How can anyone understand our twenty first century world without knowing how religious faith impacts global, national and regional events?
And why does a lot of our media fail to recognise this in its coverage?
My desire, as a Christian minister and communicator, is to see a deep understanding of the role that religion plays in world events – and the way faith is of significant importance to many hundreds of thousands of individuals across the globe.
For example, learn how to make sense of the conflict within the Middle East and not using a knowledge of the Jewish faith and the muse of Israel? How to grasp the motivation of US evangelical Christians in supporting Donald Trump? What is the religious dynamic in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
The role of non secular literacy within the media seems scarcely to be addressed. When Jonathan Munro, BBC News Global Director and Director of the World Service, spoke at a Voice of the Viewer and Listener conference last autumn, he didn’t address the subject.
Yet the World Service has a special role in covering these issues and customarily fares higher than many other broadcasters. Its ‘Heart and Soul’ programme “explores and tries to clarify personal experiences of spirituality and faith from world wide”.
Recent topics have included the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh, spirituality in Las Vegas, and Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for mourning the dead.
There are signs of hope – and I hope they develop further.
I welcome the growing influence of the UK’s Religion Media Centre as an “impartial and independent organisation aiming to extend further cohesion and understanding in society by helping the media report and understand religion and belief”.
To this end, the RMC provides regular online briefings for journalists on key news topics, publishes background information, holds an annual conference, arranges training sessions and links up journalists with knowledgeable experts inside the faiths.
RMC declares “we’re the one organisation in search of to work alongside the media on matters about religion and belief, from an impartial perspective”.
The Centre emerged from a conference in 2009, when faith leaders met journalists to grasp the gulf in understanding between the 2 sides. Volunteers created the organisation and began activities enabling the Centre to win funding and start its work.
The challenge facing the RMC and other organisations in search of to assist journalists understand the role of religion was highlighted in a report by the Oxford-based Reuters Institute.
The research showed that just about three out of 4 UK journalists polled felt that religion was of little or no importance, with just over half saying religious belief is “unimportant”. These figures were significantly higher than the broader population.
The Reuters Institute report dates from 2015 – but I’d be hard-pressed to say I’d detected any changes in outlook.
In contrast, I’d prefer to praise the work of the Sandford St Martin Trust in organising the UK’s most prestigious broadcast awards for radio, TV and online programmes and content that explore religious, spiritual or ethical themes.
Established in 1978, they’re the one UK awards “that specifically search out one of the best content that supports religious literacy across communities or promotes a greater understanding of how people discover or define their place on the earth, and that welcome entries about any and all faiths – or none”.
Among the 2024 winners were ITV’s ‘A Time to Die,’ Britain’s current laws on assisted suicide, BBC 4’s ‘In the Name of the Father,’ based within the Breslov Hasidic community in Brooklyn, USA and Yavniel, Israel, and Radio 4’s ‘The Indestructibility of Hope,’ covering Christmas in Ukraine. Historian and broadcaster Tom Holland was given a special award by the trustees.
The awards honour – rightly – the superb programmes produced by committed and informed broadcasters and producers. But cost-cutting across the BBC and other public service broadcasters may jeopardise these productions, including on the grassroots.
For example, the BBC has reduce on Sunday morning faith programmes that drew significant audiences on local radio stations across England. From autumn 2023, the local programmes were replaced by regional programmes, and the 39 local stations organised into 13 groups.
While London and Manchester kept their programmes, the brand new programme for the east of England covers an area from north London to the north-Norfolk coast. The recent presenters are working hard to provide engaging radio, however the grassroots faith-based dimension has been much diminished.
Understanding faith has never been more necessary. When we fail to speak, discuss and challenge it, we’re missing out on one in all the important thing elements of today’s world.
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, and a former communications director with the CofE.
