Crowbarring Jesus

Friday night's News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 included a little side bar by Mark Steel on the "Thought for the Day" segment of Radio 4's Today programme. You can hear it here:

He was remarking on how it was fun listening to the speakers crowbar Jesus into whatever the news was that day.

He's got a point. I can remember in times past amusing myself while drinking my first cup of tea of the day by waiting to see how far they could get into their talk without mentioning their chosen deity. It was rare for them not to do a bit of name dropping sooner or later.

It's odd really: you'd think religious people (and they generally are) would sometimes have a thought to share which didn't have to be so blatantly pushed up alongside their deity of choice. I think we all know that if the bishop of wherever is giving us his thoughts he's inevitably doing it from a Christian perspective, and when it's somebody Singh he will be reflecting the teaching of Guru Nanak Dev et al. But still we have to be told.

Just in case.