{"id":1830,"date":"2008-04-14T02:01:26","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T06:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2026-09-05T10:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:50:17","slug":"tony-blair-religion-must-be-saved-from-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/tony-blair-religion-must-be-saved-from-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair: Religion Must be Saved from Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Maria Mackay<br \/>\n<em>The Christian Post<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In his first major speech on religion, Tony Blair said Thursday night that religion must be rescued from extremism and irrelevance and used as a force for good at a time of global turmoil.<\/p>\n<p>Tony Blair tonight called for religious faith to be rescued from extremism and put at the center of solving the world&#8217;s problems. The former prime minister said that in an increasingly globalized world, the role of faith is &#8216;especially important&#8217;. Religion could &#8216;awaken the world&#8217;s conscience&#8217; and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate poverty and hunger, he said.Blair, who converted to Catholicism last year, made the call in a lecture on faith and globalization at Westminster Cathedral. It was the first in &#8220;The Cardinal&#8217;s Lectures&#8221; series, organized by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O&#8217;Connor, to examine faith and life in Britain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For religion to be a force for good, it must be rescued not simply from extremism, faith as a means of exclusion; but also from irrelevance, an interesting part of our history but not of our future,&#8221; said Blair. <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20080610024527\/http:\/\/www.christianpost.com:80\/article\/20080404\/31803_Blair:_Religion_Must_be_Saved_from_Extremism.htm\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Click here to read this entire article.<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Information:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/rwfundamentalism.htm\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Rick Warren Predicts Christian Fundamentalism to be Enemy of 21st Century<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maria Mackay The Christian&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":15943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-global-spirituality","wpcat-122-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - 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