Tony Blair in Debate

Some of you might not have heard, but Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, became a Catholic after he left that office. A few nights ago, he debated on the telly a prominent atheist on a topic having to do with religion in one’s life, specifically Christianity. I could have predicted—no, I did predict—that Tony would lose. [Blair likes to be on a first-name basis.]

Tony was dressed in a gray suit, had gray hair, needed his teeth whitened, and was at a disadvantage with regard to camera angle some of the time. He looked to exist in a gray mist. His opponent, an older man with esophageal cancer, we were told, wore a black suit, didn’t show teeth, kept a stiff upper lip, spoke clearly, and in spite of coughs and sniffles, proved to be a great wit. He made Tony laugh, as well as me. But when Tony uttered a funny remark, his voice faded away as he turned to the people on his right to laugh. His voice sounded rather mushy, like Prince Charles’s voice, to boot. It didn’t seem as if Tony had had any coaching when he needed it. But the atheist was in his element and he won by a big majority. Won with the negative approach to religion in one’s life. Here’s one of his sick little jokes:

He said, in essence, George Bush says he found Christ and stopped drinking. I say, Christ came to him in the form of Laura Bush, who told him, if you don’t stop drinking, I’ll leave you and take the kids.

My real complaint to all this is that Protestantism was not represented in this debate. It was a great waste of time as debate, but it was entertaining.

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