Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is appealing for faith to be given a greater role in tackling the world's problems.

In a speech at London's Catholic Westminster Cathedral this evening , Mr Blair will argue that  failure to engage with religious groups will drive believers to apathy or fundamentalism.

Mr Blair, who converted to Catholicism after he left office to avoid appearing to be , in his own words, a ' religious nutter' , will outline the role of his Faith Foundation for young people . Whether his speech will be heard is another question as Anti-war protesters from Stop The War Coalition have pledged to drown out the speech with a "wall of sound"

Since stepping down as prime minister last summer, Mr Blair has become a Roman Catholic and is now a Middle East peace envoy and a international lead on  environmental issues at Governmental level.

He told the BBC last year his faith had been "hugely important" to his premiership but said he had been wary of talking about it because "frankly, people do think you're a nutter".

Pax Christi, an international  Catholic peace group that has never shied  from engaging with real world issues,  also plan a silent protest before the speech .

 
Mr Blair will warn that while societies across the world are adapting to meet the challenges of globalisation, religion is coping less well and faces an internal division between fundamentalism and those who believe religion is a spent force.

He will describe the aims of his Faith Foundation, due to be launched this year.

The archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said "It is important that the Catholic church engages with society in a positive and creative way and provides a public space for debate about religion.

"The role of faith in our society cannot be ignored and I hope that the debate these lectures stimulate will highlight the crucial role faith can play in contributing to the common good. "

But the Stop the War Coalition say they want to hold Mr Blair to account over his role in the Iraq war with their noisy protest.

Pax Christi says its silent vigil will "call to mind and to public attention, Tony Blair's involvement in the Iraq War and ongoing occupation". The group also opposes his involvement in the decision to replace Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system "and other aspects of his premiership that have created global polarity".

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redstarfist  - faith without works is useless   |2008-04-03 14:26:44 Dorothy Day: she walked the walk. Has Tony Blair ever addressed the punchline? Jesus washed his disciples feet. So yeah, Tony is a bit of a nutter if he fails to bring up this point. Most people that talk about faith never actually get their hands dirty serving the poor.

Simon   |2008-04-03 15:08:20 The Quakers have long used their beliefs to provide a public space for the discussion of a more humane politics and society not a discussion of religion. Blair on the other hand seems bent on promoting religion for political ends and his fronting the Faith Foundation is bizzare.

Anonymous   |2008-04-04 03:00:33 it's very bizarre, fluttering around talking about being a nutter.

redstarfist   |2008-04-04 03:30:23 if he was looking to provide comic relief by mentioning the nutter factor, well, it worked, i laughed, it's a hell of a lot more entertaining than listening to george bush speak with the enthusiasm of a cokehead about the joys of ownership society.

Anonymous   |2008-04-04 03:36:26 in my experience, catholics tend to have more of a conscience than calvinists.

simoni   |2008-04-04 04:07:48 I see Norman Kember a former hostage in Iraq was part of the Pax Christi silent protest . He said he thought havin Tony Blair promote the faith in the church with the war still waging was un christian. i guess Kember's presence says it all for me, his faith took him to Iraq to help take care of the civilian population. He faced death there, it was always touch and go if he'd be decapitated , yet he still uses his time to promote the cause of the long suffering Iraqi civilian population . The guy is in his 60's ! He's a much better ambassador for his faith. I thought maybe he was being a tad harsh on Blair but then remembered a headline I saw yesterday saying that civilian deaths in Iraq had spiked again over the last month to their worst 2007 high. I guess that generates anger given that Blair must have known that the reasoning we used for going into Iraq was based on outright fabrication.

DOS   |2008-04-04 04:34:08 How about an essay on predestination and the degenerate legacy of the oil barons? It always comes back to the elect and the damned.......I don't think you're ever going to run out of material!

steph   |2008-04-04 10:19:59 yes, its ironic that we have Calvinism to thank for preaching and beating into the young Rousseau an admiration for the ' noble savage ' , a healthy contempt for the elect and a desire to contract society around the natural rights and collective will of individuals.

nomen  - No Faith in Blair!   |2008-04-04 11:23:45 Calvinism provided the rod but it was Rousseau's conversion to Catholicism that provided him with an education. Prior to Blair's conversion to Catholicism he exhibited a strong Calvinist streak , not only in his eagerness to concoct along with G.W.Bush a righteous moral basis to punish 'depraved ' Iraq , Blair's Government also transformed Britain into a ' Surveilence Society ' in which the citizen ( or rather 'subject' under the UK's monarchic constitution ) is assumed to be naturally untrustworthy and suspect requiring being permanently filmed and tracked in public space and bullied, goaded and guided into doing ' social good' by petty rules , regulations and state manipulated peer pressure. Jesus, Blair even launches his 'Faith Foundation' in a top down prescriptive manner, as Blairite moral politics , just stopping this side of declaring the initiative compulsory .

anna  - the road to Damascus   |2008-04-04 17:51:20 From Calvinist to Rightward leaning Jesuit within a year of leaving office - boy, Mr Blair is no liberation theologian is he?

anna   |2008-04-08 20:10:20 I suspect Tony Blair is cynically pushing religion now because the Government doesnt have the money to deal with the looming Babyboomer pensions crisis and he and his party want to see a shift of responsibility away from Government towards faith based programs.

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