{"id":45385,"date":"2008-10-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tony-blair-defends-gods-goodness\/"},"modified":"2008-10-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T00:00:00","slug":"tony-blair-defends-gods-goodness","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tony-blair-defends-gods-goodness\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair Defends God’s Goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many in Britain have reflected on the life and leadership of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007), stories have emerged concerning his faith. A 2008 issue of Time<\/em> magazine featured one particularly moving story from Blair's past:<\/p>\n\n

\n

Blair is deeply religious—the most openly devout political leader of Britain since William Ewart Gladstone more than 100 years ago. He handles questions about religion deftly. He doesn't back down. His longtime press secretary and consigliere, Alastair Campbell, remembers Blair in 1996 at a school in Scotland where a gunman had killed 16 children and a teacher. In a bloodstained classroom, Campbell asked Blair, "What does your God make of this?" Blair, says Campbell, stopped and replied, "Just because man is bad, it does not mean that God is not good."<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3402,3450,3454,3455,3621,3827,3854,3903,3943,4084,4087,4176,4563,4564,4584,4633,4660,4700,4702,4736,4752,4944,4992,5007,5027,5103,5140,5152,5178,5195,5202,5238],"tax_ctp_topics":[384],"class_list":["post-45385","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-agnosticism","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-attitude","tax_ctp_tags-attributes-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-doubt","tax_ctp_tags-election-day","tax_ctp_tags-evil","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-goodness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-government","tax_ctp_tags-human-condition","tax_ctp_tags-omnipotence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-omnipresence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-pain","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-politics","tax_ctp_tags-presidents-day","tax_ctp_tags-presumption","tax_ctp_tags-providence","tax_ctp_tags-questions","tax_ctp_tags-september-11-2001","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism","tax_ctp_tags-social-conditions","tax_ctp_tags-sovereignty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-testing","tax_ctp_tags-theodicy","tax_ctp_tags-tragedy","tax_ctp_tags-trust","tax_ctp_tags-unbelief","tax_ctp_tags-violence"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nTony Blair Defends God's Goodness - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tony-blair-defends-gods-goodness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tony Blair Defends God's Goodness - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As many in Britain have reflected on the life and leadership of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007), stories have emerged concerning his faith. 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