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Religious Broadcasting
2004-02-03 - 11:00 p.m.

I have something of a complaint to make about television. Frankly, the standard of religious programming is appalling. I think I need to explain a bit about this as I live in Britain. We have five terrestrial channels - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. You get access to these by paying a £100 television license fee every year. The money raised by that goes to the BBC - the other channels raise money by advertising. Because of this, the BBC is really a state channel, and Parliament monitors its standards. It is supposed to be impartial and accurate at all times. Recently, a BBC news report sparked enormous controversy, as a Ministry of Defence scientist killed himself during an investigation of who had given information about intelligence relating to the Iraq war. The inquiry into his death, presidered over by Lord Hutton, has just reported, blaming the BBC and in response the Director-General and the Chairman of the BBC have resigned. We also have access to other channels, either through a satellite dish or cable.

There is one religious TV channel, I think, but as you can only get it through Sky or cable, I have not seen it. The BBC is, however, supposed to have religious programming throughout the year. This generally consists of several programmes on Sundays geared towards Christians, with specials and series during the year about Christianity and other religions, usually Islam and Judaism.

The regular religious programmes do not have a particularly large number of viewers, but the BBC is supposed to have some sort of religious programmes going on. ITV also has a limited amount of religious programming, often as part of its regional differences schedule. The reason that the various programmes have few viewers is that they are incredibly dull. Most Christians do not watch them, let alone non-Christians!

This is a shame becuse, as I have mentioned before, there is no lack of interest in Christianity. To some extent the BBC in particular is hamstrung by its public service committments - a recent live programme about the Alpha course inspired controversy because it was seen to be prosletysing. Every Sunday, the BBC has two regular religious programmes - The Heaven and Earth Show and Songs of Praise. The first of these is not wholly Christian in tone but does tend to cover more Christian issues. In format, it is a breakfast show, with two presenters sitting on a couch, with invited guests discussing issues or what they are doing, and little reports - which are usually on a "celebrity" sent off on a retreat. The trouble with this show is that it is too light - because it is intended as a breakfast show. Issues discussed, whether they are about new hymns or things like abortion, are done in a non-combative way. If they are important issues, no one really argues or treats them as though they were important. The whole show seems more like a slot-filler than something intended to be interesting.

Songs of Praise is an extremely long-lived programme, and probably the most popular of the religious shows. Indeed, its format has been copied by the regional programmes on ITV. Basically, Songs of Praise is simply a televised church service, sometimes in cathedrals and sometimes in smaller churches. A presenter gives a short description of the church and/or area, and perhaps an interview. Hymns are subtitled so that viewers can sing along. As far as I have ever seen, the program only shows Church of England services, and then only from "broad" churches. You will not see a pentecostal service there, nor the highest of the Anglo-Catholic services. I would guess that this is to make it appealing to the largest number of people. Many people watch Songs of Praise instead of going to church, as it is a full service, and it is enjoyed mostly by old ladies of various denominations.

While I dislike The Heaven and Earth Show, I have little problem with Songs of Praise in itself. It is the fact that this is all we get that is unfortunate. There is so much more the BBC could show, and that people would like. It already knows this, for when the BBC shows some of its religious documentaries, they are very popular. A couple of years ago they had a multi-part documentary called Son of God, which was about the life of Jesus, and discussing the historicity of various parts of His life. It was not done in an offensive way, yet it did not shy away from controversy. It gave many people their first chance to hear the ideas of top British (mostly British) scholars like Mark Goodacre. It was very popular, as were their later one-part documentaries on the Virgin Mary and Judas (using the same scholars). Documentaries on historical figures, such as a recent one on Luther on Channel 4, were also popular. They explain the faith in an engaging way, and historical documentaries are extremely popular - no matter who they are about. I recently watched an interesting series called "Some of my best friends are..." which covered several denominations of Christianity and other religions, explaining those religions and the problems the presenters had with them, complete with interviews with priests, rabbis and imams.

So the broadcasters do know that people are interested, but as documentaries are rather expensive, we don't get many of them. Yet I saw a good programme idea on ITV once which was badly used. It could be ued to make an interesting yet cheap programme about religion. What this programme did, over several shows, was discuss the very controversial issues. However, half an hour to discuss Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu attitudes to things like homosexuality is not nearly enough. What they should have done is spend at least an hour on each faith's attitude to one issue, and cover the entire spectrum. On homosexuality that would be from the "ex-gay" movement to queer theology and everything in between. By not using scholars but instead, say, students or lay people, costs could be drastically cut. People enjoy a bit of controversy, and this would provide it. Everything from medical ethics to whether women could be priests could be discussed.

Another idea could be to have a biographical show about great people of faith. So, say, Desmond Tutu, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and people like them could be discussed. History is a popular subject, particularly contemporary history, and I am sure that that would be interesting. Another series could be on saints - including all the gory and/or bizarre bits in their lives, which people find fascinating. Like St Catherine, who was martyred on a spiked wheel and whose name was later given to the firework. Or St Lawrence who was spit-roasted to death, bravely telling them he was not quite done on one side yet during it. He is now the patron saint of rotisseurs (someone in the Vatican has quite a sense of humour!) That would be fascinating to people, I'm sure.

There are many issues where religious broadcasting could rise above being merely a duty that TV stations feel they have to do into being interesting and informative programming in its own right. Radio manages it, why not TV? There is room and interest enough for the devotional, the humorous, and the convtroversial, if only broadcasters will see it.

-HolyFool