I agree with Carina though: his talk was far from meaty. He spent a long time (as he did in 2007) explaining the basics. His actual thoughts and ideas occupied a smaller portion of the speech than I would have hoped for.
I was also a bit uncomfortable with what he had to say. Carina touches on this too. But it was when I chat with Fr Marin that I realised what it was.
Blair has a goal here: faith aiding and humanizing the process of globalization.
The problem is: that's not the purpose of religion. The purpose of religion is to worship God. Everything else stems from that: our love for our neighbour, our involvement in politics, etc.
When we have a design for religion, when we want to use religion to attain a particular goal, we expect religion to change to fit our designs.
I noticed that in Blair's talk. He seemed to have his doubts about organized religion. He said organized religions had to evolve. He seemed to imply that he preferred spirituality to organized religion. This is at odds with the fact that he converted from the Church of England to the more doctrinally firm Roman Catholic Church just last year.
This also makes him focus on the cultural, ideational and sociological aspects of religion. I'm guessing (based on his wife's comments) that he doesn't consider the doctrinal and moral issues as pertinent to the discussion on faith and politics.
This is why the question Carina wanted to ask him would have been interesting: "what if a government tries to meddle and force faith-based organizations to commit actions that go against what their faith teaches, such as the distribution of condoms, or the removal of conscience-clauses for abortion? Many faith-based organizations have or have threatened to close down when forced to do such repugnant acts by the state. What is his stand on this issue then?"
Nevertheless, I'm glad I got to hear Mr Blair speak again. His ideas on Islam and the Middle East were insightful. I was especially interested in his belief that free speech was not unlimited and that hate-speech should not be tolerated.
And I too believe a greater understanding of faith is vital when dealing with politics and culture; and that the promotion of interfaith cooperation can heal many wounds. I believe that religion has in the past, and can continue to strengthen democracy and uphold the rights and dignity of all men. It does this, though, by "being Church" certainly within civil society, but not by being moulded into an NGO a charity organization or a political party.
China View
I'll leave you with some examples of Tony Blair's speech-making:
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