Post by Teddy Bear on Oct 13, 2011 22:12:40 GMT
The Reverend Peter Mullen is clearly opposed to much of the BBC agenda, not only for it's anti-Christian bias, but quite a few other areas that concern him. He touches on it in this passionate piece in the Daily Mail.
Wish there were more like him speaking their mind.
Wish there were more like him speaking their mind.
There's rarely any thought in Thought for the Day
by REVD PETER MULLEN
Last updated at 4:39 PM on 12th October 2011
If the BBC is truly serious about its intentions to make cuts and save money, then it could make a small start by scrapping that fatuous three minutes’ slot on The Today Programme known as Thought for the Day.
It’s a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act, for a start; because there is rarely any thought in it.
What we have instead is a parade of cliché-struck clergy coming on to make anodyne amateur statements about secular, mostly political, affairs of which they have not the remotest understanding beyond what they have just been told by The Guardian’s leader column.
And they all seem to have such funny names. I heard the other morning someone called Moaner Sid Eeky. And then there is another with a ruthlessly practised proletarian accent called Dave Spart – sorry, I got that wrong: I mean of course Canon Doctor Giles Fraser. Is there someone called Twinkle-Winkle from the shrine of St Janus Piccalilli?
Then there are, in accordance with the BBC’s gospel of 'diversity', representatives of other faiths and none, whose names are as unpronounceable as their 'thoughts' are unintelligible.
They all say the same thing, and it is the usual BBC agenda. It’s left wing, naturally. It’s in favour of welfare and big-statism. It despises Israel and hardly ever has a bad word to say about the many Arab tyrannies which are wreaking such havoc all over north Africa and the middle east.
And, if it does have a gospel to proclaim, it is the phoney gospel of global warming – the biggest scam since the South Sea Bubble.
It is of course enamoured of that great white hope President Obama, in spite of that man’s copious failings and now very obvious incompetence.
It hates the bankers and sympathises with the rioters and looters. It imagines itself to be cutting edge prophetic, while all it does is repeat the dreary orthodoxies of the soft Left.
Never mind: everyone is entitled to his prejudices. But the worst aspect of Thought for the Day is that there is no thought in it.
The spiritual leaders who speak on it have no serious spirituality, no penetrating theological insight and only the literary and oratorical skills of an overripe banana.
The general style is that of a rather backward fifth former who has been asked to write an essay on some issue of the day. It is simply fatuous.
Every morning I come within an inch of chucking the wireless out into the street.
Why should it be so worthless and trite? Because it is part of a general malaise in the clergy of all denominations and world religions who have detached themselves from authentic and traditional spirituality in favour of talking the anodyne leftish rubbish of the BBC’s politically-correct agenda.
As a parish priest, I can speak most nearly about the Church of England in which most of the modern clergy have no philosophical or theological training. Mention Hooker to most of them and they would immediately think of a mission to prostitutes. Speak of Eliot and they would set up the instant cry, 'Elitism!'
The ordination courses in the C. of E. are an illiterate and uneducated shambles.
And so how do most of the modern clergy fill their time? (I say 'most' because I could immediately supply you with the names of some notable exceptions).
They fill in their time by box-ticking, going on courses, giving 'presentations' and attending meetings. In other words, they waste their time. And so they waste ours too. Why don’t these speakers come on each morning and say something religious?
Because they are not themselves religious and, insofar as they have any regard for our Christian heritage, it is only in order to misapply it to some current fad, something that the newspapers are talking about. In other words, these speakers are ephemeral, like the butterflies; only not so beautiful.
But to return to Thought for the Day, there are, here and there, some excellent speakers. There is Anne Atkins, with her well-expressed biblical moral teaching.
And there is the Chief Rabbi who is a wise man. Let’s have Anne then, or Jonathan every morning. Or else give us three minutes silence – which would at least have the advantage of shutting John Humphrys up for a short spell.
by REVD PETER MULLEN
Last updated at 4:39 PM on 12th October 2011
If the BBC is truly serious about its intentions to make cuts and save money, then it could make a small start by scrapping that fatuous three minutes’ slot on The Today Programme known as Thought for the Day.
It’s a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act, for a start; because there is rarely any thought in it.
What we have instead is a parade of cliché-struck clergy coming on to make anodyne amateur statements about secular, mostly political, affairs of which they have not the remotest understanding beyond what they have just been told by The Guardian’s leader column.
And they all seem to have such funny names. I heard the other morning someone called Moaner Sid Eeky. And then there is another with a ruthlessly practised proletarian accent called Dave Spart – sorry, I got that wrong: I mean of course Canon Doctor Giles Fraser. Is there someone called Twinkle-Winkle from the shrine of St Janus Piccalilli?
Then there are, in accordance with the BBC’s gospel of 'diversity', representatives of other faiths and none, whose names are as unpronounceable as their 'thoughts' are unintelligible.
They all say the same thing, and it is the usual BBC agenda. It’s left wing, naturally. It’s in favour of welfare and big-statism. It despises Israel and hardly ever has a bad word to say about the many Arab tyrannies which are wreaking such havoc all over north Africa and the middle east.
And, if it does have a gospel to proclaim, it is the phoney gospel of global warming – the biggest scam since the South Sea Bubble.
It is of course enamoured of that great white hope President Obama, in spite of that man’s copious failings and now very obvious incompetence.
It hates the bankers and sympathises with the rioters and looters. It imagines itself to be cutting edge prophetic, while all it does is repeat the dreary orthodoxies of the soft Left.
Never mind: everyone is entitled to his prejudices. But the worst aspect of Thought for the Day is that there is no thought in it.
The spiritual leaders who speak on it have no serious spirituality, no penetrating theological insight and only the literary and oratorical skills of an overripe banana.
The general style is that of a rather backward fifth former who has been asked to write an essay on some issue of the day. It is simply fatuous.
Every morning I come within an inch of chucking the wireless out into the street.
Why should it be so worthless and trite? Because it is part of a general malaise in the clergy of all denominations and world religions who have detached themselves from authentic and traditional spirituality in favour of talking the anodyne leftish rubbish of the BBC’s politically-correct agenda.
As a parish priest, I can speak most nearly about the Church of England in which most of the modern clergy have no philosophical or theological training. Mention Hooker to most of them and they would immediately think of a mission to prostitutes. Speak of Eliot and they would set up the instant cry, 'Elitism!'
The ordination courses in the C. of E. are an illiterate and uneducated shambles.
And so how do most of the modern clergy fill their time? (I say 'most' because I could immediately supply you with the names of some notable exceptions).
They fill in their time by box-ticking, going on courses, giving 'presentations' and attending meetings. In other words, they waste their time. And so they waste ours too. Why don’t these speakers come on each morning and say something religious?
Because they are not themselves religious and, insofar as they have any regard for our Christian heritage, it is only in order to misapply it to some current fad, something that the newspapers are talking about. In other words, these speakers are ephemeral, like the butterflies; only not so beautiful.
But to return to Thought for the Day, there are, here and there, some excellent speakers. There is Anne Atkins, with her well-expressed biblical moral teaching.
And there is the Chief Rabbi who is a wise man. Let’s have Anne then, or Jonathan every morning. Or else give us three minutes silence – which would at least have the advantage of shutting John Humphrys up for a short spell.