Synod on religious broadcasting

I’m interested to hear that the Church of England’s Synod will be discussing broadcasting on faith issues today. It looks like the premise is that there’s not enough, and that the BBC (and the other channels?) is in some way marginalizing Christian TV output in the UK.

I’ve been thinking about this for some time – not so much about the amount of time devoted to Christian shows - but rather the quality and content of whatever is presented, and indeed how authentically representative it is of the Christian community in all its breadth and diversity.

Where is the good stuff going to come from?

Can we see some more radical voices?

When you consider too the way Christians are depicted in TV drama, documentary and film, we are left with a fuzzy caricature of reality with few genuine sightings of regular Jesus followers on the box.

It’s largely Dot Cotton, the stuffy English vicar archetype and a bit of Cliff Richard thrown in for good measure.

Here’s hoping today’s discussions throw up some good points.