more from the King Center's Salute to Greatness Awards dinner

Here's a little quiz for all of you preachers out there.

Let's say it's MLK weekend, and you want to quote Dr. King. Let's say you want to tie in your MLK theme with the AIDS in Africa crisis, specifically with the issue of poor availability of antiretroviral drugs. Clearly you need something more fresh and creative than just saying "If King were alive today he would have been concerned about this." (zzzz) What Bible text do you use to illuminate the connection between the two?

{tick, tock...}

Got one?
OK...

Was it this good?:
"Dr. King used to like to tell the story of the prophet Jeremiah," Bono began. "Jeremiah, he said, looked out and saw evil people often profiting, and the good and righteous people often suffering. Jeremiah wondered at the injustices in life and asked, 'Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?' And Dr. King went on 'Our slave forefathers came along. They too knew about the injustices in life. But they did an amazing thing. They took Jeremiah�s question mark and straightened it into an exclamation point and in one of their spirituals they could sing, There IS a balm in Gilead that makes the wounded whole. There IS a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.' "

�Sometimes he says it, sometimes he sings it. It�s an important tune,� Bono continued. �Today, four decades on, at an AIDS clinic in Zambia or Uganda or Ethiopia, there is a dying woman who is asking her God the same question. �Is there a balm in Gilead?� she asks. Well, God hears her, but do we? Because we too know the answer. The answer is NO. There is no balm in Gilead. There is no balm in Gilead. The balm is here. We�ve got to get it to Gilead. We�ve got the medicine and the money and the same love for justice that guided Dr. King. If we apply these things�all of them�and we begin to be worthy of his example, and take another step in our long journey of equality, we�re going to get there.�

More from Bono's speech at U2log.