PM Blair building network of Christian allies as he prepares to launch religious 'offensive' in USA

[Bluebear]

Tony Blair is preparing to launch a "faith offensive" across the United States over the next year, after building up relationships with a network of influential religious leaders and faith organisations.

With Afghanistan and Iraq casting a shadow over his popularity at home in Britain, Blair's focus has increasingly shifted across the Atlantic, to where the nexus of faith and power is immutable and he is feted like a rock star.

According to the annual accounts of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, a UK-based charity that promotes cohesion between the major faiths, the foundation is to develop a US arm that will pursue a host of faith-based projects. The accounts show that his foundation has an impressive – and, in at least one case, controversial – set of faith contacts. Sitting on some £4.5m in funds as of April last year, mostly gathered through donations, it is now well placed to make its voice heard.

The foundation's advisory council of religious leaders includes Rick Warren, powerful founder of the California-based Saddleback church. It attracts congregations of nearly 20,000 and is reportedly one of the largest in the US. Warren, who has addressed the UN and the World Economic Forum in Davos, has been named one of the "15 world leaders who matter most" and one of the "100 most influential people in the world".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/14/tony-blair-faith-foundation-america

[ananda]

1. ick

puke

[myrna minx]

2. Uff Da. Just what we need - more crazy religiosity-from a war criminal, no less.

:puke:

[BeyondGeography]

3. Not very well received in the comments section

[arcadian]

4. Oh please come to a town near me.

Please, please, please.

[tabatha]

5. It is all an ego-trip.

[Grand Taurean]

6. Blair is making John Major look more viable everyday.

[City Lights]

7. Yuk.

:puke:

[npk]

8. Not surprising that Rick Warren is involved

"One of the 15 world leaders who matter most." How is he a world leader. That is disgusting.

[Odin2005]

13. Make no mistake, the PTB are completely behind using Religion to keep us dumb and stupid.

[lunatica]

9. There only one thing I can, um, say

[Odin2005]

10. That little Christo-Fascist war criminal can go fuck himself.

[scarletwoman]

11. Damn straight it's "offensive"! Stomach-churningly offensive.

Why the hell isn't he in the Hague?

[get the red out]

12. What loving projects do they support?

War? Oppressing gays? Subjugating women? Influencing people to vote against their interests? Which of the good religious works does his charity specialize in?

[Odin2005]

14. I also find it interesting that many of these reactionary leaders are converting to Catholicism.

[get the red out]

15. Then we can add "children's projects" to the list.

:(

[Bluebear]

16. Ouch,

True, but ouch :)

[defendandprotect]

18. Religion is where a lot of the $$$ is . . .

[Odin2005]

20. Ding!!! We gots a winnah!!!

[defendandprotect]

17. Didn't Blair convert to Catholicism . . . and this looks like next step to Evangelicalism...???

[Bluebear]

19. indeed.

[RagAss]

21. Fuck-Off, Blair !

[marmar]

22. Like we don't have enough of our own religious nuts.....

He can't find an audience in Europe, where the religiously insane are treated as such, so he's crossing the Atlantic?
Somebody put him on the Do Not Fly list.

[Nikki Stone1]

23. The quest for the one world religion begins

Women and gays are screwed again.

[LeftishBrit]

24. The last 3 words of the headline say it all.

'Offensive in USA'. Indeed. After many years of being 'offensive in Britain'.