You can be anything in Britain today – except a Christian
The media coverage around the election of Edwin Poots as the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party has focussed almost completely on Mr Poots’s faith. Nearabout every headline has begun with ‘Creationist Christian’… and you’re never far into the article before you’ve read that Mr Poots believes the world was made by God around 4,000 BC.
But why is this being discussed at all? Who cares? And, more importantly, would elections of people of other faiths lead to the same form of coverage? Absolutely not. Imagine a devout Muslim being asked on BBC Newsnight whether he really believed that the Prophet flew to heaven on a winged horse. The presenter would be sacked before he could say As-salamu alaykum.
Ian Paisley Jr called out this anti-Christian bias on the BBC a few nights ago.
I’m reminded of the Frank Skinner line: you can be anything in Britain today except a Christian. That seems to be the issue. The BBC wants to lambast the man because he happens to be a man of faith and they want to take, basically, the mickey out of his religion.
You wouldn’t do that if he was a Muslim. You wouldn't do that if he was any other religion in the United Kingdom, but you can take the mickey out of his Christian faith. You should be ashamed of yourselves. The BBC should be ashamed of itself for starting from that position…
He has never been in the position where he would try to force his faith down your throat or anyone else’s throat. He would not allow those things to get in the way of… policy making, and he has an excellent track record… That’s what interests us.
The video is well worth a watch.
‘Cobblers to your programme,’ indeed!
