The former Director General of the BBC has called for atheists and humanists to contribute to BBC Radio 4’s Thought For the Day.
Lord Birt said in a House of Lords debate on 4 November 2009 that the BBC must ‘soon loosen the stranglehold’ of established religious organisations and ‘fully embrace’ the humanist movement. The debate took place in the House of Lords on the eve of the BBC Trust’s deliberations on whether to allow non-religious contributors to the Today programme’s religious slot.
Lord Harrison, an outspoken humanist who tabled Question for Short Debate, also asked to pay ‘sufficient regard to the importance of reflecting humanism’ and spoke about 'combined debates of humanists and religionists’ to examine, among other things, ‘what new uses our wonderful churches could be put to in a modern, secular age’.
He said that the BBC had given a platform to Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, but ‘we humanists are still denied even a walk-on part on Thought for the Day’.
Lord Harrison continued saying: ‘Have you ever watched a humanist 'Match of the Day' or an atheist ‘Strictly Come Dancing’?
‘The 5.45am slot Prayer for the Day, once the brief intonation of a short prayer, has elongated into a mini Thought for the Day. It is a form of mission — or should I say missionary? — creep.
‘My concluding thought for the day is that the title ‘Thought for the Day’ does not guarantee an exclusive religious viewpoint — but that is what it is, and it is discriminatory,’ he added.
(Click here to read the debate)
Secular and humanist groups have campaigned for the slot to be opened to those outside religious groups, and in January this year a non-religious version, called Thought for the Afternoon, was broadcast on Radio 4’s Saturday afternoon programme, iPM, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Lord Griffiths of Burry Port said in the debate that he spoke as a Christian about the issue. He said:
'As a contributor to Thought For the Day for 17 years, I honestly believe that I could deposit the 198 scripts which I have written for the programme in front of everyone in this Grand Committee and that noble Lords would not find one single occasion when I took a swipe at anyone who did not believe. If I could have the same assurance that British humanists using the same slot would not take a swipe at people who did believe — there has been a little bit of evidence of that in the contributions made thus far — then it would seem to me that their place in the slot would be perfectly justified and justifiable.
Lord Griffiths said that he has taken from the website of the British Humanist's Association their vision called A world without ... discrimination, where people are free to live good lives on the basis of reason, experience and shared human values.
He continued:
‘I would say ‘Amen’ to that if it would not cause them offence. Their mission is stated as:
‘The British Humanist Association exists to promote Humanism and support and represent people who seek to live good lives’.
‘I say ‘Amen’ to that. The trouble is that in each case I have left out a phrase. The vision actually says:
‘A world without religious privilege or discrimination, and their mission includes the words, ‘who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs’
He concluded: ‘I encourage British humanists to be a little more generous and a little less sectarian in the way they view religion’.
(Click here to read the debate)
In July this year, it was reported that the plans to include secular and humanist points of view in Thought For the Day drew criticism. Listeners of the programme accused the BBC of caving in to lobbying from secular groups, and said that any decision to change the broadcast would be 'madness'.
Reverend Giles Fraser, the vicar of Putney, South-West London, and a regular contributor to Thought For the Day, said:
'What is at threat here is whether this is a distinctive slot. Would you have secularists doing Songs of Praise? It just seems madness. This could be a way of destroying it through the back door, through political correctness.
'I think it is very easy for people to read the BBC as backing away from religious broadcasting,' he added.
Conservative MP Philip Davies, who sits on the culture, media and sport select committee, said:
'The whole of the broadcast media tends to be pretty secular and Thought for the Day is the one thing which actually puts a religious and therefore different perspective across.
'If they are going to abandon the principle it is a religious thing then it drives a coach and horses through its purpose. Its uniqueness would disappear.'
(See the CCFON report)