Chine McDonald
Director, Theos
Last Thursday, I attended the twice-yearly BBC Religion & Ethics Forum meeting at New Broadcasting House. In the breaks there was one main topic of conversation among both the BBC senior staff and the faith representatives: many of us were eagerly awaiting that night’s final of The Celebrity Traitors. The show has gripped the nation – including several of us in the Theos team – over the past few weeks, and brought home again the power of broadcasting to bring people together. That this elaborate game in which the “faithfuls” are tasked with rooting out the “traitors” who are secretly killing them off would be the topic of conversation over tea and biscuits with fellow members of the Forum, comprising Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Humanists, speaks to the power of television.
It also shows us the importance and possibility of a strong public service broadcaster, with a commitment to inform, educate and entertain. In recent days, the crisis at the BBC that led to the departure of its Director General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness has plunged the future of the nation’s oldest broadcaster into uncertainty. As if the uncertainty leading up to its 2027 Charter Renewal wasn’t challenging enough for the broadcaster, finding itself in the crosshairs of Donald Trump due to some deliberate decisions about the splicing of footage, and a delay in apologising, coupled with a concerted effort to undermine it from politicians and other media organisations makes this moment an existential one for the BBC.
Within it all, many of us who care deeply about the role of faith and belief in public life are watching with concern. The BBC has long been one of the few institutions to take religious broadcasting seriously – not simply as niche programming for the devout, but as a vital part of understanding who we are as a nation. Its religious output has given space for reflection, for celebration, for lament, and for connection across lines of difference. It certainly does not always get it right. That’s why I value being part of the twice-yearly BBC Religion & Ethics Forum meetings in which there is genuine opportunity to review, critique and reflect on the religious programming of the year and how it is seen by those from within faith communities. This year’s standout offerings including Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges in which the presenter goes on a pilgrimage to India to attend the Kumbh Mela, the largest religious festival in history; and a new series Prayer & Reflection – broadcasting worship, prayer and reflection from the UK’s major faiths. One of the most successful examples of religious programming that appeals to non-religious and multi-faith audiences is Pilgrimage, which returned featuring a group of celebrities on a pilgrimage through the Alps.
The reality is that some people will learn more about religion watching Pilgrimage – or even The Traitors, which has featured people of faith in recent series – than they have done in religious education classes at school. We at Theos believe that RE matters, and that it matters Beyond the Classroom, as our new report by senior researcher Hannah Rich, published today, finds. The report explores how people learn about religion not just in schools, but through everyday encounters: in workplaces, community spaces, social media, and yes, through the media. It argues that if we want a society that is compassionate and cohesive, we need to see religious education as lifelong, informal and shared. Broadcasting, when done well, is one of the few truly universal classrooms left: a space where we can encounter and understand those we might be pushed towards believing are ‘the other’ – people of other faiths, races, classes, and politics.
The BBC’s long-running programmes like Songs of Praise, the Sunday programme, Beyond Belief, Thought for the Day, Pause for Thought, and Prayer for the Day are places to explore meaning, identity and morality. They have quietly built bridges in an often fragmented society. I’ll need to declare an interest here: I am a regular contributor to these programmes, and much of our work at Theos finds its way to them, with several of the staff team contributing and presenting shows. We do of course contribute to many other media outlets – from the Guardian to the Times to GB News. But we feature most regularly on the BBC because it is the BBC more than any other that has set piece religious programming. We contribute because we believe in the power of religious broadcasting and know it offers space for us to put forward compelling stories and ideas that arise from our scriptural tradition; ideas we believe can help create a world where there is human flourishing for all. At a time when misinformation, polarisation, and religious illiteracy are on the rise, such storytelling is not a luxury – it’s a public good.
We want to strengthen the provision for religious education within mainstream education at all levels, which is why we welcome the new Curriculum and Assessment Review’s recommendation to embed religious education in the national curriculum for the first time. This is, as described by our friends at Culham St Gabriel, “a watershed moment for education”. But our new report Beyond the Classroom also shows there are other spaces where people of all ages can learn about faith.
This is a crucial time for those, like us, who believe that the Christian story can provide counter-narratives for the dominant and harmful narratives that exist in our society. Religious education through broadcasting allows us to be able to communicate these in engaging and compelling ways. It’s possible that it will become harder to do this in the coming years. Last year’s Media Bill, for example, removed a clear statutory requirement for religious (and other specialist) programming. Despite this, the BBC has continued to take religion seriously, and – at a time of increased mistrust in institutions and societal fracture, the BBC is one of the last places we can still have a shared conversation about what matters.
I pray that whatever direction the new leadership of the BBC will take, it will continue to safeguard the place of religion: because in these challenging times, we need more clear, wise and compassionate religious content, not less.
Brislington Community News 