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Bono turned 48 yesterday. Bono is the lead singer for the popular Irish rock band U2, and a prominent “human rights activist”. Bono was born on May 10, 1960. His real (family) name is Paul David Hewson. Bono has frequently used his fame as a rock musician — as a platform (or pulpit) — to proclaim the message of reconciliation, salvation, redemption, and the Year of Jubilee (canceling debts, and setting slaves free). The message is not always understood, but this has not seemed to hinder his huge success as a “Rock Star”.

To celebrate his 48th birthday, Bono had a small dinner party at Sass’ Café in Monaco. On the guest list: Brad Pitt, Monaco’s Prince Albert II and the Edge.

Bono was born to a Roman Catholic father and a Protestant mother during a time when Ireland was sharply divided among sectarian lines. Back in 1977 (the year I graduated from high school), in the city of Dublin, Paul (Bono) and “school friends David Evans (later ‘the Edge’), Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton formed a band that would become U2. They shared a commitment not only to ambitious rock music but also to a deeply spiritual Christianity.”

In this YouTube video clip he talks about growing up when “Ireland was divided along religious lines”. He shares a few memories and says that “young people like me were parched for the vision that poured out of pulpits of black America, and the vision of a black reverend from Atlanta — a man who refused to hate, because he knew love would do a better job.” (See M.L. King video with U2-Bono song - In the Name of Love.)

Continuing in the video clip Bono says:

“These ideas travel you know [ideas about love, instead of hate] and they reached me, clear as any tune, and lodged in my brain like a song… and may I say it was the poetry, and the righteous anger of the black church that was such an inspiration to me, a very white, almost pink Irish man growing up in Dublin…. True religion will not let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedoms. Love thy neighbor is not a piece of advice. It’s a command.”

Sources:

Youtube video clip of Bono speech at NAACP gathering (posted 2-March-2007) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRY2sOiBZxI>.

“Bono.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 11-May-2008 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/860737/Bono>.