Gospels attacked on 'Mastermind'

Briefing.

From the Christian Institute: John Humphrys has attacked the Bible's four Gospels on the BBC quiz show Mastermind, saying they are unreliable accounts of the life of Jesus. Contestant Kathryn Price, a Christian, appeared on the show which was broadcast on Friday 10 October at 8pm. Her specialist subject was the Gospels of the New Testament. Before the general knowledge round of questions, Humphrys launched into an assault on the reliability of the Gospels.

'Now, the Gospels, a tricky subject in a way,' he said, 'because if you want to find out about the life of Jesus and you read all four gospels you'll get different versions won't you. Which are we meant to believe?' He then went on to say - wrongly - that none of the Gospels were eyewitness accounts. When Mrs Price defended Luke as a thorough historian who said he had investigated Jesus' life very carefully, Humphrys replied, 'but he would say that, wouldn't he?'

Mike Judge of The Christian Institute said, 'it is inconceivable that a Muslim contestant answering questions on the Koran would be treated in the same way.

'Can you imagine the BBC allowing John Humphrys to ridicule Muslims saying, 'the Koran is a tricky subject because there are up to 20 different versions'?'

This is the latest in a series of controversies involving the BBC's bias against the Christian faith.

Last week the BBC exposed itself to criticism for its treatment of Christian characters after EastEnders' Dot Cotton was ridiculed for objecting to a gay kiss.

Last month a Christian best-selling author said he was blacklisted by the BBC. G P Taylor says a BBC producer told him the publicly-funded broadcaster could not be 'seen to be promoting Jesus'.

In 2006 executives at the BBC admitted that they would consider broadcasting a scene where the Bible was thrown away but they would never do the same with the Koran.

In the same year the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said that Christians took 'more knocks' in BBC programmes than other faiths.

Dr Sentamu said: 'They can do to us what they dare not do to the Muslims. We are fair game because they can get away with it.' [Christian Institute]