Blair feared faith 'nutter' label

So reports the BBC.

'Mr Blair said politicians who talk about religion "get into trouble"
Tony Blair avoided talking about his religious views while in office for fear of being labelled "a nutter", the former prime minister has revealed.
In an interview for BBC One's The Blair Years, he said that his faith had been "hugely important" to his premiership.
During the interview, Mr Blair said having faith was a crucial component for him in having the character to take on the prime minister's job.
"For me having faith was an important part of being able to do that," he said.
But while it was commonplace in the US and elsewhere for politicians to talk about their religious convictions, he added, "you talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter".'

Tony was not a follower of the Apostle who wrote, 2Cor. 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it.

'British voters imagined that leaders who were informed by religion would "commune with the man upstairs and then come back and say 'Right, I've been told the answer and that's it'".
Mr Campbell's refusal to discuss his faith was not due to any opposition to his beliefs, but because "you always get into trouble talking about it", Mr Blair continued.
Mr Campbell added that the former prime minister always asked his aides to find him a church to attend, wherever he happened to be, each Sunday.
"Because he's pretty irreverent, he swears a fair bit, if he sees a very attractive woman his eye will wander and all that stuff, he doesn't look like your classic religious sort of guy," said Mr Campbell.
But he added: "I think his close circle always understood that there was a part of him that was really, really important. '

But not important enough for him to promote anything resembling Christian sexual ethics, only the opposite.

'"On that kind of spiritual level it did inform a lot of what he talked about, what he read... what he felt was important."
Mr Campbell said the UK electorate were "a bit wary of politicians who go on about God".
He had also been concerned that the Conservatives would accuse Labour of trying to claim faith as its own.
'Ethical values' "

No chance. The Conservatives are just as unethical and far from any Christian base.

'Peter Mandelson, a close confidant of Mr Blair, said: "He's not an exhibitionist when it comes to religion but deep inside him it is very, very important.
"This is a man who takes a Bible with him wherever he goes and last thing at night he will read from the Bible."
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, suggested that Mr Blair may not have been so politically successful had the relationship between his beliefs and his actions in office been better known.
"The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they'd known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism," Sir Menzies said. '

But pragmatism seems to have totally overcome Christian values!

I do not judge Blai'sr state before God. I merely quote the Gospel.
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” - Mark 8:36-38

Today he says he has joined the Roman Catholics. Will they better inform him in practical Christianity?

Michael Ireland , ASSIST News Service, adds ' Bishop Nazir-Ali who was quoted by the BBC as saying, "I am sorry that Tony Blair feels he could not talk about his faith in case people thought he was a nutter. A Christian vision underlies all that is important about Britain: its laws, institutions and values. If Blair had been able to relate this vision to his policies, we would have had more constructive social policy at home and principled policies abroad.

Miss Widdicombe, who became a Catholic in 1993, told the BBC Mr Blair's move raised some questions.
"If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against Church teaching on more than one occasion. On things, for example, like abortion," she said. "My question would be, 'has he changed his mind on that?'"
The BBC reports there has never been a Roman Catholic prime minister of Britain, although there is no constitutional barrier to such a move. However, it had in the past been suggested that Mr Blair would wait until after leaving office, to avoid possible clashes such as over his role in appointing Church of England bishops.'
The BBC reported that Catherine Pepinster, editor of Catholic magazine The Tablet, said the news was not quite the same as if Mr Blair had changed Churches while still prime minister.'

So there is consistency for you. Blair did not have enough Christian principle to declare what sort of a Christian he professed to be. He was spin from first to last. But he want have Campbell to spin it to St, Peter at the pearly gates. Perhaps he hopes now to have the Pope as his PR man. Funnily enough, the guy in Rome does not support AB on the main thing that lost him public respect, Iraq. Guess what! That is one of the few issues where I was with Tony.