The periodic discussion about opening up Thought For The Day is being rekindled once again. Unfortunately they're barely raising their sights beyond the British Humanist Association. It's a start I suppose, but frankly, I've no more desire to hear a humanist quoting from David Hume than I have to hear a clergyman quoting Jesus. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with either of these two great philosophers - it's just that we've heard it all before, and it didn't make any difference last time. A person's beliefs do not, of themselves, confer on them any particular moral authority.
How about we really open up TFTD, not just to the great and the good, but to the people up and down the country who have to make moral choices every day: nurses, teachers, policemen. And I don't just mean the heads of their respective professions. Let's have a nurse from a busy A&E ward, or a primary school teacher, or a bobby on an inner city beat. What does the bloke who sweeps the streets see in the rubbish that gets thrown away? What problems do the family who own the shop on the corner face? The Today programme is full of politicians, bishops and businessmen. They get their say. Let's hear about a different class of problem, a different set of choices.
They've done it before. The excellent TFTD by Kwame Kwei-Armah made no reference to faith, but was both poignant and thought provoking. I had high hopes that this particular broadcast marked a change in policy by the Department of Religion and Ethics. Sadly, it was a one-off and we were quickly returned to our daily diet of bigotry from Anne Atkins and amiable meandering from the Bishop of Southwark.
We can still have the occasional bloke in a frock telling us how wicked we all are, but please BBC, try to see that there's a lot more to ethics than reading from ancient sacred texts - or even secular ones.
How about we really open up TFTD, not just to the great and the good, but to the people up and down the country who have to make moral choices every day: nurses, teachers, policemen. And I don't just mean the heads of their respective professions. Let's have a nurse from a busy A&E ward, or a primary school teacher, or a bobby on an inner city beat. What does the bloke who sweeps the streets see in the rubbish that gets thrown away? What problems do the family who own the shop on the corner face? The Today programme is full of politicians, bishops and businessmen. They get their say. Let's hear about a different class of problem, a different set of choices.
They've done it before. The excellent TFTD by Kwame Kwei-Armah made no reference to faith, but was both poignant and thought provoking. I had high hopes that this particular broadcast marked a change in policy by the Department of Religion and Ethics. Sadly, it was a one-off and we were quickly returned to our daily diet of bigotry from Anne Atkins and amiable meandering from the Bishop of Southwark.
We can still have the occasional bloke in a frock telling us how wicked we all are, but please BBC, try to see that there's a lot more to ethics than reading from ancient sacred texts - or even secular ones.
