Family Life

12.15.10 | Sarah Harnisch

Secularists in the U.K are up in arms over a BBC plan to toss regular programs off the schedule for a day in January to make way for a day of Bible reading. Next year is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, and on January 9th readings on BBC Radio 4 – the corporation’s main radio speech channel – will be spread throughout the day, running from early morning till midnight. The move has angered Terry Sanderson, President of the UK’s National Secular Society. He says  “the BBC is supposed to be for everybody, not just Christians, so to devote a whole day to a minority is unfair to other listeners who may want something different.” A BBC spokesman responded by saying “the King James Bible is generally accepted to have had a significant impact on our language, the arts and music. And on that day, we have chosen to pay tribute to the Bible.