Works and Prayers of a Fils Prodigue

Tony Blair, sketchy Catholic extraordinaire, has demonstrated this week how little he learned in RCIA:

Tony Blair: Pope must rethink ‘entrenched’ views on gays

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has made the case for a rethink on conservative religious attitudes to homosexuals. Read our story in The Times today. In an interview with the gay magazine Attitude, Tony Blair says he wants to urge religious figures everywhere, including the Pope, to reinterpret their  religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal. He predicts that in time this will make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. He also believes there is a change of heart taking place in evangelicalism, with many younger evangeliclas becoming pro-gay, that the issue with evangelicals and Catholics is ‘generational’. We already knew the Blair family did not abide by the Church’s teaching on contraception and it seems Blair’s conversion has not changed this. Interesting that many converts become more conservative than those born to a faith or denomination, but Tony Blair has stuck by his liberal principles.

Read on for some extracts:

Speaking to reporter Johann Hari, Mr Blair says:

‘I think that for all religions, the challenge is how do you extract the essential  values of the faith from a vast accumulation of doctrine and practice? For many people, the reason for their religious faith is less to do with the doctrine and practice, and more to do with the values like love of God and love of your
neighbour….  For many people in the world of religion, they have found they’re facing the  same challenge as everybody else is in changing times, when it comes to the role of women, the issues to do with sexuality, and so on. But the problem within the institutions of organised religion as opposed, for example, to those in politics, is that those attitudes get mixed up with those of doctrine. For something that is religious in nature, it can be far harder for them to break with the past. They’re hard – they’re really difficult. Because people are debating – what is the word of God? If something is expressed in a particular way in the Bible or the Koran or elsewhere, can you possibly contemplate a process of modernisation where attitudes change over time? But my own view is that it’s better to have these views debated within religious circles than to pretend that they don’t exist.’

On evangelicals and gays, he says:

‘It’s interesting, because in my Faith Foundation I have a lot of links with some of the evangelical groups in the US and elsewhere, and, actually, I think there is a generational shift that is happening there. If you talk to the older generation, yes, you will still get a lot of pushback, and parts of the Bible quoted, and so on. But actually, if you look at the younger generation of evangelicals, this is increasingly for them something that they wish to be out of – at least in terms of having their position confined to being anti-gay.’

US Pastor Rick Warren is on the board of his foundation. Blair believes that how the debate is conducted is important.

‘When you’ve got people who are conducting the debate in a reasonable way, then you find that you do start to soften people’s attitudes and then you open them up to the possibility of change and you open them up to the possibility of reconsideration. Whereas, if you just shout at them, then what you find is that people go back into their shell again. But that’s always been my view about politics, which is that if you actually think you’re right, you should have some confidence in your ability to persuade.’

He was asked about the Pope’s view that homosexuality tends towards intrinsic moral evil.

‘Again, there is a huge generational difference here. And there’s probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on an issue like this, because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end? You’d start having to rethink many, many things. Now, my view is that rethinking is good, so let’s carry on rethinking. Actually, we need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith. So some of these things can then result in a very broad area of issues being up for discussion.’

He couldn’t say if there would ever be a pro-gay Pope.

‘Look, there are many good and great things the Catholic Church does, and there are many fantastic things this Pope stands for, but I think what is interesting is that if you went into any Catholic Church, particularly a well-attended one, on any Sunday here and did a poll of the congregation, you’d be surprised at how liberal-minded people were. ….. On many issues, I think the leaders of the Church and the Church will be in complete agreement. But I think on some of these issues, if you went and asked the congregation, I think you’d find that their faith is not to be found in those types of entrenched attitudes. If you asked “what makes you religious?” and “what does your faith mean to you?” they would immediately go into compassion, solidarity, relieving suffering. I would be really surprised if they went to “actually, it’s to do with believing homosexuality is wrong” or “it’s to do with believing this part of the ritual or doctrine should be done in this particular way”.’

Who does this guy think he is? You can’t become Catholic and then tell the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ, what he ought to do. When you become Catholic, you literally profess to believe “all that the Holy Catholic Church teaches as revealed by God, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.” You DON’T profess to believe whatever happens to coincide with your own particular fancies. Blair may have become Catholic nominally, but he remains a pagan and a politician at heart.

Whether the laity in Britain and the US are poorly-catechised is no doubt, having been weened on the effeminate koom-bie-yah priests of the sixties and seventies who were too busy getting married, consecrating pizzas, and adulterating with nuns to teach their flock the Truth. Nevertheless, he has publicly disregarded the Church’s moral teachings on contraception and just war (entered war in Iraq in direction opposition to Benedict), and now has flagrantly denied the Church’s historical and biblical teaching on homosexuality (which he deems “generational” — one supposes this is true, considering it has been “generational” since before the Incarnation). If I were his bishop — and it’s a certainty that I am not — I would withhold the Body and Blood from this man, excommunicate him, and send the message to the world that Christ’s teachings are non-negotiable, Rome has spoken, case closed.

Politicians who refuse to bend the knee to Christ and His Church really burn me up. grrr

[With the Pope's stellar meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi looming in the public conscientiousness, one wonders -- nay, one hopes -- for a similar reaction from the Holy Father]