Bono Talks About His Faith and Fight for Social Justice

By Carol Pipes

Focus on the Family president and radio host, Jim Daly, invited U2 front man and social justice activist Bono to talk about poverty, justice, marriage, family and following Christ in a recent radio interview.

During the interview, Bono compared the Psalms to musical styles.

“First of all, David’s a musician, so I’m going to like him,” said Bono. “What’s so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as them being gospel and songs of praise, they are also the Blues. It’s very important for Christians to be honest with God, which often, you know, God is much more interested in who you are than who you want to be.”

Daly brought up an instance when Bono was asked by a journalist to respond to those who struggle with accepting Jesus as their savior and the idea that He’s the Messiah.

“Jesus doesn’t let you off the hook. Scriptures don’t let you off the hook so easily,” Bono said.

“When people say ‘Good teacher,’ ‘Prophet,’ ‘Really nice guy,’ this is not how Jesus thought of himself,” said Bono. “So, you’re left with a challenge, which is either Jesus was who He said He was or a complete and utter nut case. And I believe Jesus was the Son of God.”

Daly talked with Bono about his work with the ONE Campaign, that Bono co-founded to fight poverty and disease in the developing world. He asked about his motivation.

“It’s very annoying following this person of Christ around, because He’s very demanding of your life,” Bono said.

“It’s very hard,” replied Daly, offering a quote from C.S. Lewis: “‘When a man is getting better, he understands much more clearly the evil that’s left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.’ That’s powerful stuff isn’t it?”

Bono teased back, “Yeah, that could turn up on the next U2 album, but I won’t give him or you any credit.”

Speaking of the One Campaign and their work with developing nations, Bono described how he came to choose the areas of work to get involved.

“We have a pastor who said to us, ‘Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing, Bono.’ Which by the way, I constantly do. He said, ‘Find out what God is doing, ’cause it’s already blessed,’” Bono said.

He went on to speak of the remarkable work that’s been accomplished.

Most of the 9 million lives that are now saved—HIV/AIDS sufferers—are alive because of treatments paid for by the U.S., he said.

“This should be shouted from the rooftops. This is a heroic American story,” Bono said. “I am here to thank the American people for that.”

He also thanked the evangelical community for their leadership in the effort.

“The world has changed shape for 9 million lives,” Bono said. “That’s fantastic.”

You can hear the entire interview here.