Former Prime Minister of Britain and recent Catholic convert Tony Blair seems to be saying that only Christianity can save the West, according to Asia Times Online.
“For the first time in centuries, the West will have to come to terms with a seismic change happening about it,” Tony Blair, former British prime minister, who recently converted to Catholicism, said in explaining his belief in the importance of religious faith.
“The East is rising. At the least it will demand parity with the West and perhaps more. But what values will this daunting new world use to guide it? I believe [that] in this world of rapid globalization where power is shifting away from its traditional center in the West, the world will be immeasurably poorer, more dangerous, more fragile and above all more aimless – I mean without the necessary sense of the purpose to guide it on its journey – if it is without the strong spiritual dimension.”
Blair apparently believes that the Catholic or other Christian faiths should underpin the “West” in meeting the challenges from the “East”.
Now, of course, the piece goes on to call Blair’s view anachronistic and puzzling.
Now I don’t think anyone here is going to disagree with him but all I can think is hey, it’s too bad that the EU got ride of any mention of God while Blair was still in power.
I think people of the West take freedoms for granted because that’s all they’ve known. They don’t understand that the massive majority of mankind has and does exist under oppression and without individual rights.
May 15, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Reminds me of Eisenhower warning about the tremendous power and influence the military industrial complex had over government. Of course, he gave his warning only after he left office.
In any case, the West is so on a self-hate trip that I doubt anyone with any power or influence will join Blair in his call to meet these challenges. Any attempt to shore up Western values, especially those rooted in Christianity, will be shouted down as racist and jingoistic. We live in a pluralistic society, which means all cultures and cultural values are equal — except those of the Christian West, which are regarded as inherently inferior and oppressive.
“Come, Lord Jesus!”
Bob Hunt
May 15, 2008 at 3:14 pm
God may not be done using Tony Blair. He is coming along slowly…but surely. Pray for him. He could possibly in the future be a great instigator of good.