Bishop's Diary

EARLIER this year Westminster cathedral hosted a series of lectures. Tony Blair’s on ‘faith and globalisation’ received the most publicity. The one by Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC on ‘faith and the media’ was not widely reported.
In it he compared 1979, when he joined the BBC as a trainee, with the present. In 1979, he said, the media regarded religion as rather dull and safe, a phenomenon whose days were numbered.
Now, in contrast, the world looks a more complex and diverse place as far as religion is concerned.
He pointed out that, here in England, Christian belief has proved itself to be more resilient than many predicted.
Furthermore, most demographers expect the number of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs all to grow as a proportion of the world population over the next 20 years and the number who profess no religion or who define themselves as atheist to decline.
Tony Blair made the case in his lecture in Westminster cathedral for faith as a manner of addressing large-scale global tensions and conflicts.
By contrast, the celebrated atheist, Richard Dawkins, has been making the case, in print but also often on the airwaves, that religion is so socially destructive, so evil, that religious education is tantamount to child abuse.
What both agree about is that the question of religion is an important one. Mark Thompson suggested that this recognition of the importance of religion is beginning to feel like a new consensus.
As a Christian I am happy about such a consensus on the importance of religion. It has always seemed to me that the question of whether or not there is a God is the most crucial one facing us as human beings since it will dictate whether our lives have any ultimate meaning or not.
It is my hope that the new found recognition of the importance of faith by the media will translate into more and more people considering the importance of faith in their own lives.
The more good and ordinary people express faith and practice it the more chance there is of Tony Blair’s rather than Richard Dawkins’ assessment of the effect of religion in the world being correct.

Back

© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/trade_directory/