In God’s Country

Irish philanthropist and singer Bono (right) pauses for a photograph with a fan at the 54th Annual National Prayer Breakfast.

"This is really, really fucking brilliant," the U2 frontman said.

In his introduction, President Bush said:

In millions of acts of kindness, we have seen the good heart of America. Bono, the true strength of this country is not in our military might or in the size of our wallet, it is in the hearts and souls of the American people. …

I'm kind of frightened by that statement. Think of what Bush has done to America's military might and its treasury over the past five years. Is he now planning to do the same thing to the "hearts and souls of the American people?"

Addendum: No, Bono didn't really say that at the Prayer Breakfast. I haven't found the text of his remarks there yet, but my guess is it was a version of his challenge to/celebration of American ideals speech — something along the lines of this. That had to be tough for Michael Gerson to listen to just two days after Bush's State of the Union, since Bono is so much better at that aspirational stuff than anybody on the White House speechwriting staff. And he delivers it better too, since, unlike the guy in the photo with him, he actually believes it.

Bono and at least two of his bandmates have noted that he would "have lunch with the devil himself" if it might help his causes (see, for instance, here). Those causes — debt, AIDS, trade, Africa — are good ones. Like Jimmy Carter, Bono seems willing (and able) to sit down and talk with just about anybody — presidents and popes, racist senators, Wolfram & Hart lawyers, whoever. And like Carter, he seems more concerned with what might be accomplished through such conversations than with how he might be criticized for having them.

So when the powers that be get their photo op, what does Bono get? Empty promises, mostly. But grand empty promises that might not otherwise have been made — and some small fraction of those promises may turn out not to be completely empty. And that may be worth something.

Did Bono get used yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast? I'm sure he did. Just as God gets used every year at this grand pageant of ceremonial deism. That is, after all, what the National Prayer Breakfast is for. Once a year, in Washington, D.C., the devil takes God to breakfast, picks up the check and smiles for the camera.