4 posts tagged “bono”
Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt, for they shall inherit what's left of the Earth... 'Wave of Sorrow' is a song Bono wrote whilst visiting Ethiopia with his wife Ali. It was one of the tracks recorded at the time of The Joshua Tree, but it never made it to the album. Apparently it will now be released on the bonus CD to accompany the re-mastered 'Joshua Tree'. In a very unrehearsed interview, below, Bono explains how the song came together, and why it matters to him...
If you can't quite catch the lyrics on the video, here are the rest of Bono's re-worked Beatitudes:
Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt
For they shall inherit what’s left of the earth
Blessed are the kings who have left their thrones
They are blessed in this valley of dry bones
Blessed are you with an empty heart
For you have nothing form which you cannot part
Blessed is the ego if it’s all we’ve got this hour
Blessed is the voice that speaks truth to power
Blessed is the sex worker’s body sold tonight
She works with what she’s got to save her children’s life
Blessed are the deaf who cannot hear her scream
Blessed are the stupid who can dream
Blessed are the tin can cardboard slums
And blessed is the spirit that overcomes
The interview between Bill Hybels and Bono from the summer of 2007 has now been uploaded to Youtube. It's viewable in 8 parts altogether - this is part one. It really is an intriguing and excllent conversation - remarkable not only for the way Bono has brought big changes to Hybel's view of poverty and aids - but also for the way Hybels has been able to impact Bono's view of church. Not a predicatable meeting of minds - Hybels confesses as a lifelong country and western fan that he would have been more excited if it had been Garth Brooks asking for a meeting - but an exciting one all the same. If you haven't seen any of this it is worth taking the time to view. From a Crossroads perspective, we are exploring links with Stop the Traffik - a global coalition on People Traffiking - which should throw up opportunities for us to make a real difference to the lives of people driven into slavery through violence and extreme poverty: not exactly the agenda Bono is talking aobut here, but part of the same ethos of the church taking action to show God's justice and mercy to those who most need both. [ http://www.stopthetraffik.org/ and http://www.stopthetraffik.nl/ ] To explore just how God's mission in the world touches on such issues, you might also want to visit the site of Rick Warren's 'PEACE Plan' - one of the best current examples of a church leader thinking clearly through issues of church planting, leadership and justice.
Apart from the extremely cheesy backing music, this video is a good introduction to the PEACE Plan... Where was Bono when they were recording the soundtrack? More details on the PEACE plan at http://www.thepeaceplan.com/ . A number of US apologeitcs websites, already fuming at the success of Purpose Driven Life, have chosen to slate the PEACE plan, but can we really complain about two of the biggest church leaders in america - Hybels and Warren - waking up to global poverty and committing to the mobilisation of God's people in service? As Warren says on the PEACE video,
"If we could figure out a way to turn an audience into an army; to turn consumers into contributors; to turn spectators into participators, it will change the world. It's time to stop debating and start doing. It's time for the church to be known for love not for legalism, for what we're for not for what we're against. It's time for the church to be the church."
Even if you don't like the style, the marketing, the music or the shirts, you can still see God at work in these developments.
I'm almost finished the 500-page epic 'What is the What' - an extraordinary book. Written in novel form by Dave Egger, it is derived from the true story of Valentino Achek Deng. The book is the first fruits of a project called 'witness', which uses oral history to shed light on important global issues. The result is an emotive and powerfully-told journey through the chaos of late 20th Century Sudan. It pulls no punches in describing the horrors of Sudan's civil war, as Valentino is betrayed by one military or governmental grouping after another, but it also achieves something much rarer and more arresting - it finds human beauty, and even triumph, in the midst of such pain. Valentino now lives in the United States, and his struggle to be accepted even there is a final twist in a tragic tale. Central to the narrative is Valentino's christian faith, which he never loses but which raises significant questions for him. "God has a problem with me," he complains as tragedy after tragedy floods into his life. As the book's Washington Post reviewer points out "Coming from almost any other person on the planet, this lament would appear hopelessly self-pitying. But coming from Valentino, a Sudanese refugee, it sounds almost like an understatement." If there is a villain to this drama, though, it is almost certainly the uncontrollable force of globalisation that has brought havoc to Valentino's idyllic rural life. The rivalries and violence that set different Sudanese factions against each other are endemic, and have been around for centuries: but it is the Western-manufactured guns, our planes and tanks, and to some extent the push for oil, that have tipped the scale from local skirmishes to a tragedy of almost unimaginable proportions. From the opening pages you feel that the young Valentino is swept off his feet by a wave that really never puts him down. Even with his arrival in the safe-haven of Atlanta, Georgia, some fifteen years later, the journey is far from over. It is impossible to read this narrative and not be aware of the forces that connect the remotest parts of the earth to cultures thousands of miles away from them.
As an experiment in the power of an indiviual story - referred to in academic circles as oral history - to illumninate and illustrate the moods and movements of history, What is the What is a triumph. As the Washington Post continues:
"At a time when the field of autobiography seems dominated by hyperbolic accounts of what might be called dramas of privilege (substance abuse, eating disorders, unloving parents, etc.), What Is the What is a story of real global catastrophe -- a work of such simple power, straightforward emotion and genuine gravitas that it reminds us how memoirs can transcend the personal to illuminate large, public tragedies as well."
For those of us who take time every now and then to ask the question Who is my Neighbour? this is an inspiring and sobering read. As Bono said recently in his NAACP speech 'in the Global Village we're going to have to start loving a whole lot more people'....
Author's royalties from the book will support the newly-formed Valentino Achak Foundation, whose website has excellent further information and resources on Sudan - http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/ .
The buzz about Bono's acceptance speech for the 2007 NAACP Chairman's Award [the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People] is doing the rounds of global blog. You can see the speech at the U2 fan site:
http://u2log.com/archive/2007/03/bono_is_honored_by_naacp.php
The last minute or so of the speech is pure inspiration - Bono revealing that if he hadn't made it in the world of rock he would have for certain become a preacher ... and might still if the songwriting, recording and touring ever get too much for him. You need to see the video to get the vibe, but here are Bono's closing words:
It was the poetry and the righteous anger of the black church that was such an inspiration to me, growing up in Dublin..
This is true religion. True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom. ‘Love thy neighbour’ is not a piece of advice, it’s a command. And that means that in the global village we’re going to have to start loving a whole lot more people.
Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.
And to those in the church who still sit in judgement on the aids emergency, let me climb into the pulpit for just one moment, because whatever thoughts we have about God; who he is or even if God exists, most will agree that God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered. God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives. God is under the rubble in the cries we hear during war time. God my friends is with the poor, and God is with us if we are with them. This is not a burden, this is an adventure. Don’t let anyone tell you that it cannot be done – we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.
