“RELIGIOUS illiteracy remains widespread in British public life, including within much media coverage,” and society is poorer as a result, the Archbishop of York has said.
Archbishop Cottrell, who was giving a keynote address at the Religion Media Centre festival in Westminster on Monday, said that such illiteracy meant that society was “therefore less able to make sense of what is happening in our world and why”.
He continued: “History’s very familiar story of powerful people using religion to bolster their ambitions continues today. It means, for instance, that the Middle East conflict, unfolding again before our eyes with such horror, cannot be understood without knowing its religious dimensions and its religious history. Likewise, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has a strong religious dimension to it.
“Lack of understanding contributes to stereotyping and misrepresentation, which, in turn, leads to fear of people ‘not like us’ and contributes to the false narratives of dread and hatred which multiply on the internet and, tragically, sometimes lead to actual abuse and actual harm.”
Speaking about the internet, the Archbishop said that “the digital landscape urgently needs further regulation.”
He had begun his lecture by making three points.
First: “We will never understand the world around us, unless we understand faith.” Second: “We will never understand each other unless we understand faith.” Third: “We will never understand ourselves unless we understand faith, because we are spiritual beings with longings inside us that only faith can really help us make sense of. And properly understood, and lived out with humility and compassion, faith can be one of the drivers for building the good and flourishing society that we all long for.”
In relation to the media, he continued to stress the centrality of the issue of “trust” in public institutions and in public figures which, he said, was “at a pretty low ebb”.
“Trust is eroded when people don’t see themselves represented, and when the things they do see happening around them in their communities are not being included or addressed.
“And in the digital age, when we all get our news and information in a multiplying variety of ways, this is further undermined when truth telling, reliability, and accountability are in short supply.
“At one end, it is hard to hold the powerful to account when it is the powerful who own the media outlet and control the editorial policy. At the other, the unfiltered, unedited, still mainly unregulated and unmoderated content on social media platforms risks relativising and trivialising everything to my experience and even my truth.”
Earlier this year, he said that the BBC’s religious coverage was “poor and underfunded” (News, 5 March).
Turning to public service broadcasting, Archbishop Cottrell emphasised in his address the need for what he called “values for money”. He said: “Faith must be central to this. Because it is central to life.”
The Archbishop said that ethnic origin and religious faith in communities was more important to people than geographical location. “You don’t get to choose your neighbour,” he said.
“Of course, the UK is still a family of nations, and within that a network of regions with its own culture and identity, but 21st-century Britain is also a network of communities. Many of these communities find their identity in ethnic origin and religious faith more than geographic location. Going forward, public service broadcasting needs to get better at reflecting this reality, and in particular needs to be given a much higher priority.”
He noted that religious broadcasting was in decline. “Where it remains, it is often confined to worship or narrow ‘specifically religious’ content, not yet reflecting the role of faith in other aspects of national life. In print media, religious correspondents have been combined with other specialisms or simply abolished altogether, leading to a decline in coverage which is rooted in knowledge and understanding.”
In conclusion, he said: “In supporting the continuation of the public service broadcasting sector, I don’t so much want to ask the questions whether, for instance, the licence fee is value for money, but whether public service broadcasting in all its different forms, gives us ‘values for money’ — and that the promotion of those values includes and understands the value of faith and the values that come from faith, helping us to understand the world; to understand each other; to understand ourselves and building a kinder and more coherent society.”