Quotes from the media

PARLIAMENTARY GROUP CALLS FOR GREATER RELIGIOUS LITERACY IN THE MEDIA

Religion should be part of the required training for journalists to improve their religious literacy and avoid stereotyping, a major new report from parliamentarians has said.

Learning to Listen, by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religion in Media, says journalists would benefit from using the many resources offered by religious institutions to solve the ‘pervasive’ and ‘well-founded’ perception among faith groups of religious illiteracy in the media.

The report says that religion is ‘misrepresented’ in a ‘wide variety of ways’ including ‘a reduction of religion to its visual, liturgical and doctrinal facets’, ‘sensationalising religion’, the ‘reinforcement of problematic stereotypes’, ‘basic mistakes and imprecise language’, ‘ignoring diversity within faith groups’, and ‘misleading use of representatives’.

It calls for accurate representations of religion and faith communities, and for the required hours of religious programming at the BBC to be ‘protected’ in future reviews. Another recommendation says that religious literacy should be covered in courses for professional media qualifications and industry training.

Christian Today

JUSTIN WELBY DEMANDS BAN ON NDAs IN CHURCH OF ENGLAND AFTER RACIST ABUSE EXPOSED

Non-disclosure agreements must no longer be used in the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury has told staff, after victims of racist abuse were paid off to ‘buy their silence’.

The Most Rev Justin Welby told Times Radio … that he was ‘horrified’ to learn of racist abuse aimed at priests and staff within the church, as exposed in a BBC Panorama documentary…

He said that he had been unaware that non-disclosure agreements, known as NDAs, were being used to prevent those who received payouts over racist abuse from speaking publicly about the incidents.

Welby revealed that he and the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, have written to ‘senior people’ within the church’s administration telling them that the confidentiality agreements must no longer be used…

‘In every large group of people you’ll find people with racist ideas. But within the church and institutions of the church we have to stamp that out,’ [he said].

The Times

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS SHOULD FOCUS MORE ON ENVIRONMENT, REPORT CONCLUDES

Theological education must be updated urgently to include teaching on the environmental crisis, if church leaders are to be equipped to minister during the climate emergency, a consultation has concluded.

The report The Environment in UK Theological Institutions … says: ‘As the environmental crisis deepens this century, it is vital that we provide training and formation for ministers to be effective leaders and ministers of the gospel in the challenging contexts that they are likely to face.

‘They will be ministering in communities who might be impacted by severe weather events, future pandemics, challenges of land use change and potential food shortages. They will be part of a global Church, with communities in low income countries facing even more severe outcomes with few resources to meet them. They will be seeking to engage and support young people who are deeply committed to eco justice.’

Ministers will also need to support people suffering from mental health issues as a result of the crisis, the report says.

Church Times

RE BODIES LAY THE GROUND FOR TEACHING NON-RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEWS

The Religious Education Council of England and Wales and RE Today Services will be working together on a new suite of resources over the next three years.

Over the course of the project, the charities will create a toolkit to support schools in building a syllabus for the teaching of RE that teaches religious and non-religious worldviews side-by-side – a key recommendation from the 2018 Commission on Religious Education.

Christian Today