Bishop 'Sorry' Blair Felt Unable to Reveal Faith
LONDON – A senior Church of England leader has criticized International Mideast envoy Tony Blair, saying he was "sorry" that former British prime minister felt unable to talk about his faith during his time in office.
In the last episode of the BBC One series, "The Blair Years," Blair said that his faith was a crucial component for him in taking the job of Britain's prime minister and was "hugely important" during his time in office.
However, he also said on the program that unlike in the United States, he felt unable to openly say so as "you talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter."
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Reacting to the comments, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said, "I am sorry that Tony Blair feels he could not talk about his faith in case people thought he was a nutter.
"A Christian vision underlies all that is important about Britain: its laws, institutions and values," the Pakistan-born bishop said, according to the BBC.
"If Blair had been able to relate this vision to his policies, we would have had more constructive social policy at home and principled policies abroad."
Blair's former spokesman, Alistair Campbell, once told journalists, "We don't do God."
During the recent BBC program, Campbell admitted that Blair "does do God in quite a big way," but that the two of them feared a negative public reaction to it.
Campbell added that Blair always asked his aides to find a church for him to attend each Sunday wherever he happened to be in the world.
