The Alternative Hymnal

I've already been following this blog for a couple weeks, and realize I should probably mention that "Peace on Earth" is the first U2 song to be added to The Alternative Hymnal. Interesting project.

It's only rock and roll, but clergy like it

The column by Cathleen Falsani about Get Up Off Your Knees is up. She makes some good comments on a few of the sermons, and is (I think) the first writer so far to mention where the title comes from. I would have said there are many more bands working today than in the 80s, rather than fewer, whose lyrics might be combed through for spiritual references, but that's no big deal.

When she asked me what my favorite sermon was, I picked the one on "Wake Up Dead Man" off the cuff; it is indeed one of my favorites, but I was also half-hoping it might generate an FCC reference. And it did!

Send Your Message to the G8

A volunteer for Jubilee USA, who coordinated almost half of the Jubilee information tables during the Elevation Tour, has written a fine report on the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on AIDS on May 18. This (plus an interest in testing the new Blogger photoblogging capacity) prompts me to upload this picture of a few members of my congregation clumped together rather haphazardly, but still proudly participating in Jubilee USA's May 2004 Monthly Action: "Send Your Message to the G-8."

The G-8 is the meeting of the leaders of the world's 8 richest nations, coming up from June 8-10 in Georgia. If you'd like to participate in this action by sending Jubilee a photo of yourself (it doesn't have to be church groups, it can be anybody, even individuals), instructions are here. You need to do it this week, though; the deadline is June 1.

An upcoming piece on the book

I had a nice phone call yesterday with Cathleen Falsani from the Sun-Times, who has done a number of fine U2-related pieces and is preparing a column on Get Up Off Your Knees.

Review in Issue 8 of Relevant Magazine

Just a quick thank you to Ben at Emerging Question for sending me a copy of Josh Hurst's brief piece on Get Up Off Your Knees in the new Relevant Magazine.

Commencement, ONE, and Senate texts

For the many people coming here looking for information on, or wanting to read transcripts of, various speeches Bono has given on themes of social justice and the fight against AIDS and poverty over the past week, here is a (revised) list of what I know to be available and where you can find it.

1. (An updated, better) text transcript of Bono's 2004 commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania where he received an honorary doctorate.
2. Low-quality Real Video of Bono giving the same speech.
3. Transcription of Bono's speech at the Philadelphia rally launching the ONE Campaign.
4. A page linking various videos from the ONE Campaign launch.
5. A report on the entire ONE Campaign launch event from U2Log.
6. Text of Bono giving testimony before the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
7. Video of Bono's Senate testimony.

Soul University at SoulFest 2004

I think it's now definite that I will be doing a U2-related seminar at SoulFest 2004. This is a multi-day New England Christian music festival at Loon Mountain, from July 29 - August 1. For you local New England readers who prefer to call a thing what it used to be called before "they" went and "changed it," you may know this event as the Inside Out Soul Festival. ;-)

I had heard Over The Rhine were coming but they don't seem to be on the list, nor is it mentioned on the OTR website. However, there's an impressive artist lineup overall, and you get to praise God while gaping at mountaintops, so, hey, sounds pretty good to me. (I have been once before, and I have a really good memory of an early morning gathering where there were lots of drums and we sang songs from that incredible CD Enter the Worship Circle.)

Doctorate at Penn Commencement

So if you'd like to hear Bono become an Honorary Doctor of Laws at the University of Pennsylania's commencement today, have at it. While you're listening, why not sign the ONE Campaign petition?

The ONE Campaign

I didn't see in any of the advance coverage of today's rally and worship service in Philadelphia the information that it was actually a launch of a broader-based anti-AIDS and anti-poverty initiative called the ONE Campaign. Apparently so. The NBA is involved, and their site has a press release about the event that gives details. You can see one listing of the partner groups (which include World Vision and Bread for the World) here. Yeah, I know this has nothing to do with the book, but it's important, isn't it?

Bill Hybels of Willow Creek visits U2 in Dublin

If you were one of the most famous Christian megachurch pastors in the USA, you would have already heard part of the new U2 album by now. Bill Hybels writes in his current e-news for parishioners at Willow Creek that he visited the band in the studio in Dublin recently after speaking at the "Christianity Engaging" conference which launched something called the "Evangelical Alliance Ireland" on May 8. (You can hear a tiny snippet of one of his presentations here [Quick Time])

You can read the entire email on the @U2 forum. Highlight:

Just before we left Dublin to come home, we had the opportunity to visit with Bono again. The conversation was mostly about Aids and how we can all do more to rid the world of this savage disease. But this time we met at his recording studio on a shipping canal in a remote part of Dublin. We had the opportunity to get to know the other members of U2. Great guys! They played us several cuts from their upcoming CD ...could be a very cool record, but then what do I know about rock and roll? It was touching however to have the whole group request a time of prayer for them, their families and the CD project. They made a verbal commitment to visit us at Willow when they do Chicago on their upcoming tour.

For those of you readers who aren't up on evangelical celebrity pastors, Bill Hybels should be familiar as one of the Christian leaders with whom Bono met on the Heart of America tour. (Incidentally, a documentary on Heart of America has just come out.) Hybels was then quoted in Christianity Today as saying "After a two-hour private meeting in my office, I came away convinced that Bono's faith is genuine, his vision to relieve the tragic suffering in Africa is God-honoring, and his prophetic challenge to the U.S. church must be taken seriously." Bono has returned the favor by spreading around Hybels' advice on living your faith, though often uncredited: "Don't ask God to bless what you're doing. Find out what God's doing; it's already blessed."

Hybels is also a prolific author, and his wife Lynne recently visited Africa in connection with the congregation's commitment to fight AIDS there.

World Vision Rally for the World's Poor Worship Service - Philadelphia Cathedral

It turns out Sunday's DATA rally on Independence Mall will conclude with a 4:00 Worship Service, featuring Jars of Clay, at the Philadelphia (Episcopal) Cathedral. (To paraphrase 2 Samuel 14:19, is not the hand of a Get Up Off Your Knees contributor with them in this? ...I'm guessing probably.) There is a PDF flyer available at the Cathedral's site. Michael W. Smith will also participate.

AIDS funding in Canada, postscript

I mentioned yesterday my annoyance at press who weren't keeping tabs well on the AIDS in Africa issue? Well, someone who really hasn't been keeping tabs, apparently, is the New York Times, where an uncredited article about Canada's increased AIDS pledge today hilariously identifies the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (a worldwide public sector-private sector healthcare financing partnership originally envisioned at the Okinawa G8 Summit in July 2000) as Bono's own personal fund.

AIDS funding in Canada

There is quite a lot of video and text coverage at the CTV site of Bono in Canada today, speaking at the "HIV-AIDS and Education Symposium" in Ottawa, doing a press conference with Paul Martin. (A RealAudio version of the speech is here for those of you with slow connections.) Canada has announced $100 million in new AIDS funding, doubled its contribution to the WHO's Global Fund, and is working on passing generic drugs legislation. Bono's full of praise, but also relentlessly pushes for the goal of Canada (and all the other UN member states, of course) to fulfill the commitment to give 0.7% of its GNP in official development assistance (ODA, if you're Googling it). (And how are we all doing at keeping our pledge? Check it out at the UN.) If you're not familiar with the Millennium Development Goals in general, by the way, there is a website for them too.

There are, of course, lots of critics of all this, and not only those Canadians who think Martin's using Bono to get votes. I do sympathize, in a sense, with one group -- the U2 fans who want their favorite frontman to go back to the studio and finish the new album. (But where I come from, you don't take the kind of sense of calling which Bono more and more obviously has about his advocacy work lightly. I recognize what I see happening there, and in the face of it can only set aside my own eagerness to hear their new material.) The other group, who assume that this is one more case of a bleeding-heart celebrity picking some hip cause and brainlessly mouthing generalizations about it when convenient, baffles me. I can only assume they've neither kept tabs on the huge sacrifices of time and money behind this campaign, nor actually listened to the material.

blog one another: The Monster at Abu Ghraib

Another reflection on the U2 song "Peace on Earth" and Iraq, this one from a site that's new to me, blog one another. Of course, for the Christian perspective, "the monster" is located in every country and on every "side"; now there is also the horrific video of Nick Berg....

{Update: waving or drowning chimes in, too. Thanks to Jon for letting me know.)

Their lives are bigger than any big idea

Mike Kinman, a contributor to Get Up Off Your Knees, blogs this week about the information on prisoner abuse coming out of Iraq, dialoguing in his post with the U2 song "Peace on Earth."

Relevant Magazine

The May issue (#8) of Relevant magazine has a Get Up Off Your Knees review, but the text is not available online.

In other news, I'm trying to be optimistic about this new Blogger interface... So far, it makes me feel like I'm alone with my current post on a desert island.

Speaking of TASO.... another bit of DATA/TASO news

Philadelphia Rally to Fight Global Aids & Poverty

What: A rally consisting of concerned Americans and a diverse coalition of partner groups committed to fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa and around the world.
When: 1:30 p.m. Sunday May 16th
Where: Independence Mall, 5th and Market Streets, Philadelphia PA (Rain location: The Trocadero, 1003 Arch Street)
Who: Speakers include DATA co-founder Bono, NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, Grammy award winning gospel artist Michael W. Smith, Richard Stearns (World Vision), Ugandan Nurse Agnes Nyamayarwo, and David Beckmann (Bread for the World).

Tickets are available at DATA's site. The next day, Bono will be the Commencement speaker at Penn, and receive an honorary doctorate (along with, wait for it: Jaroslav Pelikan.)

"Verbal Warnings Helped Curb AIDS in Uganda"

NPR's Morning Edition recently ran a story on AIDS in Uganda and how they reduced the infection rate from 30% in 1990 to just 5% in 2003. Featured in the story was Agnes Nyamayarwo, an HIV-positive nurse at this book's charity, TASO. You can listen to the NPR story (Real Audio). More on Agnes Nyamayarwo at the DATA site.

Google update

Recently several bloggers (among them both American Andrew and Kiwi Andrew) have posted unusual search terms that led people to their site. Here are some of mine:

email contact of poetry farmers in colombia
no-religious wedding sermon
movie clips preaching unity
Teresa Jennings get up song
online churches pastors prophets in bahrain