From Irish Independent: Quit Moaning About Bono, Thank Him!

No doubt the usual cranks and begrudgers will be bitching about Bono
over the Christmas. "Man of the Year?" the taxi-drivers will say,
"Time fecking magazine? I'll give him Man of the Year. And Time
magazine. It's far from it he was reared."

It's easy to have a pop at Bono. It's practically an instinctive
reaction at this stage. "Oh, he might fool that crowd of Yanks at Time
magazine and that George Bush fella, but he can't fool us. We knew him
when he hadn't an arse in his trousers."

Frankly, that kind of thing reflects more on the people who say it
than it does on Bono. Because, if you think about it, Bono hasn't
actually done anything wrong. And it's not as if you could disagree
with most of his causes. He's often compared to Jesus, in a negative
kind of smart-arsey way. But, in fact, he is a bit of a Jesus - though
in a good way.

Whatever your personal opinions about Jesus, it'd be hard to disagree
with most of his messages: Don't kill people and be nice to the poor
and so on. And Bono is pretty much the same. The message is inherently
sound: Cure Aids, be nice to black people and eliminate poverty. You
can't fault that kind of thing.

And in fairness, his heart seems to be in the right place. There are
people who claim that he does it all as a big PR thing to sell even
more records, but that doesn't really stack up. If anything, the
preaching is probably putting people off the records.

But for the other members of the band it has a musical benefit. Larry
Mullen broke ranks recently to say it was handy when Bono headed off
out of the studio and let them get on with theirwork. He'd go off and
meet George Bush or whatever and they'd get on with making the album,
and when it was all nearly ready he would come back in and do his
singing thing.

And it's not easy being some class of a living saint. In fact, if you
listen to Bono properly he actually spends a lot of time trying to
tell us that he's not a saint. In fact, he goes to great lengths to
try and convince us that's he's only a human being - and a flawed one
at that,

a bit like the other Christ. He's always telling us what an eejit he
is and how he lets people down and how he goes on the piss and doesn't
have time for his friends and how he's insecure and hugely egomaniacal.

But still people think he goes around thinking he's a saint. But he
doesn't. People are just projecting.

And the fact of the matter is that the rest of us haven't really got time to
think about world peace and curing Aids and poverty and the environment
and all that other stuff. Most of us have jobs and just need to try and look
after our own little corner of the world.

And we could easily forget that all those big problems exist and we
could sleepwalk our way into a situation where it all falls apart for
future generations.

But Bono has the time and the money to be thinking about it all and
doing something about it. And it kind of takes the pressure off us a
bit. He's kind of like our nagging conscience. And of course he's the
nagging conscience of the politicians as well. If he wasn't bugging
them and embarrassing them they'd probably happily enough ignore the
whole saving-the-world business as well.

The other thing to bear in mind is that he doesn't have to do all this
stuff. He could happily sit around on his arse out in Florida, make
one album every five years and be loaded.

But he's taken this job on himself. And what a job it is. He could
have taken on something simple, like paying for an orphanage or a
school or something. Instead, he decided to try and solve the
insoluble, to do a job that is as wide as it is deep, a job that often
seems to have no tangible results, and a job that he gets the complete
piss taken out of himself for doing. It's not only impossible, it's
thankless.

So, for the New Year, we should thank him. We should start ignoring
the knee-jerk reaction to seeing him mugging around the world with the
Nelson Mandelas and the George Bushes and all that. We should remind
ourselves that he is doing a good thing.

And, not to be cliched about it, but he really is a great ambassador
for this country. He'd actually make you proud to be Irish.

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I would totally agree with Bono. Ever since I have had a brush it the temptation of suicide, I turned my life around and focused on what Jesus Christ's real message was. And that is what Bono is trying so hard to teach to the rest of the world. It's a hard and very depressing job to comit yourself to, and it really, in all respects, shouldn't be that hard. But people have envelopeped themselves in hatred, discrimination, segrigation, and oppresion that Christ's message of loving all has faded from most peoples mindsets.

Regretibly, one of the largest groups of people that have forgot that message are the 'followers' of Jesus that maintain that Homosexuals are the work of Lucifer, there is no other message other than hate, most if not all science is evil, and there is no other religion that can lead you to salvation other that theirs.

Bono's efforts are not that hard to meet, and when they are seen as helpful by every person in the world, it will move Bono to something new that has moved in to 'fill the vacuum'. And I would still support his causes. I truely thank him for all that he has done.

Did we miss the part where the real Jesus lived with and lived like the poor?
He taught by example, not by hypocritically lecturing.

When Bono gives up his millions and lives like a normal person, no $1,000 sunglasses, not mansions, MAYBE then he can guilt trip me into giving to whatever charity he's shilling for.
Until then, he doesn't get to tell me how great he is.

THIS is the problem I have with him and certainly with the likening him to Jesus.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen:

I know Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ is a friend of mine. Bono, you're no Jesus Christ.

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"What have YOU personally done lately for people that have nothing?"

I sponsor an orphanage in Zimbabwe and have recently provided 75 computers for the school there.
I am also directly responsible for the livelyhood of over 100 Zimbabweans through my business.

Anything else you'd like to know?

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Sweetie, I never said he said he was Jesus and I don't hate him. Please don't think that. I don't hate anyone. My feelings for Robert Mugabe come close, but I don't hate.

What bugs me about him is the likening to Jesus that others do, when he's far, FAR from it. I am offended by this. To say that a singer in a rock band who gives a small portion of his money to charity and tries to send a message of charity (which I don't fault him for) is like Jesus Christ is not only ludicrous, it's offensive. To even HINT that there is a comparison between the sacrifices Christ made to the decided LACK of sacrifice of Bono is... well, it's just wrong.
Add to that, I find him to be arrogant and a little rude. S'just me.

As for posting here... my apologies. I thought it was a discussion forum. My mistake. I inadvertantly wandered in to a different thing. I didn't know this was only for blind adulation.

My bad. I'll stop posting here.