GOD: In politics you must leave God in

... the limo in the parking garage.

Aren't you a little surprised by people who react negatively to someone's worldview influencing their decision making? Especially politicians?

[British] Prime Minister Tony Blair has indicated that God influenced his deliberations when he committed British troops to fight alongside American forces in Iraq. The remarks, which surprised some antiwar campaigners, were made in an Independent Television talk show to be broadcast Saturday night. [...]

Mr. Blair has made no secret of his Christian faith, but he has not previously ascribed policy decisions to his religion. In the past, he refused to answer persistent questions by an interviewer about whether he had prayed with President Bush. [New York Times]

In the matter of the latter:

• Weren't they put into office with their worldview out there for all to see?
• Don't you think their election subscribes to an understanding that if they believe in God as a part of their worldview that their supporters expect their faith to affect their decisions?
• Isn't it likewise reasonable to expect someone with a godless worldview (when they enter office) to make their decisions on the basis of that worldview?
• Don't you think their supporters understand this before they entered office?
• Don't you think their critics (those with opposing worldviews) will cry out in horror at every godless decision they make?

Of course you do!

"That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with," he said, according to the ITV transcript, "and in the end there is a judgment that — well, I think if you have faith about these things, then you realize that judgment is made by other people."

Asked to explain what he meant, he replied, "If you believe in God, it's made by God as well." [ New York Times]

Blair, a regular church-goer, declined to elaborate when asked if he prayed to God before making such a decision. [Yahoo! News]

And an unbiased reading of Blair's words reveal an anguish and a sensitivity I want in a world leader.

"This is not just a matter of a policy here or a thing there, but of their lives and in some case their death," he said. "The only way you can take a decision like that is to try to do the right thing, according to your conscience, and for the rest of it you leave it to the judgment that history will make." [New York Times]

The truth is I am becoming more and more disillusioned by the liberal left's ignorance on these matters. Their patent inability to think critically is legion and the self-centeredness is truly offensive to the history of man's struggle against evil.

For example, this from AFP ...

The words did not sit well with Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra in 2004, one of the 103 British soldiers to date to have lost their lives in the Iraqi conflict. "How can he say he is a Christian?" said Gentle, a campaigner with Military Families Against the War. "A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm actually quite disgusted by the comments."

Reg Keys, the father of a dead soldier, accused Blair of "using God as a get-out for total strategic failure and I find it abhorrent." His son Lance Corporal Tom Keys was one of six Royal Military policemen killed by an Iraqi mob in Majar al-Kabir in June 2003.

Keys, who stood against the prime minister in the last general election on an anti-war ticket, said Blair's remarks reminded him of US President George W. Bush who was quoted as saying last year that God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. "God and religion have nothing to do with this war," Keys said.

That view was echoed by the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, Britain's second opposition party, who said "going to war isn't just an act of faith."

Keep in mind the UK is one of the most liberal Christian countries in the world and it is not unreasonable to hear "christians" react this way ... from their worldview with its detached, disinterested diety.

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HT: Christian Headlines

Blair, Bush, Christianity, God, GWOT, Politics, UK