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".
His influence was confirmed in December 2008 when Barack Obama chose him to
give the invocation at his presidential inauguration. But the decision angered
many liberals, who see Warren as an opponent of gay rights and abortion on
demand; a prominent alliance with Warren is likely to attract similar attacks
on the former British prime minister.
Also on the council is David Coffey, president of the Baptist World Alliance
(BWA), a Virginia-based network of churches that spans the globe and is
particularly active in the US.
Another initiative has been to team up with the Belinda Stronach
Foundation in Toronto. Unknown in the UK, Stronach,
daughter of a Canadian billionaire, is hugely influential in Canada where as a
philanthropist, businesswoman and former politician she has served in both the
Conservative and Liberal parties. Attractive and barely into her 40s, media
commentators have dubbed her "bubba's blonde", a reference to her friendship
with Bill Clinton.
According to the accounts, Blair intends to open an office in Toronto to
develop the relationship.
His desire for North America to be the focus of his faith-based operations was
confirmed by the decision to hold his foundation's inaugural event in May 2008
in New York, for the "charity's key partners and religious
stakeholders".
The accounts also shine a light on the close
connections the foundation now enjoys with major political institutions in
the US. "With the Washington-based Centre for Interfaith Action, the
foundation supported a meeting of major international organisations
active in faith-based approaches to combating malaria (plus the White House,
World Bank, UN, World Health Organisation) to
co-ordinate international efforts," the accounts state.
That Blair, a charismatic politician driven by faith, should be at home across
the Atlantic is no surprise to political analysts. "He comes across as
confident and persuasive," said Professor Shawn Bowler, of the University
of California at Riverside. "He does not talk like a modern robo-candidate in the way so many US political figures
do." Unlike in the UK, Blair's religious fervour
is seen as a strength. "Blair is very open about
his faith and that plays a lot better in the US than in Britain," Bowler
said.
But
the overtly religious dimension has drawn criticism. "The Tony Blair Faith
Foundation is a fundamentally flawed concept," said Terry Sanderson,
president of the National Secular Society. "If religion
is constantly at the fore, then the old suspicions and hatreds will continue to
fester."
Other North American faith-based
initiatives endorsed by the foundation include the New York-based Global Nomads
Group, which brings together young people through video conferences "to
discuss the global issues that affect their lives", and the Faiths Act
Fellowship, which selects "30 young leaders aged 18-25, drawn from the
different faiths from the US, UK and Canada, to embark on a 10-month journey of interfaith service".
Blair's status is such that he is now called on to sprinkle stardust at religious gatherings, such as a speech he
delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. Even his
autobiography, The Journey,
for which he was paid a £4.6m advance, appears to be aimed at the US market.
"Tony Blair is an extremely popular figure in North America," said
Sonny Mehta, his publisher. "His memoir is refreshing, both for its candour and vivid portrayal of political life."
So embedded is he that Blair regularly crops up in Washington society diaries.
Last September, the former Republican vice-president, Dick Cheney, was dining
in the same restaurant. Blair got top billing in the gossip columns.