes, 
     ``Equal?.. . Equal?'' And they say, ``Yeah, that's what it 
     says here in the book here--`we're all made in the image of 
     God,' sir.'' . . .
       And eventually the Pharaoh says, ``Look, I can accept that. 
     I can accept the Jews--but not the blacks . . . not the women 
     . . . not the gays . . . not the Irish. No way.''
       [laughter]
       So on we go with the 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 two million Americans . . . five million by the 
     next election, I can promise you . . . united in the belief 
     that where you live should no longer determine whether you 
     live.
       We hear that call even more powerfully today, when we mourn 
     the loss of Coretta Scott King--mother of a movement for 
     equality, one that changed the world but is only really 
     getting started. Because these issues are as alive as they 
     ever were; they just change shape and they cross the seas.
       Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their 
     products while we sing the virtues of the free market . . . 
     That's not charity; that's a justice issue. Holding children 
     to ransom for the debts of their grandparents . . . That's 
     not charity; that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving 
     medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents . . . 
     Well, that's not charity; to me, 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 is the law of the land 
     . . . and then there's a higher standard. And we can hire 
     experts to write them so they benefit us--these laws--so that 
     they say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK 
     for African farmers to protect their agriculture to earn a 
     living.
       As the laws of man are written, that's what they say. But 
     God will not accept that. Mine won't. Will yours?
       [pause]
       I close this morning on . . . very thin ice, probably.
       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's 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'm here, and the reason I keep 
     coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is 
     proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures 
     call the least of these. . . . It's not a Republican idea. 
     It's not a Democratic idea. It's not even, with all due 
     respect, an American idea. Nor is it unique to any one faith.
       ``Do unto 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 forth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.'' The 
     Jewish Scripture says that. It's Isaiah 58 [verses 7-8] 
     again.
       It's a very powerful incentive: ``The Lord will watch your 
     back.'' Sounds like a good deal to me, especially right now. 
     . . .
       [laughter]
       Right? ``The Lord will watch your back.'' [looks over at 
     President Bush] You like that? OK.
       [applause]
       A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my 
     life. In countless ways, big and small, I was always seeking 
     the Lord's blessing. I'd be saying, ``Look, I've got a new 
     song--would you look after it?'' . . . ``I have a family, I'm 
     going away on tour, please look after them.'' . . . ``I have 
     this crazy idea--could I have a blessing on it?''
       And this wise man asked me to stop. He said, ``Stop asking 
     God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is 
     doing--because it's already blessed.''
       [applause]
       Well, let's get involved in what God is doing. God, as I 
     said, is always with the poor. That's what God's doing. 
     That's 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 ten percent of the 
     family budget. I mean. . . . How does that compare 
     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 one percent of the federal 
     budget.
       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 one percent of 
     the federal budget tithed to the poor.
       Now, what is that one percent that we're asking for in the 
     ONE Campaign? It's not merely a number on a balance sheet or 
     pulled out of the air. One percent is the girl in Africa who 
     gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS 
     patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is 
     the African entrepreneur who can start a small family 
     business, thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating 
     presidential palaces. One percent must not be--or don't give 
     it--money down a rat hole. This one percent is digging 
     waterholes to provide clean water--[looks at Senator Bill 
     Frist, Republican/Tennessee]--like I saw with Bill Frist 
     there in. . . Uganda.
       OK, that's what we're asking for.
       [applause]
       One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not 
     paternalism towards Africa, a new partnership with Africa, 
     where increased assistance flows toward improved governance 
     and initiatives with proven track records and away from the 
     boondoggles and white elephants that we've seen before.
       America gives less than one percent now. We're asking for 
     an extra one percent to change the world, to transform 
     millions of lives--but not just that, and I say this to the 
     military men now--not just transform hundreds of thousands, 
     indeed millions of communities, but transform the way they 
     see us, which might be smart in these dangerous times.
       One percent as national security, one percent as in 
     enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world 
     rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and

[[Page E508]]

     compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.
       Thank you very much.
       [extensive applause as Bono shakes hands with President 
     Bush and senators]


 THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT FROM PRESIDENT BUSH'S SPEECH TOOK PLACE MOMENTS 
                               LATER. . .

       PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, I was trying to figure out what 
     to say about Bono. . .
       [laughter]
       BONO: Careful.
       [laughter]
       PRESIDENT BUSH: And a story jumped to mind about these 
     really good Texas preachers. And he got going in a sermon and 
     a fellow jumped up in the back and said, ``Use me, Lord, use 
     me.'' And the preacher ignored him, and finished his sermon. 
     Next Sunday he gets up, and cranking on another sermon. And 
     the guy jumps up and says, ``Use me, Lord, use me.'' And 
     after the service, he walked up to him and said, ``If you're 
     serious, I'd like for you to paint the pews.'' Next Sunday, 
     he's preaching, the guy stands up and says, ``Use me, Lord, 
     use me, but only in an advisory capacity.''
       [laughter]
       So I've gotten to know Bono . . . He's a doer. The thing 
     about this good citizen of the world is he's used his 
     position to get things done. You're an amazing guy, Bono. God 
     bless you.
       [applause]

                          ____________________