An important article was recently written by Dr Colin R. Nicholl who lectures at the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge in the "Spectator" (24 November 2001) entitled "For Christ's Sake." It concerned the pressures now being brought to bear on Premier Radio, London's Christian Radio Station, to have its licence removed by the Radio Authority, which organisation publishes a "Quarterly Complaints Bulletin" which gives the subjects and themes that have given offence to listeners.Of those who send letters of complaint to the Radio Authority "there seem to be two main groups," writes Dr. Nicholl, "ad hoc complainers and professional complainers. The former inadvertently stumble across material which genuinely offends them and therefore complain; the latter listen for material which they may exploit to promote their agenda." It is Premier Radio that has been the target of complainers far more than any other station. The Radio Authority received 14 complaints about the station's programmes in the last three months, which was far in excess of any other station listed. Every single complaint about this Christian station came from an organisation called the 'Mysticism and Occultism Federation.'If this federation's website is visited one learns that it has five 'unpaid volunteers' who monitor the media, particularly Christian media, such as Premier Radio, looking for 'unfair' and 'offensive' comments which are exclusivistic or 'intolerant' of other 'spiritualities', such as Satanism, occultism, New Age, magic, astrology and divination.So we have this picture of five people taking it in turns during the hours of the night to listen to the preachers on Premier Radio and noting down any comment made about the exclusive nature of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, or some moral judgment, of some sermonic faux pas. For example there was one line (which Colin Nicholl rightly dubs a cheesy joke), 'Hinduism. Buddhism, rheumatism.' The Radio Authority were not amused, judging that line to be 'unacceptable' and 'serious.'The Mysticism and Occultism Federation's website despise 'fundamentalism', in which category it places Premier Radio. "'Christian fundamentalists', we learn, belong in the same camp as Marxists, Maoists and Nazis - they are all 'fanatics' and 'scripture cultists.' Indeed, they are xenophobic blasphemers whose thoughts and ideas are 'more sinister' than 'racism' in serving as the 'impetus for persecution.'" Yet the pretext for the M & O Fed.'s complaints about Christianity is in fact 'pluralism.' They claim to be committed to value and respect the beliefs of others.
