Homily from National Prayer Breakfast

As you're by now no doubt aware, I am a Minnesotan. Our senior (and Republican) Senator, Norm Coleman, was this year the first Jew ever to chair the National Prayer Breakfast. I don't know what the decisionmaking process is, but somehow Bono ended up giving the homily.

You can find the text anywhere, including in this week's Wesley Journal. If you want to watch it, here's the link to the CNN streaming video.

The man is concerned with AIDS in specific, and Africa more broadly. He proposes an "additional 1% of the federal budget being tithed to the poor." That, of course, would bring our total foreign aid to 1.014% of the budget--a drastic increase. I think other ways to act in the same spirit include debt relief for certain nations and a reduction in domestic agricultural subsidies.

In between he talks about how important the poor are to God (see Isaiah, Luke, and Jim Wallis' talking points), how Americans are good at charity but how we suck at justice.

It's good and thoughtful, maybe a bit too detailed for a homily, but if it got those issues on the agenda, which are also near and dear to my own heart, which were emphasized again by Kristen Foley's wonderful sermon this past Wednesday at the Of Sacred Worth chapel service, and which were brought up in this community last year by Rev. Tony Campolo and Rev. Donald Messer, then I am convinced God's work was done.