Thought For The Day

In most modern speech-based radio programming
the question of religion is awkward, to say the least.
For many programmers, who programme for a secular
and liberal audience, saying the least is their best option 
-their safest choice with regard to religion.

To this end the Today programme on Radio 4
has 'Thought for the day', a daily faith-based
reflection on issues in the news agenda.

There the quality and deftness of the comment
varies between the issues of the day, and the faith
of the presenter. At three minutes long it is brief.
Saying anything substantial in that short a time
that also does sound, well, cliched, is difficult.

I still don't understand why the slot
is the time length of one side
of a seven inch record, and how
that length of time was chosen.

The comments made in that three minutes
speak most of the country of the broadcaster,
which when heard in other countries,
even when you know the language,
may sound distant, foreign and tired.

But when the listener can imagine the parish,
or faith community, the speaker is from
this helps them recognise how every faith
starts somewhere, and ripples into a wider world.