Religious programming at the BBC is in decline, with minority faiths being given ‘preferential treatment’ over Christianity, it was claimed this week. Fears were voiced by members of the Church of England’s Archbishop’s Council after the recent appointment of a Sikh to produce Songs of Praise, and amid speculation that a Muslim may take over as head of religious programmes from Methodist preacher Michael Wakelin, who lost his job in a BBC re-shuffle. Four out of seven executives in the BBC religion department have been made redundant in the past year and the Churches’ Media Council says that Christians are now significantly under-represented at the Corporation. The BBC has said that the changes are intended to strengthen its religious offering. ‘We very much hope this is the case, and will be monitoring the situation closely,’ said Bishop of Manchester the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch.
Sources: Daily Telegraph (29/3), Church of England Newspaper (3/4)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
+-+Olive+(4).jpg)
6 comments:
Just a couple of days ago I saw a news report on growing unemployment in UK, and they explained the term "being made redundant." Without having seen that program, I wouldn't have known what you meant. Here we call it getting laid off.
I think perhaps employers think that 'being made redundant' is a gentler phrase tha Alan Sugar's harsh 'You're fired!' It says that you are being 'laid off' reluctantly because the firm can no longer afford to employ you rather than that your work has not been satisfactory.
I think this is one of the inevitable results of postChristendom, Olive.
Britain and most of Europe is only nominally Christian at best and thus as Christians we must learn to work from the margins and not expect to be given a voice automatically anymore.
That's not a bad place to be (after all it's where the early church was PREChristendom) but it does mean we have to learn to work in a new way and certainly re-discover our missional DNA.
It is certainly a sign of the times and I think that the BBC and other authorities are acting in this way to prevent people of other faiths feeling marginalised and possibly causing trouble or unrest as a result. It seems to me that we need to do two things. We need to get to grips with this by studying what people of other faiths believe so that we can understand each other better and live and work more harmoniously together. At the same time, Christians must become much more skilled at spreading the Good News of Jesus in our everyday lives so that others can see what a difference our faith makes both in us and in our community.
In the US to be politically correct, you should not wear a cross, say Jesus or Christian. However you are applauded if you show compassion for Judaism, Islam, Hindu, etc. It was the Methodist denomination that always was most open to other religions, yet we now have to hide our Christian lights under bushels for fear of being scorned as a zealot.....
By the way Olive, thank you so much for your encouraging words on my blog post after Ron's accident. He is doing quite well.
It's good to hear that Ron is doing well and i hope that continues. but you didn't say - Was the vana complete write-off? If so, you'll be missing it quite badly.
Post a Comment