On Bono and Poverty
I attended the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit last weekend, and one of the sessions was an interview between Bill Hybels and Bono. Whilst I don't doubt Bono is a Christian, I am certainly not going to overly praise him. Some of the things he said actually made me a little unhappy.

There are 2003 verses in scripture about the poor, second only to personal salvation.

Jesus speaks of judgment only once and that is the passage in Matthew where we are asked: ‘who clothed the naked?’ and ‘who fed the poor?’ and ‘who visited those in prison?’ That defines whether you are a part of the Kingdom or not.”

“The reason the church has been slow to respond is that the church has historically always been behind the curve: civil rights, apartheid…the church is afraid of politics.

The second reason the church has been so slow is less palatable..the church has been very judgmental about the AIDS virus…it believes that it is about people living irresponsibly.

Only 6% of evangelicals felt like they were to act in response to the AIDS epidemic. But the Christ will not let the church walk away from the AIDS emergency…it is like a car crash, we have to act. AIDS is the leprosy of our age.

But then something tragic happened…the church woke up and began to act…and they ruined it for me…I couldn’t hate the church anymore.

Bono has a huge heart for the poor, and that is a great thing. The problem is, he bills it as the biggest social justice issue there is. That's wrong. Abortion kills more people every day than poverty. The figures don't lie. Poverty is a huge issue to be sure, and one we should deal with, but it isn't the biggest. Overstating your case doesn't help.

Which brings me to my next point. Bono talks of 2003 verses in the bible talking about the poor, and that Jesus only talks about judgement once. I think this is also an overstatement. Jesus talks about judgement and hell a fair bit, and I am betting those 2003 verses do not ALL talk about helping the poor, but also verses that just mention them. Overstating your case doesn't help.

The final thing I noted was that Bono, with his big heart for the poor, condemns those who don't share his heart. His last comment that 'he couldn't hate the church anymore' once they came on board with HIS passion shows this clearly. But people have different hearts for different things. Just because someone doesn't necessarily share his heart, does not make it a good reason to judge and condemn them.

One last note is that dealing with poverty is very important, but we should do it intelligently. Over a trillion dollars of aid to Africa has resulted in the conditions worsening. This is because the aid is done in such a way as to reinforce the conditions (Corrupt goverment, badly structured economy, stupid trade legislation), rather than fix it. We need to address the real problems, the governments, not just the lack of food.

Making governments force their population give aid is not a moral choice. You can't force charity.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Monday, October 09, 2006