Bishop blasts broadcasters
A LEADING Church of England bishop has launched a scathing attack on broadcasters he said suffer from a “ideological knee-jerk” response to religious programming.
The Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Bradford, said that beyond the BBC and the “odd bit of Channel 4”, religion had been dropped as if it were a “toxic contaminator of decent culture” by broadcasters.
Writing in the Radio Times, the Bishop said ITV saw “no need” to consider religion – despite the fact, he said, that more people shape their lives around religious conviction and practice than attend sporting events.
The Bishop praised BBC Easter programming as “increasingly imaginative”, singling out The Preston Passion to be broadcast on Good Friday.