Former British prime minister, Tony Blair, has as a goal to make religion a force for good in the world as “globalization mixes together people of different cultures and faiths”. In a class he co-taught at Yale, he gave voice to a belief that faith can and should have a role in public decisions.
A student in his class asked the Prime Minister how he would go about implementing his vision without, for example, appointing religious leaders into political positions to accomplish it.
Here is what he said:
“I always emphasize this, it doesn’t have to come through religious faith, but it’s just that the values that are associated with religious faith at its best are values that lend themselves to, for example, tackling global poverty in Africa, climate change, isolating extremists and terrorists, and actually I would argue even to making your economic system work better. So I would say that you the way of doing this is not actually to try and, you know, rerun these debates through the prism of religious doctrine but on the contrary, to say actually the only way that we are to make the world work and solve these problems is through these strong values guiding the process of resolution of these challenges.”
What do you think?
Further Reading
https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/2307-god-and-tony-blair
