AN EDITORIAL in last week’s Guardian backed John Humphrys’ assertion that it is ‘bizarre’ to slip a Christian message into a breakfast radio programme.

Its radio critic Elisabeth Mahoney criticised the religious slots on Radios Two and Four, and joined the assault on such ‘three-minute sermons’.

It described Thought for the Day as a ‘vapid interruption in the business of understanding the day’s news.’ The editorial concluded: “You should no more expect to hear a prayer during a train guard’s announcement than a sermon not long after Gary has presented the sports news. Or indeed a news bulletin during a Sunday sermon in church.”

So is it appropriate to have a religious thought when you switch on the radio, or when you turn the pages of your local newspaper?

Poet, broadcaster and Professor of Radio at Bournemouth University, Sean Street, who has appeared on Thought for the Day as Radio Four’s poet in residence for National Poetry Day feels it is. He said, “My view is that the more our mornings rush us into days of more stress and moral dilemmas, the more we need a moment of what I call in my poem: ‘stasis, a rock in the rushing stream to cling to for three minutes’.”

Sean’s poem, entitled ‘Thought for the Day’ is published by Rockingham Press in a book of poems entitled “Radio and other Poems”.

The poem continues: ‘A nod towards God, or acknowledgement that what powers even the time-check (especially the time-check) is still centre of spirit.’ Chairman of Dorset Humanists, David Warden said, “We have campaigned for years to persuade Radio Four’s Today programme to include a secular ‘Thought for the Day’ to counter the impression that it’s not only religious folk who have anything useful to say on the moral and ethical issues of the day.

The standard brush-off from the BBC is that the rest of its output is ‘secular’, but that misses the point entirely. “There is a long tradition of secular, non-religious thinking about moral matters which is simply being ignored by the BBC. Their current policy is plainly discriminatory.”

David also felt that the Echo should ‘rethink its Faith Page to be more inclusive of readers who base their lives on secular rather than religious values. “A Faith and Beliefs page would signal a willingness to engage a wider readership,” he said.

Dr Steve Brady, Principal of Moorlands Bible College in Sopley has led Sunday morning services on Radio Four and spoken on numerous local and national radio stations.

Dr Steve Brady, principal of Moorlands Bible College in Sopley has led Sunday morning services on Radio 4 and spoken on numerous local and national radio stations.

He said: "I have some sympathy with some of the criticism levelled at Thought for the Day. Jesus never said, 'Blessed are the bland, for they will never upset anyone!' There are parts of the Christian gospel that may upset everyone. We don't usually hear those bits broadcast by the BBC.

“However, there is an increasing desire by some to banish religion to the merely private sector of life, as if the way we look at the world does not affect how we behave. Thought for the Day and the like may just give some people a word of hope here and a reminder there that they are not only responsible for their lives but also are not alone in their struggles. There is a Someone who really is there and truly cares, an enduring ‘bridge over troubled water'.”