Tony Blair, originally uploaded by WalkingGeek.

I was invited to attend Tony Blair’s recent lecture in Westminster Cathedral (that’s the Catholic cathedral) on “Faith and Globalisation“, but was otherwise committed that evening.

Here’s the opening paragraph of the speech. I wonder if Mr Blair has been reading the Universal House of Justice’s 2002 message to religious leaders or its subsequent publication One Common Faith.

Let me summarise my argument to you this evening. Under the momentum of globalisation the world is opening up, and at an astonishing speed.

Old boundaries of culture, identity and even nationhood are falling. The 21st Century world is becoming ever more interdependent. In this world, religious faith, crucial to so many people’s culture and identity, can play a positive or a negative role. Either positively it will encourage peaceful co-existence by people of faith coming together in respect, understanding and tolerance, retaining their distinctive identity but living happily with those who do not share that identity. Or it will work against such co-existence by defining people by difference, those of one faith in opposition to others of a different faith.

In this context, inter-faith action and encounter are vital. They symbolise peaceful co-existence.

That is my primary argument. It is directed to people who have religious faith and those who have none.

However, I then go further and argue that religious faith is a good thing in itself, that so far from being a reactionary force, it has a major part to play in shaping the values which guide the modern world, and can and should be a force for progress. But it has to be rescued on the one hand from the extremist and exclusionary tendency within religion today; and on the other from the danger that religious faith is seen as an interesting part of history and tradition but with nothing to say about the contemporary human condition. I see Faith and Reason, Faith and Progress, as in alliance not contention.

And further along, Blair says this:

Even ten years ago, religion was still being written off as a force in the world. For over 200 years, the view had grown that advanced men and women no longer needed religion. It was a view rooted in the new thinking of the Enlightenment….

But in fact at no time since the Enlightenment has religion ever gone away. It has always been at the very core of life for millions of people, the foundation of their existence, the motive for their behaviour, the thing which gives sense to their lives and purpose to their journeys – which makes life more than just a sparrow’s flight through a lighted hall from one darkness to another, in that memorable image of the Venerable Bede. In the last few years we have been reminded of the great power of religion.

This next passage from Mr Blair’s speech is spot on, absolutely in line with the words of the Universal House of Justice in One Common Faith:

Faith answers to the basic, irrepressible, irresistible human wish for spiritual betterment, to do good, to think and act beyond the limitations of selfish human desires. More than that, it is rooted in a belief that the impulse to do good or try to, is not utilitarian or self-interested but is about putting aside self, in being aware of something bigger, more central, more essential to our human condition than self. In this, the ‘other’ is not to be rejected still less excluded, but embraced as more important than you or me. And people of faith believe we are driven or guided to this end. For those who feel in this way, God is not some wise Old Man up in the sky, but the true source of life. God is selfless love, merciful and an infinite dispenser of Grace.

Here’s a complementary Baha’i quotation from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man. Laudable are the results and the fruits thereof, abundant the holy evidences deriving from this grace. This is mercy unalloyed and purest bounty; it is light for the world and all its peoples; it is harmony and fellowship, and love and solidarity; indeed it is compassion and unity, and the end of foreignness; it is the being at one, in complete dignity and freedom, with all on earth.

The Blessed Beauty saith: ‘Ye are all the fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch.’ Thus hath He likened this world of being to a single tree, and all its peoples to the leaves thereof, and the blossoms and fruits. It is needful for the bough to blossom, and leaf and fruit to flourish, and upon the interconnection of all parts of the world-tree, dependeth the flourishing of leaf and blossom, and the sweetness of the fruit.

For this reason must all human beings powerfully sustain one another and seek for everlasting life; and for this reason must the lovers of God in this contingent world become the mercies and the blessings sent forth by that clement King of the seen and unseen realms. Let them purify their sight and behold all humankind as leaves and blossoms and fruits of the tree of being. Let them at all times concern themselves with doing a kindly thing for one of their fellows, offering to someone love, consideration, thoughtful help. Let them see no one as their enemy, or as wishing them ill, but think of all humankind as their friends; regarding the alien as an intimate, the stranger as a companion, staying free of prejudice, drawing no lines.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, faith, religion, globalisation, Tony Blair, inter-faith, One Common Faith

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I am in the middle of prepare=ing to chair a meeting in Welwyn Garden City this evening on the theme of Faith in Government. The speakers will be the Rt Revd Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions, Alistair Burt MP, Assistant Chief Whip and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. Stephen Timms, who describes himself as a Christian Socialist, is Labour Party Vice Chair for Faith Groups. Alistair Burt describes himself as an active Christian.

The meeting, which has been organized by the Welwyn Hatfield Inter Faith Group aims to tease out a better understanding of how faith perspectives are brought to bear on parliamentary and central government affairs.

The three panel members are all parliamentarians and all Christians. I will be the only non-Christian on the panel and, as chair, I will endeavour to ensure that non-Christian voices and viewpoints are heard. I will also have an opportunity to ensure that my viewpoint as a Baha’i is part of the mix. It’s a pity that there won’t be a Humanist or other secularist on the panel - there’s a very interesting debate going on in the UK about whether religion should have a role in public life at all.

I am really looking forward to the evening. There are so many fascinating questions to be discussed and I hope that the questions and comments from the audience will give the speakers a good opportunity to address topical issues such as:

• religion and sexual orientation
• prohibition of religious symbols
• abortion
• religious education
• mental health legislation
• the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill
• the position of religious minorities in UK public life

More on this tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Christian, inter-faith, Welwyn Hatfield, public life, parliament, government