BBC host: Christ is real, but I can’t say so on air

BBC presenter Jeremy Vine believes that Christ is who he says he is, but doesn’t think he could say so on his show.

The Radio 2 host, who also fronts TV shows Panorama and Points of View, says society is becoming increasingly intolerant of Christian views.

He told Reform Magazine that it has become “almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God”.

“You can’t express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago,” he said.

“Arguably, the parameters of what you might call ‘right thinking’ are probably closing.”

Mr Vine is a practising Anglican, but he says he is unable to discuss his faith on air.

“One of the things that I think, which may sound bizarre, is that Christ is who he said he was,” he said.

“I don’t think I’d put that out on my show; I suppose there’s a bit of a firewall between thinking that and doing the job I do.”

Mr Vine is the latest public figure to highlight the increasing hostility facing Christians, particularly from the media.

In October last year the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, said he thought broadcasters should treat Islam more sensitively than Christianity because Muslims are less integrated and more of a minority group.

Just days earlier the BBC had been criticized for its treatment of ‘Christian’ characters after EastEnders’ Dot Cotton was ridiculed during an episode where she objected to a gay kiss.

Also in October, the conductor of the BBC Philharmonic orchestra spoke of an ‘ignorant’ secular liberal minority in the media seeking to drive religion from the public sphere. He urged religious people to resist “increasingly aggressive attempts to still their voices”.

The previous month the Christian best-selling author G P Taylor told how he was blacklisted by the BBC. He said a producer had told him the broadcaster could not be “seen to be promoting Jesus”.

And a Sky News journalist highlighted the widespread anti-Christian bias in the media that means groups like The Christian Institute face an “uphill struggle” for fair coverage.

According to David Blevins, former Washington correspondent for Sky News: “It’s important to remember that what appears in the newspapers is not an objective summary of the significant things that happened yesterday but an ideological selection based on the prejudices, agendas and assumptions of a relatively small group of people.

“Their ideology could be loosely defined as ‘progress will one day meet our needs.’ So as with other forms of thought that deviate from that ideological view, evangelical Christianity is either dismissed out of hand or reported in a manner that serves to reinforce the ideology!

“‘Religion’ is viewed as obscure, life-denying and regressive. Organisations like Evangelical Alliance and the Christian Institute face an uphill struggle to change that perception.”

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