THE British Broadcasting Corporation did the unthinkable last week.
In a program on Radio 4, it claimed that young David, one of the most beloved characters in the Bible, had been involved in a homosexual relationship.
The program was scheduled to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
While introducing a reading from the historic bible translation playwright Howard Brenton claimed that David had been in love with Jonathan, the son of King Saul.
“To a secular reader,” Brenton said on Sunday’s broadcast, “the story of David and Jonathan’s love is obviously homosexual, the only gay relationship in the Bible.”
The controversial remark was made as part of a series of biblical readings commissioned to mark the anniversary of the King James Bible.
However, Brenton said the subject was controversial to many Christians.
Another introduction by the playwright also appears to cast doubt on the Bible’s account of King Solomon’s reign.
While reflecting on the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon, Brenton claims that there is no archaeological evidence for the existence of either the Queen or her country.
In recent years, the BBC has faced repeated accusations of anti-Christian bias.
In 2008 John Humphrys attacked the Bible’s four Gospels on the BBC quiz show Mastermind, claiming that they are unreliable accounts of the life of Jesus.
Contestant Kathryn Price, a Christian, appeared on the show which was broadcast in October. Her specialist subject was the Gospels of the New Testament.
Humphrys launched into an assault on the reliability of the Gospels before the general knowledge round of questions.
In 2009 an ex-BBC presenter claimed that the BBC is keen on programmes which attack churches, and that there was a wider secularist campaign “to get rid of Christianity”.
Don Maclean, the former Radio 2 religious programme host, also said that the broadcaster is “keen on Islam”.
In April 2009 Jonathan Wynne-Jones, a newspaper journalist in the UK, warned that the frequent television portrayals of Christians as absurd make it more difficult for believers to defend themselves.
