Sunday Times: Bible Blair feared being called ‘nutter’

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Tony Blair has admitted that his Christianity played a “hugely important” role during his premiership but he was forced to play down his religious conviction for fear of being seen by the public as “a nutter”.

In his most frank television interview about his religious beliefs, Blair confesses he would have found it difficult to do the job of prime minister had he not been able to draw on his faith.

The admission confirms why Alastair Campbell, then Blair’s director of communications, was so wary of the prime minister mentioning religion. “We don’t do God,” he once said.

In a documentary to be broadcast on BBC1 next Sunday, Campbell now says of his former boss: “Well, he does do God – in quite a big way.”

Read it all.


Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

4 Comments
Posted November 25, 2007 at 4:30 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Jeffersonian wrote:

For the record, the assertion that Bush told Palestinian leaders that Iraq was “a mission from God” has been denied by both the White House and all but one (the cited party) of the Palestinians present at the meeting Bush supposedly uttered it.

November 25, 5:48 pm | [comment link]
2. Jim the Puritan wrote:

I had never paid attention to Blair before I saw him give the lesson at Princess Diana’s televised funeral.  I had a stereotyped view of him as a Labour politician.  But I was just amazed when he read the lesson—like he really believed it and wanted everyone else there to believe it as well—and I remember thinking, wow is he a believer?  I Corinthians 13; it was very moving.

November 25, 6:15 pm | [comment link]
3. azusa wrote:

# 2:  but most of all he wanted everyone to believe him.

November 25, 6:33 pm | [comment link]
4. sophy0075 wrote:

He might as well reveal his religious conviction now - all of the cartoons and comments on the electronic “page” of this article reveal (tragically, IMHO) that most Brits already loathe him and think he’s a nutter because of Iraq.

November 25, 10:41 pm | [comment link]
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