Role of religion in civil society TONY BLAIR
How to do God
Religion can play a vital role in determining the events and spirit of the twenty-first century and the best way to ensure its voice is heard in the public square is for faith groups to work increasingly together in mutual respect, argues Britain’s former Prime Minister
T
he key challenge facing the world today is the role of religion in the public square in this era of global - isation. Is it a force for good or a force for ill? A force for healing or for conflict? A force of reaction or a force for progress? How these questions are answered will, in
many ways, determine the spirit and the events of the twenty-first century. The con- tribution of Catholic thinking to creating a potential consensus about the common good, and ensuring its capacity to do so in the public square, is important. We are, understandably, preoccupied with the threat posed to us by violent religious extremism. But this issue is wider, because, even where there is not extremism expressed in violence, there can be extremism expressed in the idea that a person’s identity is to be found not merely in their religious faith, but in their faith as a means of excluding the other person who does not share it. I am not saying that it is extreme to believe your religious faith is the only true faith. Most people of faith do that. It doesn’t stop them respecting those of a different faith or indeed of no faith. But, as I said when I launched the Faith Foundation at Westminster Cathedral in May 2008, faith is problematic when it becomes a way of denigrating those who do not share it as somehow lesser human beings. Faith is then a means of exclusion. God in this connection becomes not universal but partisan, faith not a means of reaching out in friendship but a means of creating or defin- ing enemies. But the Northern Ireland peace process taught me that the tightest of bonds can be loosened over time. Under the right circum- stances, courageous and far-sighted individuals can transcend exclusive identities to bring about the unthinkable. And when it comes to religious identities, intra-religious dialogue is no less important than inter- religious dialogue – often a necessary counterpart – and equally difficult, because of real differences. The task is much complicated by rapid
global isation and the revolution in our means of communication. Under their impact, power, production, culture and identity are all chang- ing. On one hand, the boundaries of religious faiths are becoming more permeable, and their content more eclectic. On the other they
6 | THE TABLET | 13 November 2010
the process becomes all too evident”. He then went on to say that faith and reason
coexist alongside one another, faith helping to shed light on the application of reason to the discovery of moral principles, while reason enables religion not to be corrupted by fun- damentalism and extremism. “The world of secular reality and the world of religious belief need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civili- sation,” said the Pope. Certainly, faith communities do a lot of good in society. Whether in the inner city or in international development, I can vouch for their outstanding contribution to alleviating poverty and making the sort of difference gov- ernments find very difficult to make. As Prime Minister, I became very quickly
are hardening into a stridently defensive or threateningly aggressive rejection of difference, with hatred and fear as the inevitable conse- quence. In the public square, religion has a right to be heard but not dictate. But in my experience our politics today is inclined to treat religion as something that ought to be a private indi-
We are now moving into another and new period when interfaith action will slowly but surely come into its own
vidual matter, something that best goes on inside people’s heads, a voice of conscience, not of counsel and profound insight. During his recent visit to Britain, Pope Benedict XVI spoke at some length of the place of religion in the public square during his address to Parliament in Westminster Hall. I was among those in the hall as the Pope warned that society needs solid ethical grounding and that “if the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of
aware that coordination and what came to be called “joined-up thinking” was essential. Let’s be frank. Religious organisations are not good at coordinating their efforts, even if they have got a lot better in recent years. What they each do separately is sometimes outstandingly good. But, together in ecumeni- cal or interfaith collaboration, the impact would be so much greater, not to mention easier for Government to fund. It can also be, strangely, much more acceptable in quarters where fears of proselytism, or just a general distrust of religious bodies, prevail. These were some of the reasons why I wanted to see the Faith Foundation get stuck in with interfaith action against malaria. The young people we trained from different faiths as Faiths Act Fellows did a great job. For 10 months, placed in interfaith pairs, they worked in local communities in London, Birmingham, Leicester and Blackburn to encourage diverse young people and religious congregations to learn together about how the world could achieve the Millennium Development Goals and raise funds to eradicate deaths from malaria. Among other things, they raised more than £100,000 for bed-nets. But, above all, they symbolised in their interfaith pairs the principle we wanted to become reality: the best way for the different faiths to share their commitment to compassionate action is by working together to make faith part of the solution to the problems of the twenty- first century. How was such interfaith action going to
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