Bono, the lead singer of U2, was asked to give an address at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2006. Bono discussed his personal faith, the faith of nations, and the plight of the poor in Africa that are dying from AIDS. Based on this speech, “On the Move” was produced with images of the faces of those affected.
Bono’s speech was challenging, calling AIDS the “leprosy of our age;” at first criticizing churches for the initial reaction to this disease, then praising churches for taking the lead in this fight. Bono quotes liberally from Old and New Testaments (and once from the Koran); how poverty is mentioned 2100 times in the bible, and how all the charity in the world has hardly made a dent in the problem, but that if we truly believe these people are equals in the eyes of our God who made them, then justice cries out why that continent suffers so much more.
Instead of asking God to bless what we are doing in our relatively mundane lives, get involved in what God’s already doing. God has already blessed that.
Bono’s advocacy group DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) is a member of One, the Campaign to Make Poverty History. All royalties from this book go to the One campaign.
“The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 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.” —Bono
ON THE MOVE by Bono (W Publishing Group; Hardcover; April 3rd)
Thanks to AuthorsOnTheWeb.com for the evaluation copy of this book.
Chasing the Wind 
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