Preaching to the masses

The BBC's Catholic director-general holds non-believers in contempt, as his programming shows

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• 
• • Terry Sanderson
  • guardian.co.uk,
  • Saturday October 18 2008 12.00 BST
  • Article history

Although the headlines majored on the BBC's fearful relationship with Islam, there was another point hidden in the BBC director general's speech to the Theos Christian thinktank this week, and it is just as disturbing.

Those of us who have wondered why there is such a ridiculous excess of religion on the BBC now have the answer. It is because Mark Thompson, an enthusiastic Catholic, wants it. Thompson is a great proselytiser for his faith in the mould of Lord Reith, who thought the BBC was "the nation's church".

And, of course, the BBC gives him a very big pulpit to preach from – one that reaches into just about every home in the country, and which we all have to pay for.

Thompson told Theos that there are now more religious programmes on BBC TV and radio than there have been for decades – whereas coverage has almost disappeared from ITV.

"My view," he told the thinktank, "is that there is a difference between the position of Christianity, which I believe should be central to the BBC's religion coverage and widely respected and followed.

"What Christian identity feels like to the broad population is a little bit different to people for whom their religion is also associated with an ethnic identity which has not been fully integrated. There's no reason why any religion should be immune from discussion, but I don't want to say that all religions are the same. To be a minority I think puts a slightly different outlook on it."

He added that demographers predicted an increase in the number of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs over the next 20 years, and a fall in the number of those who profess no religion or consider themselves atheists. Religion, he said, is back.

Religion is indeed back, but not in the way Thompson would have us believe. It is certainly crazier and more violent than it has been for a long time and there is no way we can ignore its terrifying extremists, but there is no popular revival of religious belief – certainly not in Britain.

A Home Office citizenship survey in 2001 showed that when respondents were asked: "What says something important about you if you were describing yourself?", religion came just ninth in the list of priorities.

Even more significantly, four times as many thought religion was not important to their identity as those who did. The idea that most people's lives are motivated by religion is simply not true.

The most comprehensive and trusted annual study of religious statistics, Religious Trends, predicts that by 2040 half the population will identify itself as non-religious (up from 22% in 2001).

Similarly church membership will have dropped from 7% of the population in 2001 to 5% in 2040 (with only 2% actually attending services – and most of them over 65).These are conservative estimates, and the reality is likely to be a whole lot worse for the churches. Certainly Islam is growing, and is predicted to grow further – from 1.8% of the population to 3.6% – but that will be almost entirely from reproduction and immigration, not because vast numbers of people are converting to Islam.

The only group that is growing – and growing rapidly – are those who say either they have no religion or that they don't believe in God. Yet this group hardly gets a mention on the BBC.

As for Thompson's claim that there is a mighty audience for religious programmes, I draw his attention to a survey by Ofcom, the media regulator, which showed that religious programmes were not greatly valued by viewers – only 5% found them to be of any personal significance. Other research from Social Capital showed that in homes that had access to digital channels, there was an almost total flight from channels showing religious programmes.

Thompson added: "The fact that the same licence fee is levied from every household means that all audiences are of equal value to us. There is no specially favoured demographic, no premium market."

Oh, give us a break! A few sentences later he says:

"I believe that the BBC has maintained the daily and weekly presence of religion on its services with more consistency and commitment over decades than any other British media organisation, and also more than most of the rest of what you could call public Britain. This year we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the launch of the Daily Service. Songs of Praise, Choral Evensong, Thought For The Day, Prayer For The Day: the reflection of the cycle of the Christian week and the Christian year is there for anyone who wants to find it. So too – though admittedly less prominently – reflections of some of the key festivals of the UK's other major faiths. It's hard to square any of this with the idea of the BBC as the anti-God squad."

I remember meeting Thompson at the BBC some years ago in connection with the National Secular Society's campaign to open up Thought for the Day to non-religious voices. He appeared to listen sympathetically to our point of view, but, of course, nothing happened. It is clear now that for all his vague promises, he had no intention of doing anything about the situation. This speech shows he holds non-believers in contempt.

However, these latest revelations answer a question that we at the NSS has been asking for years: why,

when all the research shows that hardly anyone wants to watch it, is the BBC absolutely awash with religion, particularly Christianity? It is all down to Thompson and his sidekick Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4.

It is disgraceful that these zealots should have their hands so tightly round the throat of the BBC and use their positions to promote their personal beliefs at licence-payers' expense. The NSS intends to make a complaint to the board of directors of the BBC about Thompson's blatant bias.