Tony Blair has just embarked upon a project to further the cause of global governance, and he is intending to use religion as the vehicle. Called the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, its purpose is to create momentum for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.
His role is not unlike that of John Foster Dulles nearly a century ago, who worked to create “‘an international ethos [through the Church] which would be essential as any foundation for any lasting international political structure.'” Commenting on this, historian Dr. Martin Erdmann wrote, “The first responsibility of the Church would thus be to inform the general public about international affairs.” He explained how “the churches would need to unite their forces to transform the present sovereignty system into a world order system wherever possible.” (Building the Kingdom of God on Earth [Wipf & Stock, 2005], p. 113)
The following post is from http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/spirituality/global/blair-globalism.htm. Used with permission.
2. Will Blair work with compromising leaders such as Rick Warren, who has already been pulling churches and nations into the Communitarian web?
3. How many churches will have the discernment needed to resist this global process and refuse to trade God’s unchanging Truth for the world’s changing and deceptive ideals?
“The Tony Blair Faith Foundation will organise a global campaign to mobilise young people, across religious divides, to work together towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). … Tony Blair said that he is passionate about the importance of faith in the modern world and highlight the need for people of faith to reach out to one another. The foundation… will promote understanding between the major faiths, and increase understanding of the role of faith in the modern world. The foundation will work with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. “The foundation is inspired by the former Prime Minister’s belief that faith can be a progressive force, advancing humanity and ending global poverty. The Foundation will bring people of faith together to deliver the Millennium Development Goals. Tony Blair believes that the capacity of faith organisations to do good is immense – and their reach is unparalleled.”
“The issue of religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st Century as political ideology was to the 20th Century. In an era of globalisation, there is nothing more important than getting people of different faiths and therefore cultures to understand each other better and live in peace and mutual respect; and to give faith itself its proper place in the future.”
“The purpose of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is to promote respect, friendship and understanding between the major religious faiths; and to make the case for faith itself as relevant, positive and a force for good in the modern world.”
“Yale President Richard C. Levin said: “‘As the world continues to become increasingly inter-dependent, it is essential that we explore how religious values can be channelled toward reconciliation rather than polarisation. Mr Blair has demonstrated outstanding leadership in these areas.’… “Blair, who served as British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has been mentioned as a possible president of the European Union and earlier in 2008 it was announced Blair would become a part-time advisor to the US-based bank JPMorganChase….Yale has strong ties to US political leaders: both President George W. Bush and his father, former president George H. W. Bush, were Yale undergraduates.”
Tony Blair quotes:
- “…religious faith, crucial to so many people’s culture and identity, can play a positive or a negative role. Either positively it 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.
- “…religious faith…has a major part to play in shaping the values which guide the modern world, and can and should be a force for progress. But it has to be rescued on the one hand from the extremist and exclusionary tendency within religion today….
- “Faith as a means of exclusion. God in this connection becomes not universal but partisan….An adjunct to such a form of religious faith is a refusal to countenance scientific discovery if it appears inconvenient to an aspect of organised religion. …
- “Mass migration is changing communities, even countries. People communicate ideas and images instantly around the world, creating immediate political and ideological movements in a ferment of quickly devoured information….Faiths can transform and humanise the impersonal forces of globalisation, and shape the values of the changing set of economic and power relationships of the early 21st Century. This is one of the issues I’ll explore in a Faith and Globalisation course which I am starting with Yale University later this year…
- “…the centre of gravity, economically and politically, is shifting East. … China and India together, will industrialise the bulk of their populations, presently employed in subsistence agriculture, probably within two decades…..It is one reason why a sensible long-term partnership with China, and of course with India, is of vital strategic importance to us….
- “In her remarkable book ‘The Great Transformation’ Karen Armstrong traces the evolution of religious thought from the earliest times, both East and West, when religion did indeed seem often cruel, unforgiving and irrational, to the modern times in which the faiths share many common values and much common purpose…..
- “The foundation will concentrate on certain key specifics. The first will be to help the different faith organisations to work together in furtherance of the Millennium Development Goals, which I helped advocate as PM and which are, in many ways the litmus test of the world’s values…. The second will be to produce high quality material – books, websites, every means of communication – to educate people better about the different faiths, what they truly believe not what we often mistakenly think they believe….
- “If people of different faiths can co-exist happily, in mutual respect and solidarity, so can our world. And if faith takes its proper place in our lives, then we can live with a purpose beyond ourselves alone, supporting humanity on its journey to fulfillment. “ — Faith and Globalisation
The Truth:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:17)