Let Us All Stand Up featuring Lucy Stimpson-Maynard from the album I Look Up To The Heavens recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson

The last three blogs have focused on my complaint to the BBC concerning a Celebrity Master Chef episode in which Adam Pearson uttered “Jesus of Nazareth.” As I felt this unacceptable, I complained to the BBC and have been sharing the correspondence that resulted. Last week contained a letter from the BBC explaining that stage 1 of their complaints process was now complete and that the next stage was to write to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU). I did this with a copy of my letter below:
Thank you for your response and your apology for offending me, however my feelings are not the issue; my complaint is directed at BBC policy which caused Mr Pearson’s “Jesus of Nazareth” expletive to be retained and not deleted from the “Celebrity Master Chef” broadcast of August 30th.
As part of your justification, you state that “God’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ are commonly used in place of more offensive swear words. This clearly demonstrates that your policy categorises “Jesus Christ” as a replacement swear word. Furthermore, by endorsing its misuse in a “cookery programme” you exacerbate its misuse in everyday speech.
The exact words used by Mr Pearson were, in fact “Jesus of Nazareth.”
In her Christmas Broadcast of 2008, Queen Elizabeth 11 demonstrated how these words should be used appropriately as an expression of respect
“I hope like me you will be encouraged by the example of Jesus of Nazareth who, often in great adversity, managed to live an unselfish and sacrificial life.”
Mr Pearson, however, used “Jesus of Nazareth” inappropriately as an expression of disrespect. Uttering these words in such a manner is most definitely not part of everyday speech and I was especially shocked and offended to hear them on “Celebrity Master Chef.” May I please ask in which BBC programmes have these words previously been used in a similar cursory manner?
I would welcome the comments of Mr James Purnell, the BBC’s Head of Religious Affairs Programming on the points I make here and in my previous letter.
Thank you
Yours sincerely
Next week I will share the reply

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