Anglican Mainstream

By Jonathan Petre, Mail on Sunday

A BBC textbook about the life of Christ does not include a single reference to the terms BC and AD – because of fears they could offend non-Christians.

The BBC's GCSE religious studies guide, which focuses exclusively on Christianity, instead uses the 'religiously neutral' terms Before Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE).

The alternative terms are used in relation to the year of Christ's birth and the date of his crucifixion and even in a section about the first official Christmas.

The disclosure has infuriated Christian groups.

Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, said: 'The fact that the terms are even being used in a GCSE text book on Christianity shows that this is a determined attempt to try to airbrush Christianity out of the education system and out of the nation's history'.

The row adds to embarrassment for the BBC, which has been under fire since The Mail on Sunday revealed it had begun using the obscure BCE and CE terms on its Religion and Ethics website and in flagship programmes including University Challenge.

The controversy intensified further last night when Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Nazir-Ali, the ex-Bishop of Rochester, the Labour MPs Kate Hoey and Frank Field and ex-MPs Ann Widdecombe and Ann Cryer all signed a letter calling on BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten to reinstate the traditional terms.

They wrote: 'We hope you will instruct department heads to regard the CE/BCE terminology as a matter of exceptional rather than common usage by them.'

The BBC's religious studies book informs readers that Christ was born in 3 BCE and gives the date of the Crucifixion as 30 CE.

It also states that the New Testament dates back to 250 CE and highlights the fact that Pope Gregory fixed the official date of Christmas in 354 CE.

The same terms also crop up in the BBC's GCSE drama textbook, which includes a timeline of major world events such as the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066CE, and Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1492 CE.

Jon Mayled, who wrote the BBC's religious studies guide, last night defended the use of BCE and CE, which he said were the norm in books aimed at children.

He said he regarded Britain as a post-Christian rather than a Christian country and described the traditional BC and AD as hangovers.  It had been his decision to use the terms and no one had instructed him to do so, Mr Mayled conceded.

But the BBC is not the only organisation to use the new terms.  Hotcourses – a firm owned by Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, which promotes university and college courses – also uses them in its descriptions of particular courses.

Mike Elms, the firm's chief executive, last night said the descriptions were provided by the academic institutions themselves.

He also said that Mr Hunt had no role in the day-to-day running of the company.

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