|
Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, recently unveiled The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, dedicated to proving that collaboration among those of different religious faiths can help address some of the world’s most difficult problems. Time reporter, Michael Elliott, recently interviewed Blair on his foundation. Here is a summary of that interview: “In two long conversations with Blair recently, I explored his conviction that religion matters—that it shapes what people believe and how they behave, that it is vital to understanding our world, that it can be used to improve the lot of humankind. But if not engaged seriously, Blair thinks, faith can be used to induce ignorance, fear and a withdrawal of communities into mutually antagonistic spheres at just the time that globalization is breaking down barriers between people and nations.” Blair sees his goal to rescue faith from the twin challenges of irrelevance—the idea that religion is no more than an interesting aspect of history—and extremism. Correctly, Blair believes that religion is a very important force in people’s lives.
Personally, Tony Blair is a deeply religious man. Elliott reports that, after the 1996 tragedy in Scotland where a gunman killed 16 children, Blair responded to queries about the goodness of God by saying, “Just because man is bad, it does not mean God is not good.” Blair’s faith goes back at least to his days as a student at Oxford, where, amidst the partying and agnosticism, there was Tony Blair and his stand as a man of faith. Further he married Cherie Booth, a devout Catholic. She recently wrote of her husband, “Religion was more important to him than anyone I had ever met outside the priesthood.” She writes that she and her husband have spent countless hours talking about God “and what we are here for. I don’t think it would be too strong to say it was this that brought us together.” Blair believes deeply that in the rich world of the 21st century, “without spiritual values, there is an emptiness that cannot be filled by material goods and wealth.” The world, he believes, would be a better place if people harnessed their talents together in aid of the common good. Faith is the basis for human rights and dignity, “an inalienable principle, rising above relativism and expediency.” Because Britain is still fundamentally Protestant, his tendency toward Catholicism prevented him from acting on that tendency. But after he finished as Prime Minister, he converted to the Catholic Church. [Incidentally, there are now more Catholic than Anglican churchgoers in Britain for the first time since the Reformation.]
For Blair, faith “can be a civilizing force in globalization.” According to Elliott, his first goal is malaria, which kills around 850,000 children annually, which could be prevented by bed netting to protect against mosquitoes. Blair writes that if “you got churches and mosques and those of the Jewish faith working together to provide the bed nets that are necessary to eliminate malaria, what a fantastic thing that would be. That would show faith in action, it would show the importance of cooperation between faiths, and it would show what faith can do for progress.” Blair will bring a new dynamism and energy to a movement of interfaith dialogue and cooperation.
For Tony Blair, faith is “not an historical relic but a guide for humanity on its path to the future. A faithless world is not one in which we want ourselves and our children to live.” Faith has been historically a source of both reform and idealism—witness the fight against slavery, apartheid and genocide; all of which cannot be understood apart from personal faith.
A concluding thought: Tony Blair has always been a man that I admire. His personal faith is compelling and, I believe, genuine. He is driven by his faith and it alone explains some of the choices he has made. However, his faith reflects the pluralism of the Postmodern world—a pluralism that eschews doctrine and theological distinctives. His Christianity is one that is social. That is not wrong per se, but if that is all it is, it is doubtful it will be the glue to bring the various faiths together. His personal faith and now the work of his Foundation will no doubt bring good to the world. Lives no doubt will be saved as a result. But the human condition is not only framed by the physical needs of humanity. The fundamental problem of the human condition is not physical, economic or social; it is spiritual. Only Jesus Christ can ultimately solve that problem. Tony Blair apparently has faith personally in Jesus Christ. But he cannot solve the fundamental problem of the human race alone by dealing with social problems, even like malaria. As Christians we must work to solve challenges like malaria—but it cannot end there. Those who are saved from malaria must now hear of the ultimate Savior from sin—Jesus!
See Michael Gerson’s editorial on Blair’s faith in the Washington Post (4 June 2008) and Michael Elliott’s piece in Time (9 June 2008), pp. 33-36.
|
