Anti-Gay Christian Group gets Ten Hours of TV Time

The anti-gay Alpha course – a recruitment programme run by evangelical Christians – is to get ten hours of television time starting next week. The series Alpha: Will It Change Their Lives? starts next Sunday at 10.45 on ITV and has been condemned by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) as homophobic and the biggest Christian propaganda campaign ever seen on British television.

The Alpha course, which originated at Holy Trinity Church in Knightsbridge, London, is a Bible-based introduction to Christianity. It preaches that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals will go to Hell. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, has endorsed it as “a wonderful tool for the Christian faith”.

GALHA Secretary George Broadhead said: “We are alarmed that this controversial course is being given ten weeks of uncritical air time on ITV. It teaches people to reject ‘practising’ homosexuals and to feel guilty about sex generally – unless it is within marriage. The danger lies in Alpha’s attractive packaging and marketing. It is not until you are well into it that the unpleasant bits become apparent. Alpha’s marketing is very clever, very appealing and a lot of young and vulnerable people are being drawn in.”

Mr Broadhead added that ITV seemed to have abandoned its usual journalistic rigour over this programme, which is fronted by Sir David Frost. “The programme is straightforward propaganda and there is little in the way of questioning or examination,” Mr Broadhead said. “Critical voices are almost entirely absent. For a public broadcaster to put such a programme out risks compromising its journalistic integrity. Alpha is controversial, and has many critics, but you’d never think so from this programme.”

A huge billboard campaign, described as the biggest religious advertising campaign ever mounted, will run in tandem with the programme. George Broadhead commented: “This indicates to us that the promoters of Alpha see this TV series as merely an extension of their paid-for advertising. It breaches the ITV Programme Code which forbids religious recruitment.”