Pope Out of Touch on Homosexuality: Blair

Former PM advocates 'metaphorical' reading
By Amelia Atlas,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2009 2:04 AM CDT
Pope Out of Touch on Homosexuality: Blair
Pope Benedict XVI meets with outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a private audience at the Vatican two years ago.   (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO)

It's time for Pope Benedict to rethink his outdated views on homosexuality, charges former British prime minister Tony Blair. The Vatican considers homosexuality a "tendency" toward "moral evil," citing biblical references. But Blair, a Catholic convert, tells the gay magazine Attitude that religious leaders should treat the Bible as metaphorical, rather than literal, in order to expand tolerance.

“We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith,” said Blair, who has started a foundation to boost understanding of world religions.  "If you read the whole of the Old Testament and took everything that was there in a literal way as being what God and religion is about, you’d have some pretty tough policies." 
(More Tony Blair stories.)

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