Evangelicals Slam Channel 4s Anti-Bible Documentary

A new Channel 4 documentary which is going to be launched this Christmas has been criticised by UK Evangelicals. The Evangelical Alliance has expressed its concern over the controversial programme, saying that it gives a wrong perception of how Evangelical Christians explain the Bible.

The troubled documentary entitled "Who Wrote the Bible?" will go out at 8:30pm on Christmas Day on Channel 4. Reported by the Observer newspaper, it paints a negative picture of Christian organisations and suggests links between them and the troubles in the Middle East.

In the light of rising terrorism, the Evangelicals in the UK have spearheaded efforts in tackling religious hatred. Representative from the Evangelical Alliance addressed the movement to stop incitement to religious hatred last week in Parliament. He told the House of Commons committee that other faith groups such as Muslims should be less sensitive to criticism about their faith and sacred texts. Channel 4’s new documentary is seen as provoking conflicts between faiths.

The presenter of the documentary is Dr Robert Beckford, a reader in theology at Birmingham University and a popular speaker at the Christian arts festival Greenbelt. He is a committed Pentecostal Christian.

In "Who Wrote the Bible?", Backford is trying to describe a journey he made to some of Christianity’s holiest places to help him uncover the provenance of the Bible. He called his conclusion an "earth-shattering experience" and one that made him doubt some of his most basic Christian beliefs.

Backford declared the New Testament a "masterwork of spin written by people who were nowhere near the events they describe, all gathered by powerful editors who kept out ideas they did not like".

Beckford even expressed his doubt about the story of the nativity. He argued that Matthew added the story to fulfil a prophecy made in the Old Testament.

Beckford is in fact known for his challenging viewpoint towards Christians. His other critical documentary is named "God is Black".

"God is Black" looked at the challenge facing the Church of England in light of evangelicalism in both Britain and Africa. The Evangelical Alliance commented that the documentary fell back on stereotypes.

"Channel 4 has a record of going for the more controversial take on religion," said David Hilborn, head of theology at the Evangelical Alliance. "They want to go down the more sensational route to grab people’s attention."

Beckford has visited the U.S. state of Georgia to talk to President Bush’s spiritual adviser, Baptist minister Richard Land. Discussing his suggestion that the Bible is inaccurate, Land dismissed it as "rubbish".

Land commented, "When you stand in judgment of scripture, that is a theology of death."

Though Beckford called such views are deeply alarming and warned that fundamentalism can be dangerous, Hilborn from the Evangelical Alliance rebuked, "People have these wrong perceptions. To see evangelicals as literalists is not true. It’s a multifarious movement; you have to give a much more nuanced interpretation."