Tony Blair’s misguided ‘Faith Foundation’

Posted on May 29th, 2008 by bryan.
Categories: General.

Former PM, Tony Blair, has promised ‘to spend the rest of [his] life’ uniting the world’s religions. He is launching tomorrow a ‘Faith Foundation’ that will attempt to bring religions together to tackle global issues such as the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals, ranging from eradicating extreme poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability.

However, one of its priorities will be to fight the spread of malaria. Mr Blair said: ‘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’. But why is this a religious / faith issue? Surely it would be even more ‘fantastic’ to get ALL people working together, regardless of and without reference to their religion / faith. By all means, get the faiths together to find a way to stop them from killing / harassing / insulting each other, but please don’t give them a formal role in combating health issues - we have already seen what can happen when religious organisations get involved in fighting HIV / AIDS!

Mr Blair’s intentions are very commendable. However, if he wants to make a real difference to the lives of ALL people, he should avoid using religion as a way to address life and death issues that impact severely on people of all and no faiths. Even better, he should concentrate on making his millions as a consultant, peace envoy and author.

BBC News - Blair ‘to devote life to faith’

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