A Faith-based Prime Minister

Joseph Loconte

Last week former British Prime Minister Tony Blair began his stint as a Yale professor. His course, “Faith and Globalization,” grows out of his effort since leaving political office to assert a constructive role for religious belief in democratic society. Earlier this year, Blair launched a new organization devoted to this purpose, the London-based Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Here’s what Blair had to say at a Westminster Cathedral event announcing his new venture:

“The Foundation will expressly not be about chucking faith into a doctrinal melting pot. It is not about losing our own distinctive faith. It is about learning about, living and working with others of a different faith . . . For religion to be a positive force for good, it must be rescued not simply from extremism—faith as a means of exclusion—but also from irrelevance: an interesting part of our history but not of our future. Too many people see religious faith as represented in stark dogmatism and empty ritualism. Faith is reduced to a system of strange convictions and actions that, to some, can appear far removed from the necessities and anxieties of ordinary life. It is this face that gives militant secularism an easy target. It mocks certain of the practices and traditions of organized religion which they define as ‘faith.’”

After stepping down as prime minister, Blair announced that he had converted to Catholicism. Nevertheless, his European sensitivities to religion were on full display at his Westminster speech: Faith that appears disconnected from real life cannot, and should not earn widespread respect (a painful and ongoing lesson for the Church of England, to be sure). Blair's foundation is hosting a conference in Los Angeles this week aimed at addressing this problem. A panel discussion, including the ex-prime minister, will engage religious leaders on the topic of how faith communities can help accomplish the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations to reduce global poverty.

Though the U.N.’s objectives are noble enough, the U.N.’s typical approaches to poverty reduction—the unaccountable distribution of top-down financial assistance, for example—raise big questions about how Blair expects religious organizations to be involved with the effort. Active faith is one thing; blind faith in the United Nations to tackle the problem of poverty sensibly, however, is something else.

Fodder, Faiths and Worldviews, Public Square, Joseph Loconte, Mon 29 Sep 2008