Legacy

A throwaway item on the Today programme this morning suggested that Tony Blair, casting around for something to do after stepping down as Prime Minister of Great Britain, may create a foundation to foster more understanding between christianity, judaism and islam. Whilst it may just be a rumour it has that ring of plausibility that all good rumour-mongers look for.

There are of course plenty who will point out that Mr Blair has done much in the recent past to unite muslims, christians, atheists and everybody else thank you. But I suspect that isn't quite the type of unity he's after.

Tony is as we all know a 'committed christian' but he is a modern faithful type who wants to invite all the other sects round for a cuppa and "can't we all just y'know, get along?"

I've never quite understood this stance - if your faith is right everybody else is going to hell. End of story.

I think this is why Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church cause discomfort to other christians. The WBC are by anybody's reckoning a tiny, marginal bunch. But when they insist that their interpretation of their god's word is correct and every other man jack of you is going to hell, people tend to feel a little uneasy.

"So that means it's 23 people sitting on gods right hand side and 6.5 billion don't get in?"

WBC: "Yup"

They cause embarassment not because their ideas are ker-razy, but because they are so dam close to the acceptable face of religiosity, just delivered with a wide-eyed zeal and assurance that scares folk.

To suggest that a particular issue that Fred Phelps preaches about is not valid, or un-christian turns a lens onto less extreme christians and asks all sorts of difficult questions about scriptural interpretation that they'd really rather not answer.

Anyhoo, Tony seems awfully keen that he has a legacy (I think you'll have one T, don't worry) so I'm going to open a foundation to create dialogue between Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Isn't it time that they just got along?