Blair believes faith will lead the way

AT last, the Gospel according to Tony Blair. As prime minister he permitted his spokesman to declare: "we don't do God", now, as a retired elder statesman he decided he does and not only that but religious faith is now central to solving the world's problems.

After a decade in power in which he tried to hide his religious light under a bushel, Mr Blair, finally allowed his radiance to illuminate the audience packed into Westminster Cathedral on Thursday night, informing them that religion had to be rescued from extremism and that in Britain elected politicians who are publicly religious "may be considered weird".

Mr Blair, who decided to wait until after he had left office to convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism, spoke from the cathedral's pulpit where he announced details of his Faith Foundation, which will be launched later this year to "awaken the world's conscience" and unite religions to eradicate poverty and hunger.

While contending with the low din as anti-war protestors outside blew whistles, banged drums and rattled pans, Mr Blair, in his first major speech since leaving office last summer, said: "One of the oddest questions I get asked in interviews, and I get asked a lot of odd questions, is: is faith important to your politics? It's like asking someone whether their health is important to them or their family. If you are someone 'of faith' it is the focal point of belief in your life. There is no conceivable way that it wouldn't affect your politics."

Prior to his election as Prime Minister, Mr Blair made political capital of his faith, declaring "Jesus was a moderniser" and hinting that Conservatism was incompatible with Christianity. Yet once in office he grew more cautious, allowing Alastair Campbell, his official spokesman to tell a journalist who was quizzing the Prime Minister on his faith: "we don't do God". This, however, did not prevent Mr Blair from later being asked by Jeremy Paxman if he and George W. Bush prayed together, who was then tetchily assured that they did not.

During his speech Mr Blair said that in Britain and Europe people made suppositions about politicians who practice faith that are unhelpful such as that they are "weird", wish to impose their faith on others and "finally – and worst of all – that you are somehow messianically trying to co-opt God to bestow a divine legitimacy on your politics."

During his term as prime minister Mr Blair attended mass each week but stopped receiving communion, until his conversion, after the late Basil Hume wrote to inform him that, as an Anglican, it was not permitted. Mr Blair agreed but responded by asking the cardinal what Jesus would think of the arrangement.

At the moment Mr Blair is employed as an international envoy to the Middle East, yet his future ambition is to draw Christianity, Judaism and Islam closer together. Later this year he will also deliver a series of lectures at Yale University in America on faith and globalisation, though he insisted that he was "not a religious leader" and made "no claims to moral superiority".

Mr Blair went on to tell the 1,600-strong crowd that faith needed to be rescued from extremism, such as "extremism in the name of Islam through the activities of al Qaida and others". He said: "Either positively (religion) will encourage peaceful co-existence by people of faith coming together in respect, understanding and tolerance, retaining their distinctive identity but living happily with those who do not share that identity. Or it will work against such co-existence by defining people by difference, those of one faith in opposition to others of a different faith. In this context, inter-faith action and encounter are vital. They symbolise peaceful co-existence.

He said he had a "strong sense of mission" about the Tony Blair Faith Foundation that will tackle the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, providing universal primary education and combating HIV and Aids. Mr Blair said: " The foundation will bring together Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists to promote faith as a relevant and positive force for good."

Mr Blair took several questions from the audience, submitted in advance in writing.

Asked if he would have done anything differently in office he said: "There is nothing I look back on now and say that as a result of my religious journey I would have done things very differently, but that is expressly not to say that I got everything right."

What they say...

Power spells danger

The Right Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews in the Scottish Episcopal Church: "Tony Blair is right about a number of things. Religion is not a spent force. It can be a profound force for good. Its values should affect all of life. But there is danger – the very power of religion means that it can be appropriated and distorted by extreme political movements. Inevitably we wonder what part faith played in Tony Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq."

Plight of Palestinians

BASHIR Maan, convener of the Muslim Council of Scotland, and author of the Thistle and the Crescent said: "For once I agree with Tony Blair, religion is very important. I think a man without faith is like a man without a rudder in a stormy sea and, of course, the three Abrahamic faiths should work closely together. But Tony Blair must realise that the biggest thing that keeps them apart is the plight of the Palestinians and he has to use what power he has to make a difference."

We had right to know

Hannnah Simpson, chief executive of the British Humanist Society: "I think its dishonest of him to focus on faith when out of office, because it does influence his decisions and the electorate had a right to know this and how it influenced his decisions. We would also have objections to his inter-faith dialogue, because politicians have a feeling that if they are talking to people of faith they are talking to all the public, but only 10 per cent of people attend faith services."

Faith offers models

The Right Rev Sheilagh Kesting, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland: "Faith offers models of the world as created, sustained, renewed and deeply loved. It cannot help but influence the public debating and private conscience of people of faith whose vocation lies in government. What artificial mental contortions would be needed if people like Tony Blair tried to work in a spiritual or moral vacuum?"

'He was un-Christian'

Norman Kember became known when, as a senior volunteer of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraq, he was taken hostage with three other CPT members, leading to a widely publicised crisis. "What happened to me was a minor blip in my life compared to the continuing plight of Iraq and the way ordinary Iraqi citizens have suffered so much. I feel it is partly Mr Blair's fault and I don't like the idea of him talking in a church. I feel what he did was un-Christian."

Time to be honest

Dr Evan Harris, Lib Dem MP who campaigns for separation of church and state, said: "Politicians themselves have every right to have strong religious views and to have their values and policies shaped by them, but they ought to honest about them and not make secret deals for an expansion in faith-run state schools or guarantee bishops everlasting seats in an otherwise democratic reformed House of Lords while claiming that they "don't do God".