Blair's Faith

There is something strange in the human psyche that means a man will tolerate being called a warmonger, but not tolerate being called a “nutter”. Yet, that is what we discovered on Sunday night when The Blair Years revealed the true extent of our former Prime Minister’s faith. It seems that Blair could put up with public opprobrium over the Iraq war, but not the ridicule that might accompany a declaration of faith. One would have thought that to be called a liar and child-killer would be worse than having one’s intellect questioned. However, Blair kept the depth of his faith under wraps for fear of precisely that taunt. "I mean if you are in the American political system or others then you can talk about religious faith and people say yes that's fair enough and it is something they respond to quite naturally,” he said, before adding, “You talk about it in our system and frankly people do think you're a nutter."

What makes this all the more remarkable is that no-one seriously suggests that Blair is lacking in intellectual capacity. He may make wrong decisions, but not because he is stupid. Yet, according to both Blair and those around him, his faith was deeply held. He said, "If I am honest about it, yes of course it was hugely important. You know you can't have a religious faith and it be an insignificant aspect because it's, it's profound about you and about you as a human being". Alistair Campbell, who infamously cut off a question about Blair’s faith with the line “we don’t do God” was now ready to admit that his former boss, “does do God in quite a big way".

So why did he do it, or perhaps more to the point, why do we all do it? For I suspect that Blair is not the only one to have hidden his light under the proverbial bushel. I have no idea why Blair lacked confidence in this regard, when he displayed so much in relation to other decisions. No doubt, there are many reasons why from time to time we all fail to display the depth of our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, or why we fail to own him in public. Like Blair, people may know we are Christians, but do they appreciate how significant Jesus Christ is for us, or them? The challenge, then, is that if the conversation this weekend turns to Blair’s hidden faith, we need to ensure that we are open about ours. Or maybe we need to do that whether or not Blair is being discussed for we can probably guarantee that our friends will bring Jesus into the conversation, even if merely as an expletive. Perhaps that is the time for us to ‘do God’ and do him in a big way.

Justin Thacker, Head of Theology, Evangelical Alliance

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