Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Footnotes
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The British State and Spiritual Mobilization during the Second World War
- 3 Radio Religion: The British Broadcasting Corporation and Faith Propaganda at ‘Home’ and ‘Overseas’ in the Second World War
- 4 Getting the Message Out: Publishing ‘British Christianity’ 1939–43
- 5 Christianity, Culture, and the Universities in Wartime England
- 6 Mass Observation, Religion, and the Second World War: When ‘Cooper’s Snoopers’ Caught the Spirit
- 7 British Sunday Schools during the Second World War
- 8 Principled or Pragmatic? English Nonconformist Opposition to Pacifism in the Inter-War Period
- 9 Where Loyalties Lie: English Catholic Responses to Allied Strategic Bombing in the Second World War
- 10 British Christians and the Morality of Killing in the Second World War
- 11 Jewish-Christian Relations in the Second World War
- 12 Agents of Occupation or Reconciliation? Army Chaplains in Germany in the Summer of 1945
- Index
- Studies in Modern British Religious History
3 - Radio Religion: The British Broadcasting Corporation and Faith Propaganda at ‘Home’ and ‘Overseas’ in the Second World War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Footnotes
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The British State and Spiritual Mobilization during the Second World War
- 3 Radio Religion: The British Broadcasting Corporation and Faith Propaganda at ‘Home’ and ‘Overseas’ in the Second World War
- 4 Getting the Message Out: Publishing ‘British Christianity’ 1939–43
- 5 Christianity, Culture, and the Universities in Wartime England
- 6 Mass Observation, Religion, and the Second World War: When ‘Cooper’s Snoopers’ Caught the Spirit
- 7 British Sunday Schools during the Second World War
- 8 Principled or Pragmatic? English Nonconformist Opposition to Pacifism in the Inter-War Period
- 9 Where Loyalties Lie: English Catholic Responses to Allied Strategic Bombing in the Second World War
- 10 British Christians and the Morality of Killing in the Second World War
- 11 Jewish-Christian Relations in the Second World War
- 12 Agents of Occupation or Reconciliation? Army Chaplains in Germany in the Summer of 1945
- Index
- Studies in Modern British Religious History
Summary
During the Second World War, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was tasked with creating popular, upbeat entertainment intended to boost the morale of the nation while reminding listeners of the reasons to remain committed to the fight. However, it also created a so-called BBC Religion, one that emphasized unity by stressing commonalities and consensus between all kinds of Christians while offering psychological and spiritual comfort to listeners in a time of crisis. ‘BBC Religion’ was an important site for the construction and articulation of national unity propaganda and was central to the celebration of key civil religious festivals, including the national days of prayer. The BBC’s Religious Broadcasting Department also provided worship, devotions, talks and entertainment to offer emotional and spiritual support on a day-to-day basis. Religion can be a particularly effective tool of persuasion, particularly when propaganda builds on pre-existing beliefs and loyalties; as Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell have argued, in order to be effective ‘a persuader has to use anchors of belief to create new belief.’ The Ministry of Information (MOI) and the BBC deliberately used a generic, practical Christianity as an ‘ecumenical weapon’ to foster unity in Britain and among its allies and to rally global opposition to Nazism.
This chapter will explore some of the ways that religion was used as a means of persuasion during the Second World War by the BBC and the MOI. Religion and propaganda were intimately entwined during the war. Asa Briggs has argued that ‘As the war went on, it continued to prove extremely difficult to draw fine distinctions between religion as propaganda and religion as a spiritual force in its own right.’ The religious broadcasting schedule was specifically developed to cater to wartime needs. Looking back on the achievements of wartime religious broadcasting in 1945, the BBC's director of religious broadcasting, the Revd Dr James Welch, wrote that from the first Daily Service broadcast of the war,
The whole of our religious broadcasting has been conceived and planned within the experience of total war; it has been all the time conscious of the growing needs of an increasing number of listeners; it had to speak to the mood of Dunkirk, the air raids of 1940–1, Singapore, Tunisia, D-day, and more recently, hope deferred.
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- British Christianity and the Second World War , pp. 46 - 65Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023