What counts is faith in action, says Tony Blair

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 18 February 2010 12:41

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged faith groups to come together in a bid to improve international development.

Speaking in London at a recent event, he said the role of faiths as galvanisers for justice and aid should not be underestimated.

Having seen faith in action himself, he understood its value more now than he had done during his years as PM, he admitted. “When I began the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, I had a very clear concept about how it should work. I did not want it to focus on religious doctrine or on trying to narrow theological differences between faiths.

When I began the Tony Blair Foundation, I had a very clear concept about how it should work. I did not want it to focus on religious doctrine; or on trying to narrow theological differences between faiths. I wanted it to focus on action; on specifically what faith could do in action.

Therefore, we have university and schools programmes that link up students across the world, in order to provide real life interaction between people of different faiths; not just learning about each other but learning with each other”.

Faithaction believes this statement demonstrates a huge difference in emphasis from most interfaith programmes, which are about bringing religious professionals together to talk.

This is about bringing religious practitioners together to do things. Blair understands that religion isn’t applied theology; it is action that matters.

Blair rightly observed that the influence of faith, far from dying, may well be growing. The faith world is not going to disappear. Faith matters. It matters, in fact, whether you are religious or not. It matters because it inspires people to act!

His statements are timely. They come at a time when government is taking an increasing interest in the development of faith communities, who increasingly have a valuable role to play, alongside major development organisations, in working to achieve the millennium development goals.

So faith groups should take greater pride in their work in poorer countries. It is true that every faith community has issues it must confront and overcome. It is also true that in recent years most mainstream religious groups have been prey to the influence of extreme groups. Some of the worst actions have been committed by people of faith, but some of the best too.

We live in a global community. The competition for scarce resources, water, and oil will be intense by the middle of the century. Our interdependence, whether at the level of climate change or global finance, is manifest. The daunting task of bringing people out of dire poverty, feeding the millions who go to bed hungry every day, faces religious and secular communities alike. We need the inter-religious and the inter-cultural dialogue that turns neighbours into friends able to work together to confront the threats to our common security.