Benefit for world hunger: Rick Steves and U2 lyrics

Published 11:07 pm Sunday, November 18, 2007

LYNNWOOD — This concert was about the message behind the music.

Three local churches sang, recited and listened to the songs and words of U2 on Sunday evening to raise money for charities that the band supports. They also wanted it to be painful for the more than 300 people to not take action.

“We’re focusing on millennial goals through the G8 summit,” said Jen Kuntz, intern pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, host of the ceremony.

All the proceeds will go to the United Nation’s eight goals, including ending extreme hunger, ensuring all children finish primary school, eliminating gender inequality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and helping Third World countries build their economies.

“Hopefully this service is going to make people uncomfortable — maybe they’ll say I can’t just sit here and not do anything,” said Paula Best of Edmonds. She was standing in the reception area with her week-old daughter Adia. Inside, more than 300 people listened to a cover band sing the U2 song “Pride (In the Name of Love).” The song provided the theme for the evening.

Edmonds-based travel writer Rick Steves was also looking to make his audience do something about the world problems he sees as a world traveler.

“(Around the world) 225,000 kids die a week hungry,” Steves said. “It’s not even worth a headline.”

For Best, the proceedings were a call to action.

“The song ‘In the Name of Love’ talks about ‘what is love?’ For me, it means: Figure out what it takes to take action.”

She said one thing she will do is consume less resources and be friendlier to the environment.

“I think it starts with how I care for myself,” Best said. “If I do that, I can love others.”

The crowd stood with the cover band played the U2 hit, and many people sang along.

“I’m just so thrilled that we’ve had such a good turnout,” Kuntz said. “I think people are really excited to learn about what’s going on in the world. They need to realize that the little things that they do make a large impact.”

A donation basket was passed through the room. The proceeds will be sent to the African Medical Research Foundation, where they will be spent in the field helping to meet the United Nations goals, Kuntz said.

The ceremony was held at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood and sponsored in part by the Church of the Beloved and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.

Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.