Monday, April 07, 2008

TONY BLAIR ON FAITH AND MORALITY

http://tonyblairoffice.org/2008/04/tony-blair-announces-faith-fou.html

Tony Blair has set up a special foundation for inter-faith cooperation which was launched in London recently.

This is an excellent speech showing the power of faith in maintaining morality and ethics in society and the urgency of multi-faith cooperation in dealing with local and global issues. The ideas are not necessarily new, but they have a new impact as they come from an eloquent ambassador who has an international profile. It deals with a lot of the common misunderstandings and misrepresentation of faith and shows how there are extremists in all traditions, even secular ones and we should all restrain such extremism.

The role of media in faith is not extensively discussed, but this is critical especially in modern Britain. By and large, the media is very suspicious of faith and does not give it credit for the moral and social impact of faith communities. This is highly regrettable and needs to be addressed. Also being a Christian, Mr. Blair has feigned away from the monotheism of Christianity which is a such a serious problem. Multi-faith cooperation needs to address this issue - not all faiths believe that theirs is the only true faith. The Buddhists, Jains and Hindus stand out prominently in this area and are not given the credit they deserve. Also he does not really engage the subject of genuine inter-faith dialogue where we actually debate and discuss different faith perspectives and go beyond the politeness of respect. This is a real problem of modern society and we have now the opportunity to truly evolve in faith.

Do you agree? Please comment.

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