Thursday, June 19, 2008

Concern regarding Tony Blair Faith Foundation

Thirdly, religious faith potentially has a crucial part to play in shaping the values that can help to guide the modern world. It can and should be seen as a force for progress and betterment. But there is a risk that it either falls prey to extremist and exclusionist tendencies ...


Quote from here.

While Tony Blair and his faith foundation have recognized the important role faith plays in society and while they state their intentions are not to "engage in doctrinal inquiries or try to subsume all faiths into a world faith of the lowest common denominator", at the same time the above quote concerns me when they refer to "exclusionist" tendencies. By this, do they simply mean there's a problem with those who have an elitest attitude, who look down on others and are prejudiced toward them, even doing them harm; or do they also see a problem with Christians who hold to and proclaim the "exclusive" claims of the Bible?

This is certainly an organization that deserves a close watch. While much good can be accomplished through it, at the same time, we need to understand that even in Jesus' day, it was the religious or faith community (be they misguided ones) that led not only to Christ's crucifixion but to the persecution of Christians and opposition to the church.

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