P I T T I G

U2 heeft al weer een heel aantal weken een nieuw album uit: No Line On the Horizon. Heerlijke muziek met magnifieke (magnificent) teksten. Ik heb een paar pakkende, poëtische en mysterieuze zinnen op een rij gezet. De nummers erachter verwijzen naar het nummer waar het uit komt (zie lijst onderaan).

Twee mysterieuze zinnen waarbij ik weinig idee heb wat ik me er bij moet voorstellen:

• While the band in my head plays a striptease. (10)
  
• Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not. (9)

En dan een paar prachtige zinnen: 

• Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you. (11)
  
• But while I’m getting over certainty… (7)
  
• Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady. (7)
  
• Laughter is eternity. (6)
  
• The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear. (5)
  
• Shouting to the darkness, squeeze out sparks of light. (5)
  
• I’ll go crazy if I don’t go crazy tonight. (5)
  
• No Line on the Horizon. (1)
  
• Only love can make such a mark, but only love can heal such a scar. (2)
  
• I will magnify the Magnificent. (2)
  
• Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot. (5)
  
• Playing with the fire until the fire played with me. (3)
  
• My body’s now a begging bowl. (3)
  
• Every generation gets a chance to change the world. (5)
  
• Satan loves a bomb scare. (6)
  
• God is love and love is evolution’s very best day. (7)
  
• The DNA lottery may have left you smart. (7)
  
• I’ve found grace inside a sound. (10)
  
• We are people born of sound. (10)
  
• The roar that lies on the other side of silence. (10)
  
• This shitty world sometimes produces a rose. (11)
  
• Squeezing complicated lives into a headline. (11)

——————––

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Standup Comedy
8. FEZ – Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars of Lebanon

Dit is het tweede deel van mijn post over de zanger van de rockgroep U2 – Bono – en zijn toespraak in 2006 tot leiders van de Amerikaanse regering en allerlei soorten geestelijke leiders uit Amerika. In het eerste deel kwamen Bono’s woorden over zijn geloofsontwikkeling en zijn benadering van de aanwezigen als een oud testamentisch profeet ter sprake.

In dit tweede deel komen we bij Bono’s visie op God, de armen en rechtvaardigheid. Bono wijst op de overeenkomsten tussen de drie grootste godsdiensten van Amerika: Islam, jodendom, christendom.

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 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.

“If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and the speaking of 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 will 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. (See, I’ve been doing my homework.)

As I say, good news to the poor.

Dit zijn toch hele profetische woorden tot de machtigsten de aarde! En niet alleen de Amerikaanse regeringsleiders, maar ook de geestelijke leiders die met hun boeken en conferenties vanuit hun rijke land over de hele wereld enorme invloed hebben.

Bono komt dan bij het einde van zijn toespraak en legt het verschil tussen liefdadigheid en rechtvaardigheid uit.

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, and it questions our commitment. Six and a half thousand Africans are still dying every day of 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 in the company of a man with an African father.

U2 zanger, Bono, en de (toen nog) senator Barack Obama praten met elkaar tijdens de 'National Prayer Breakfast'. (Photo: Dennis Brack/Getty Images)

Bono doelt hier trouwens op Obama.

Liefdadigheid is leuk, maar Bono is hier over hogere wetten en een hogere roeping dan de Amerikaanse wetten en regering komen praten. De wet – de roeping van rechtvaardigheid en gelijkheid. Dat is andere koek dan alleen wat liefdadigheid. Rechtvaardigheid en gelijkheid bespotten onze geloofsgevoeligheden, ze trekken twijfels bij waar we onze druk om maken en ze zetten vraagtekens achter onze betrokkenheid. Als 6500 Afrikanse per dag sterven vanwege ziekten die makkelijke te behandelen zijn, gaat het niet meer om liefdadigheid, maar om rechtvaardigheid en gelijkheid. Of denken we stiekem toch nog dat zij minder waard zijn dan wij?

Bono vergelijkt de grote aandacht die er was voor de tsunami in Zuid Oost Azië met de bitter weinige aandacht voor evenveel slachtoffers die er elke maand in Afrika vallen. Onnodige slachtoffers, want in tegenstelling tot de tsunami is het mogelijk hier iets aan te doen.

Look what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to the 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.” Eventually the Pharaoh says, “Look, I can accept that. I mean, I can accept the Jews — but not the blacks. I mean, not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way.”

Bono voegt tussen neus en lippen door nog even de vrouwenrechten en de homorechten in zijn toespraak. Daar zal ook niet elke conservatief evangelikale leider in zijn gehoor blij mee geweest zijn. Maar de weg van rechtvaardigheid en gelijkheid, van zorg om de minsten, de laagsten, de armsten, is niet voorbehouden aan één religieuze stroming.

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 it is unique to any one faith.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Jesus says that. “Righteousness is this: that one should give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and to the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.”

The Koran says that. Thus sayeth the Lord: Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out — then your light will be like the dawn and your recovery will be speedily and spring forth; then the Lord will be your rear guard. The Jewish Scripture says that. It’s Isaiah 58 again.

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 — I’d be saying, “Look, I’ve got a new song… Would you look out [for 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. Well, let’s get involved in what God is doing. God, as I say, is always with the poor. That’s what God is doing. That’s what He’s calling us to do.

Ga ik mijn eigen weg of doe ik mee met Gods weg? Bid ik om Gods zegen voor mijn weg, of ga ik op Gods weg, die gezegend is? God is bij de armen, daar is God aan het werk en daar roept God ons te komen.

De profeet Bono heeft gesproken.

De hele toespraak staat, met een heel aantal foto’s, op het blog Speaking the Faith.

Bono – voor niet ingewijden: de zanger van U2, een beroemde popgroep – komt op allerlei plaatsen: concertzalen, stadions, parken. Maar hij is op 2 februari 2006 ook op de National Prayer Breakfast - het Nationale Gebedsonbijt – in Washington DC, Amerika verschenen. Deze bijeenkomst heeft een lange traditie waarbij Amerikaanse regeringsleiders allerlei geestelijke leiders uit hun land uitnodigen om, over de grenzen van religies en overtuigingen heen, stil te staan bij de ideeën en de boodschap van Jezus. 

Onder de aanwezigen waren in 2006 president Bush en zijn vrouw Laura, senator Obama, koning Abdullah van Jordanië en vele  anderen. En Bono hield daar de belangrijkste toespraak, de zogenaamde Keynote Address. Hij sprak als een oud testamentische profeet, maar dan iets vriendelijker. Het profetische karakter van zijn toespraak  uit zich in zijn kritische woorden die duidelijk door zijn geloof en diepste overtuigingen geïnspireerd waren. Die woorden hebben niet alleen de aanwezigen toen, maar ook mij nu, aan het denken gezet.

Ik haal hieronder een aantal gedeelten uit zijn toespraak aan. Deze delen vormen in mijn ogen de kern. Zijn woorden heb ik met mijn beperkt inzicht van commentaar voorzien waar het mij raakt of waar ik iets uit kan leggen.

 Well, thank you, thank you Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah of Jordan, Norm [Coleman], distinguished guests. Please join me in praying that I don’t say something we’ll all regret. 

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 — is leather. I’m certainly not here because I’m a rock star — which leaves only one possible explanation: I’ve got a messianic complex. It’s true. And 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 — and disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water.

Met humor en bescheidenheid begint Bono aan zijn toespraak. Hij voelt zich ook niet helemaal op zijn plaats als rock-muzikant tussen geestelijke en politieke leiders. Gekscherend wijst hij op zijn messias-complex. Hij relativeert zichzelf, maar geeft ook aan dat hij echt wel wat wil veranderen in deze wereld. De toon is daarmee gezet.

I’d like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city, where those laws are written. I’d like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that once there’s the other, that the laws of man serve these higher laws, but, of course, they don’t always. 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 [Coleman] says.

Auch. Dit is geen zachtzinnige profeet. De profeet Bono wijst de aanwezigen wel voorzichtig, maar ook heel duidelijk, op hun falen. ‘Sommigen van ons zijn geen goede voorbeelden!’

Bono vertelt daarna over zijn geloofsontwikkeling, zijn vragen en cynisme.

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’ve 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 a 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-righteous “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 — and perhaps because I was a believer, I was cynical — not about God, but about God’s politics. (There you are, Jim.)

Bono wijst hier op Jim Wallis, een linkse evangelical, die een boek heeft geschreven met de titel ‘God’s Politics’. Ook een luis in de pels van de conservatieve christelijke stroming wereldwijd. Bono vertelt daarna over een groep mensen die hem erg beïnvloed hebben.

In 1997, a couple of Christians went and ruined 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 Irish half-Catholic’s point of view, may have had a little more of a direct line to the Almighty. But they got together to declare the Year of 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[:18]. What he was really talking about was an era of grace — and we’re still in it.

In een paar sprongen is hij van zijn opvoeding tot bij zijn boodschap voor de aanwezigen gekomen. Hij gaat dan uitleggen hoe zijn kijk is op de boodschap van het christelijk geloof voor onze wereld. En die blik verschilt behoorlijk met die van veel christenen.

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 in 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 Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. [Weapon of Mass Destruction] of them all: a tiny little virus called A.I.D.S. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. And the ones 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. 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. They 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. And we had hip-hop stars and country stars.

This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy, crazy stuff happens.

Christenen mogen dan langzaam zijn in hun reactie, maar ze gingen zich wel inzetten voor mensen die lijden onder armoede en aids. Er veranderde ook iets in de regeringen van Westerse landen.

When churches start demonstrating on debt, governments listened — and acted. When churches started 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.

Bono noemt de goede gevolgen die de kerkelijke inspanningen hebben opgeleverd bij de regeringen. En kan hij alle aanwezigen – politieke en geestelijke leiders – complimenteren en bedanken. Tegelijk is zijn compliment een aanmoediging om op die weg verder te gaan. Hij spreekt zelfs hele lovende woorden over president Bush.

Here’s some good news 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 the global health — for global health. And Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support of the Global Fund — you and Congress — has put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided eight million bed nets to protect children from malaria.

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive, I think you’ll admit, but historic. You should be very, very proud.

But here’s the bad news. There’s so much more to do. There is a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

Goed gedaan, Bush, maar ga door en ga verder! Hoe negatief er vaak over Bush gesproken wordt, we moeten hem wel een ding nageven: voor Afrika is hij heel goed geweest. Zijn aids en armoede beleid heeft in Afrika veel goede vruchten afgeworpen. Die goede vruchten heeft Bono op zijn bezoeken aan Afrika gezien en hij looft de president daarvoor. Er is veel gedaan, maar Bono maakt meteen duidelijk dat er nog heel veel te doen is.

In het tweede deel van mijn post over Bono’s toespraak staat Bono’s God, armoede en onze verantwoordelijkheid centraal.

De volledige toespraak is te vinden op de site van Speaking of Faith.