Auntie anti-religious, say religious
The Guardian reports on a House of Lords select committee hearing today in which representatives from the Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths – all contributors to Thought for the Day – accused the BBC of being “anti-religious”.
Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance noted a
pervasive anti-religious attitude that works very vigorously in editing suites.
Dr Indarjit Singh of the Sikh Messenger said:
EastEnders’ Dot Cotton is an example. She quotes endlessly from the Bible and it ridicules [religion] to some extent.
Representatives from the British Humanist Association were also present, arguing that the humanist perspective should also be given a fair hearing. They accused the BBC of ignoring the Human Rights Act by not giving secular humanism equal treatment.
Unsurprisingly, the more traditionally religious did not agree. The Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, said that secular humanism should be given less time on the BBC, not more:
They have an enormous amount of time because the standard mindset of the media, particularly broadcast services, is secular humanism and that mindset is reflected in output. So perhaps it needs attention because it is counter-cultural in society.
One member of the committee, Lord Preston, said he thought claims that the BBC was biased against religion were “ridiculous”.
Considering that religous organisations get free advertising time on Terry Wogan’s Radio 2 show, and even more on Radio 4, to suggest that the BBC ridicules relgion is ludicrous.
And apart from the excellent Jonathan Miller series (being repeated on BBC2), they give pratically no time to non-religous points of view on religion.
I don’t think it takes Dot Cotton to ridicule religion. Some bishops do it perfectly well every time they speak in public.
Maybe it would be more appropriate to demand religion is taken off the air – at least until some of the key advocates learn to stop being anti-human.
Religion ridicules itself…
Fancy! An old geezer with a grey beard watching over us all indeed. What idiocy to believe such a thing.
An old geezer in heaven who lets little kids suffer death by starvation, and nasty diseases..
If there really is someone out there he’s a nasty old git, who doesn’t give a stuff about anyone down here…
It’s a bit of an odd conclusion to come to. I’ve always noticed that whenever the Beeb has someone on talking about Paganism, they almost invariably seem to feel the need to drag on some evangelical twit in the interest of ‘balance’ – which strikes me as a bit like insisting on a quote or two from NIck Griffin every time they hear from the Chief Rabbi.
These people obviously didn’t watch the BBC while the pope was on his way out and just afterwards.
Loads of people coming on to say how great a guy the pope was, and the only person saying that he was actually a bit of an arsehole was Peter Tatchell in a short article on their website. If that’s anti-religous, then Stephen Green is an atheist.
We should be so lucky!
Look at the way even the “Today” staff roll over and play dead every time a supposed “religious” spokesthing comes on.
If only …
If only the Beeb would subject religious leaders to the sort of grilling the politicians get.
The BBC is far from anti-relegious. It has Songs Of Praise and the Heavan and Earth show on a Sunday. What more do these relegious types want?
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