A strange ostrich-like relationship
A couple of years ago, my dear friends Phil and Del introduced me to their game 'World Cup' in which you play off 16 (or, if you have a lot of time on your hands, 32) things in a single category against each other in a series of heats, the winner of each round being the one that is 'best'.
The joy of the game is that the randomness of the order of play, the vagueness of the question 'which is best?' and the fact that a single category (especially one along the lines of 'things you can do on a Saturday') can yield completely different types of 'team', makes for a bonkers series of heats in which you might end up fiercely debating whether the Bishop of Hereford is better than Elgar's house.
I mention it because the BBC Religion and Ethics team played the same game at their hideously named BBC RE:THINK 2012 Religion and Ethics Festival, in which they asked some young people 'which is the most important moral issue?' out of the following choices:
- Paying taxes
- Having religious faith or beliefs
- Caring for the environment
- Buying ethical products
- Being faithful to a partner
- Looking after family
- Playing a part in your community
- Putting others before yourself
To point out, as did the person who drew my attention to this, that having religious faith is not a moral choice, is almost to take the 'poll' too seriously (though if we're going to question the category itself, I had never previously considered 'paying taxes' a moral question, or even really a choice...). The point is that to pull eight Cub Scout Guide Book chapter titles out of a hat and ask young people to choose between them is as pointless as debating 'what is the best thing you can keep in a hat'.
Apart from anything else, it's not even like they're exclusive and distinct categories. Some people play a part in their community because they have religious beliefs, without first stopping to ponder which is more important to them, or whether what they're doing is actually more in the line of putting others before themselves. In a game of 'World Cup' at my school last summer, Covent Garden was being hotly contested against the Build-a-Bear shop (the category being 'places in London'): eventually, the boys gleefully decided that Covent Garden was better because it actually includes a Build-a-Bear shop. They, at least, realised that it was ridiculous, showing more wit than the BBC Religion and Ethics team. (The fact that it is a prominent Anglican choir school does not excuse this.)
Aaqil Ahmed, Head of Religion and Ethics at the Beeb, considers the results 'startling'. I challenge you to find a single startling thing in the results. I challenge you even to be interested enough to look up what they were. The only startling thing is that anyone thought it was worth taking part in such a vacuous survey.
As for using the results to show that their shows need to have 'impact and relevance' - and then desperately citing a documentary I've never heard of and Thought For the bloody Day... A department which made a documentary about the burial business in 21st century Britain ought to know when they're digging their own grave.
I leave you with a simple question. Which of these things could you most live without in 21st Century Britain?
- Festivals
- Surveys
- Television
- Cycle lanes
- The BBC Religion and Ethics department
- The Build-a-Bear shop
BBC cannot help itself
Bill Green (not verified) on 12.12pm on Thursday 13th September, 2012
For all the comments you hear from the right wing that the BBC is run by a load of liberal minded left wing reactionaries the BBC is more complex than that. It is undoubtedly pretty much in favour of the status quo in the UK as per about 1950. By that I mean pro-monarchy (you only have to listen to the sycophantic announcers whenever the Queen is mentioned particularly during the Jubilee). Not everyone in the UK is so pro the Monarchy as shown by how few street parties and how little bunting could be seen on the average house. About 1 in 100 from my observation.
Consequently and for the same reason (the Queen is of course appointed by God) the BBC is pro-religion particularly the CofE with Catholicism a close second. And I site for example the sycophancy around the Pope's visit in the midst of an institutoonal child abuse scandal still unresolved that cost the UK hundreds of millions that very few UK citizens wanted and that the Catholics promised to pay for but didn't. The fact that the Chairman of the BBC trust is religious as is the newly appointed DG. EVERY time there is an issue they always mange to find a rentamouth clergyman/woman to comment even though less than 7% of the UK population even go to church. Therfore the liklihood of someone suffering personal trauma having any connection with a Chruch is less than one in 10.
The fact that they bend over backwards to avoid even the slightest hint of questioning anything to do with Islam thus validating the claims of all religions as truth rather than the myth and fantasy that anyone above the age of 8 who has given it consideration can easily see, instead of, as we should, mocking religion at every opportunity.
However in answer to your question I could miss the build a bear shop and change the BBC department name to The BBC Myths, Legends, beliefs, ethics and morals department.
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Whoah there...
James Lark on 10.08am on Friday 14th September, 2012
I am over the age of 8, have given religious belief quite a huge amount of consideration and have come down on the side of sticking with my faith. My frustration with the BBC Ethics and Religion department is that they continue to make it look irrelevant.
You may of course choose to mock religion at every opportunity, but that would be as vacuous an activity as the BBC Religion and Ethics department survey given the many great minds in many religious institutions, the level at which they engage with vital issues and the hidden work that the church does every day in communities. If the BBC Ethics and Religion department were doing their job properly people might be more aware of those things - as it is, the most accurate recent portrayal of the Christian church in modern society has come out of BBC Comedy.
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Love your posts, James and
Love your posts, James and if it was a choice between the above post and your Alan Rickman impression I'd have to choose a pair of chicken's lips and a gerbil that looks like Madonna.