This week was one of those rare occasions when I felt sorry for the British prime minister. The media furore over Tony Blair’s remarks about God on the Parkinson show has been unfair. It is simply wrong to insinuate, as some papers did yesterday, that the PM said that his disastrous Middle Eastern adventure had been endorsed by the Big Guy. He said no such thing.
After some prompting, Blair actually said that God would judge him for the decision to invade Iraq. This is the biggest non-story of the year so far. Don’t believe me? Well try this for a headline: "Christian Says: God Will Judge Me For My Actions." Talk about stating the obvious.
Blair’s comment demonstrated nothing more than the fact that he adheres to one of the central tenets of his faith. As such, it is about as newsworthy as an exclusive story revealing that the sun rises in the east.
For Blair to say that God will judge him for the decision to invade Iraq is a long, long way from Bush’s infamous revelation to Mahmoud Abbas that "baby Jesus told me to do it". Of course it’s entirely possible that the British PM shares this view, that he too feels that God wanted him to bomb Baghdad. But if this is the case, he won’t be stupid enough to say so.
For while Dubya can get away with revealing that he hears voices in his head, Blair could not. While their two countries are similar in many ways, they are polls apart when it comes to religion. While America is a highly religious country, the dominant sect in Britain is the Church of the Apathetic. If Blair was to end a speech with a heartfelt "God Bless Britain" he would be laughed off stage.
Hence the PM’s evident reluctance to discuss his religion, let alone recommend the Bible as a foreign policy document. This dichotomy between the US and Britain is the real story here.