c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Bush and rock star Bono, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday (Feb. 2), preached messages promoting faith-based activism on behalf of the world’s poor.

Bono, a musician with the Irish band U2, has drawn attention in recent years to those afflicted by AIDS and poverty in Africa. He said focus on the world’s poor is biblically based.

“God is in the slums and the cardboard boxes where the poor play house,” Bono said. “God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. … It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times.”

Bush reiterated his often-stated belief that this is a nation of prayer and said the response to Hurricane Katrina illustrates how Americans act out their faith by helping the needy, at home and abroad.

“After Katrina, volunteers from churches and mosques and synagogues and other faith-based and community groups opened up their hearts and their homes to the displaced,” the president said. “We live up to God’s calling when we provide help for HIV/AIDS victims on the continent of Africa and around the world.”

At one point, Bush turned to the rock superstar and said, “Bono, the true strength of this country is not in our military might or in the size of our wallet. It is in the hearts and souls of the American people.”

Bush’s words prompted a standing ovation.

The 54th National Prayer Breakfast brought together U.S. politicians and heads of state from other countries. The bipartisan event, which receives no government funding, is an annual rite in the nation’s capital when, for a few hours, political rhetoric takes a back seat to prayer and the reading of Scripture.

The prayer breakfast is organized by the Fellowship Foundation, a low-profile group that promotes Christian evangelism. But this year’s breakfast had more of an interfaith flavor than years past. It was co-chaired by a Jewish member of the Senate, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., a departure from past breakfasts that have had Christian co-chairs. In addition, King Abdullah II of Jordan, a Muslim head of state, said a prayer.

More than 3,000 people, packed in two ballrooms of a Hilton hotel, dined on apple-stuffed pancakes and scrambled eggs and heard speeches from Republicans and Democrats.

Many speakers affirmed bipartisanship and interfaith relations as they prayed for national and world leaders.

“In our country, we recognize our fellow citizens are free to profess any faith they choose, or no faith at all,” Bush said. “You’re equally American if you’re a Hebrew, a Jew, or a Christian or a Muslim. You’re equally American if you choose not to have faith.”

King Abdullah ended the breakfast with his prayer, for the Middle East.

He prayed “that not one more family will lose a loved one to war and bitterness and that together, Muslim, Jew and Christian, we can create a new future for the Holy Land, a future of hope, a future of promise, a future of peace.”

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