The band U2 was inducted into the rock ‘n roll Hall of Fame last night, much to my joy.

Bono, lead singer of U2, is on my list of incredible people in the world today. For his political activism, his understanding of the oppressed and the downtrodden of the world, and the work he has done approaching people in great positions of power, somehow persuading them to use their power for good.

While I am proud of this band for their achievement, and I hope this induction will further boost their popularity in the world, and in posterity, I am hereby giving U2 my own award.

This is the first annual and highly renowned award given to the most progressive, active, Christian band, by me.

The Sumach-Red Dog award.

Congratulations U2, you continually impress me, entertain me, and astound me with the depth of your songs, lyrics, and with the spirit of your political activism.

God bless you for your work.

For more information on U2 and their social justice work, visit u2sermons.blogspot.com — the most copiously great site about the band.

The New York Times reports that Israel will turn over control of two West Bank towns Jericho and Tulkarem to the Palestinians.

I am hopeful for the first time in years that this could truly lead to reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. Before all this fighting started, there was a long period of peaceful coexistence. There was rarely a terrorist attack, and there were no missile attacks or helicopter flyovers in Gaza.

I haven’t been in Palestine or Israel in several years, and I suppose I’m not an expert anymore, but I think I still understand the situation. This is still not a conflict about the little people. This is not a conflict between the mothers of Israel and the mothers of Palestine. This is a conflict of wealth and poverty. This is a conflict of East versus West.

I am heartened that George Bush has taken it upon himself to make peace in the middle east. After invading Iraq, somehow George Bush feels like he has to save the world — somewhat assisted by the ideas and morals of Natan Sharansky, his new crony.

When it comes down to it, George Bush is really doing what he means to be doing in Israel and Palestine. I have been enraged in the last several years by the United States’ response to the brutality of the Israeli government. But now, Bush wants to leave a legacy, and I think he will.

The thing is, I give Bush a very little credit for this advancement, seeing as the international community has understood the situation for a very long time, and has been pushing for the presence political negotiations that are taking place in Palestine for many years. It is no accident that the Israelis and Palestinians have not been at the table since Bill Clinton’s presidency. George Bush has had no interest in peace in the Middle East.

But things have changed, peace has become a distinct possibility for the Palestinians and Israelis, both exhausted by this neverending dispute. I, for one, and hopeful. Many things aren’t perfect in this resolution: there is an enormous wall that splits Israel and Palestine, for one… but this is a resolution nevertheless. At least mothers don’t have to be afraid of losing their sons and husbands as martyrs or as soldiers.

I had so much hope when I went to Palestine in the year 2000. I thought that I could help the new change in the region. I thought that I could be part of the revolution of peace. I was just a kid in many ways, and I guess I thought I was going to be able to change the world. It didn’t quite happen that way. When my friend, Asel, died, I lost hope, and I came home, sad and aware of the new reality: of war and suffering is.

I send out a prayer today to the Palestinians still suffering under restrictions on water, walled in by a wall higher than I can imagine, still refugees waiting for a home, still waiting for the next time the helicopters fly overhead, and the missiles drop…

And I send out a prayer today to the Israelis still afraid, suffering in the aftermath of so many violent attacks on their children and in civilian places…

Let us all pray for peace in Israel and Palestine. This is a time of hope and possibility.

Take care.

So far I haven’t made any mistakes. It’s a miracle that this program actually works. I’ve been trying to use it for the last 24 hours and finally I’m starting to get the knack of it.

I’ve had a little trouble with my wrists lately because of working too much on the computer and playing too much music. When my girlfriend Kathi saw an article in the New York Times about this voice recognition software program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8, I didn’t believe that it would actually work, and I certainly thought that it would cost a whole ton of money. To the contrary, the program was fairly inexpensive, and really proves to be effective, especially since I am sitting here and typing you a blog entry, surfing the Internet, and working on my doctoral thesis, among other things without having to use my wrists, a mouse, or keyboard.

I have many things to be thankful for this week. Besides having a supportive and loving family, I have found many friendships in the last several years for which I am very grateful. My best buddy in the world is getting married next summer. I am working towards my doctorate degree writing and performing and studying music that I love.

It has been 4 years since my father and I were in a terrible car accident in Arkansas. We are very lucky to be alive today. He is back taking care of kids and I am back making music.

Thank you to everyone for all of your support over the last four years.

And yes, he should chide this new software out (I was trying to say you should try this new software out — okay, I’m still teaching the program how to understand my specific speech, but hey, it’s pretty good, you have to admit)

God bless,
Kent

I am continually amazed by the powerful lyrics and incredible music that U2 continues to produce — but even more, I am impressed by Bono’s powerful imprint on the social hierarchy of the world, and his persistence.

Before I launch into my own explanation of my love for U2’s faith-filled music — check out a few other sites, or come back up here to click on them after you’ve read further!

u2sermons blog
A site devoted to referencing articles about faith, social justice and U2.

@U2 website
A site that has listed Bono’s references to the bible in his songs — very cool… Here is a quote the site has posted, in the words of Bono, from “U2 at the End of the World”:

Maybe we just have to sort of draw our fish in the sand. It’s there for people who are interested. It shouldn’t be there for people who aren’t.

A story on beliefnet.com about Bono’s faith and social justice:

In his debt-relief efforts, Bono did not travel the typical celebrity route of writing out checks or performing benefit concerts. Instead, he was meeting incessantly with politicians, bureaucrats, and world leaders–often behind the scenes–to lobby for legislation.

In their latest album, U2 has exposed their progressive faith in a time when Christianity is thought by most to be a political tool of only the right. Along with good, hard-driving beats that are typical of U2, love songs, and a song Bono wrote for his father, these are gospel songs for a new era.

But this time is different than the time of the ‘true’ gospel song’s prevalence. The ‘mainstream’ has to be ‘tricked’ into listening to the gospel. Bono and U2 are masters of trickery, and unlike many other Christian bands — don’t have any agenda except for the message itself. They are not trying to save souls. They are trying to give the world their message. And we will hear it if we listen. I am so happy that the record has been so successful, because it means that social justice is finding its voice everywhere, through the Billboard charts, into the ears of everybody.

Here are some of my favorite words from this new album, and a few quotes from Bono about a couple of them. Please, if you haven’t heard the album, don’t be turned off by the mainstream media’s coverage of U2, by their pop teenage appeal, or by the often raucous sound of some of their tunes. Rather, be amazed by it and pray that this message they have planted will sit in the hearts of mainstream religious folk everywhere, and grow to an understanding about poverty, war and the world we live in.

From the song Miracle Drug:

God I need your help tonight
Beneath the noise
Below the din
I hear a voice
It’s whispering
In science and in medicine
I was a stranger
You took me in

From Love and Peace or Else:

Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother
You don’t have time
For a jealous lover

As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart…

Lay down
Lay down your guns
All your daughters of Zion
All your Abraham sons…

Bono, about Vertigo (from the u2.com website):

These are nervous times, they really are, you turn on the news, you think ‘Wow, who’s next? My brother, my sister, my uncle, my aunt …nervous times.’
‘It’s a dizzy feeling, vertigo, a sort of sick feeling, when you get up to the top of something and there’s only one way to go - that’s not a dictionary definition, that’s mine. And in my head I create a club, called Vertigo, with all these people in it, and the music is just not the music you want to hear, the people are not the people you want to be with. And then you just see somebody, she’s got a cross round her neck, and you kind of focus on it because you can’t focus on anything else, and you find a little, tiny, fragment of salvation there.’

From All Because of You:
“I was born a child of grace
Nothing else about the place
Everything was ugly but your beautiful face
It left me no illusion

I saw you in the curve of the moon
In the shadow cast across my room
You heard me in my tune
When I just heard confusion

From Crumbs from Your Table:

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die…

Bono, about Sometimes You Can’t Make it on your Own (from the u2.com website):

I sang ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own’ at my father’s funeral. He was a very tough, old boot of a guy, Irish, Dub, north side of Dublin, very cynical about the world and the people in it, you know, but very charming, and funny with it.
‘His whole thing was, ‘Don’t dream - to dream is to be disappointed’. That was really what I think was his advice to me. He didn’t speak it in those words, but that’s what he meant, and of course that’s really a recipe for megalomania isn’t it? I mean I was only ever interested in big ideas, and not so much dreaming but putting dreams into action, doing the things that you have in your head has become an important thing for me.

From Yahweh (the closing prayer of the album):

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist (no)
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss…

Yahweh…

This is an incredible album from a deep, intense and musical group of men that really grasp to understand the world around them, as a place of love, as a place of struggle, and a place of God. Please buy this album anywhere you can get your hands on it. And check out the websites at the top of this blog entry. You will be happy you did!

Please visit Beth Quick’s site. Her most recent blog entry is about poverty — and specifically about “Poverty IQ” — there’s a great quiz at beliefnet.com:

“Test Your Poverty I.Q.: Do you know how many children in the U.S. are living in poverty right now? Or which area of the world is home to the most hungry people? Take the quiz to see how attuned you are to the problem of poverty in the U.S. and in the world.”

I took the quiz, and was struck by different things than the ones Beth Quick talks about — and you will, as well, be struck by the issues presented.

What most struck me, though perhaps didn’t surprise me all that much, is that children in this country are in some of the worst poverty in the world. We seldom talk about poverty in this country as an issue — maybe it is something that needs the attention of every household, and every community. In every prayer, let us remember the starving children in this country — the ones whose parents work at Walmart, the ones whose parents don’t work at all, and the ones whose parents are never there.

Jeshua has a new entry in his blog about an issue very close to my heart — about children, education in this country, and the ‘No Child Left Behind’ plan intended by our president as a ’survival of the fittest’ tactic, leaving, in fact, thousands of children behind.

Jeshua’s article is at jeshuaerickson.com/blog — and the site he refers to is www.nochildleft.com