The Bishop of Paisley, John Keenan, is to meet with the BBC in Scotland after he made a complaint about the portrayal of Catholics in a recent short film about homophobia. The four minute video was posted on an online platform, The Social, a project aimed at young adults and managed by BBC Scotland. With the heading "Time For Love – the extraordinary new film exploring whether pressures of convention turn us against one another" – the film depicts resentment towards gay people, including a section criticising "bible bashers". It also depicts a priest holding a biscuit in a parody of Holy Communion, then giving it to a woman who makes the sign of the cross, with the narrator saying it “tastes like cardboard and smells like hate”. The narrator adds “Jesus saved a lot of time when he died for all our crimes, that he would’ve wasted teaching small minds that love is no sin.”
In a letter to the Director of BBC Scotland, Donalda MacKinnon, Bishop Keenan quotes recent Scottish Government figures which show fifty-seven per cent of religiously aggravated crime is committed against Catholics, who make up only sixteen per cent of the population. He writes: “In the current climate of growing hostility to Catholics I would appeal that the BBC guard against adding fuel to the fire. In that regard I would ask that the Corporation now reach out to Catholics to understand their concerns, that they are being portrayed in a prejudicial way.”
He said Catholics were asking for nothing more from the media than equity of treatment alongside their peers: “When it comes to important public debates about the wellbeing of the human person and the truth and meaning of human sexuality, Catholics feel their views are becoming increasingly marginalised, almost criminalised."
The Director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, Peter Kearney, has also sent a complaint to the head of public policy and corporate affairs at BBC Scotland, regarding concerns the film has breached official guidelines.
Requesting clarification as to whether the video was approved or assessed by the head of editorial standards and compliance prior to publication, he wrote: “The guidelines make it clear that "programme makers dealing with religious themes should be aware of what may cause offence.…Deep offence will also be caused by profane references or disrespect whether verbal or visual, directed at deities, scriptures, holy days and rituals." Peter Kearney added: “The gratuitously disrespectful representation of the Mass constitutes exactly the type of disrespect which the Guidelines seek to avoid.”
A BBC Scotland spokesman gave this response: “BBC The Social exists uniquely to give young content creators from across the country a platform on which they can give expression to subjects which directly impact on them and about which they feel passionate. The ‘Time for Love’ piece is a personal polemic about being gay in 2018 and the experiences outlined in the film are intended to reflect those of the filmmaker. As a young gay man, raised in the Catholic faith, it is seen though his eyes and told in his voice, and is intended to reflect the challenges and opinions he personally faced while growing up in Scotland. The BBC appreciates that some of our audiences will find it challenging in its approach to tackling some very difficult themes but we do believe it important that we should provide platforms such as The Social to allow appropriate space for artistic freedom of speech. We do however regret that some Church members found it to be offensive.”
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