Rating Rowan Williams and Other New Sources

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Clive D. Field

There follows a round-up of British religious statistics published between 26 and 28 September 2012, arranged in order of their date of release. Additionally, it should be noted that, although the Office for National Statistics issued a statistical bulletin on 28 September relating to the Integrated Household Survey for April 2011-March 2012, this year’s bulletin, unlike the previous two editions, did not report the data on religious profession, being confined to the questions covering sexual identity and health/smoking.

Rating Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams, the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, has slipped on a few banana skins (both within and outside the Church of England) during his tenure of office, but English public opinion remains fairly well disposed towards him. In a recent poll a slight majority (53%) rated him as a good leader of the Established Church, rising to 59% of the over-65s and residents of Eastern England; 15% disagreed, with 32% undecided. Despite his reputation for ‘wooliness’, slightly more (55%) considered Williams had been clear in telling people what he believes and why, against 16% dissenting and 29% unsure. But he was deemed to have been somewhat less successful in helping the Church of England remain relevant in modern Britain, even though a plurality (46%) credited him with this achievement; 27% took the contrary line, the top (AB) social group being far more critical (32%) than the lowest (DE, 21%), with 27% as don’t knows. 

Source: ComRes survey for BBC Local Radio in which 2,594 English adults were interviewed by telephone between 24 August and 9 September 2012. Published on 26 September. Data tables available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Archbishop_of_Canterbury_poll.pdf

Religious Education

It is often argued that the role of religious education (RE) in the curriculum is threatened by the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), notwithstanding the subject’s legal protection under the Education Act 1944. In fact, 33% of schools recently claimed that those legal requirements to study RE are not being met at Key Stage 4 (the two years incorporating GCSEs and other public examinations). One-quarter (24%) reported a reduction in the number of specialist staff employed to teach RE for 2012/13, and 54% that they would have no entries for the GCSE short course in RE in 2014 (with 18% having no entries for the full course). These figures all represent a decline on previous surveys, and the EBacc was invariably cited as the cause. One-fifth of schools stated that they attempt to deliver the full GCSE course in RE over less than the recommended teaching time of 120-140 learning hours.

Source: Survey (fourth in a series) by the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE), undertaken online during the six weeks following 19 June 2012 among a self-selecting sample of 625 secondary schools in England. Published on 27 September. Full analysis available at:

http://www.retoday.org.uk/media/display/NATRE_EBacc_Survey_2012_Final.pdf

Islamophobia

Only 41% of Britons questioned deemed it possible for the West and the Muslim world to coexist in peace, against 43% who perceived fundamental conflict between the two, one or other side having to prevail in the end. In the United States, by contrast, a plurality (47%) felt coexistence to be feasible, 8% more than picked the conflict option. In Britain Liberal Democrat voters were most inclined to take the optimistic position (58%) and Conservatives most pessimistic (49%). Very few (17%, 3% less than in the United States) wanted the Government to give financial aid to Muslim countries in the so-called Arab Spring to enable them to make the transition to democracy, with 69% opposed. Opinion was probably clouded by recent violence in Muslim nations directed against the United States in protest against the Innocence of Muslims video on YouTube. Fully one-third of Britons (and two-fifths of Conservatives) assessed that one-half or more of people in the Muslim world supported this violence.

Source: YouGov survey of 1,739 adult Britons, interviewed online on 23-24 September 2012. Fieldwork was also undertaken in the United States. Published on 27 September, with exclusive coverage in The Guardian for that day. Data table available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/2ga029dolx/West%20and%20Muslim%20world%20120926.pdf

Cultural Boycott of Israel

British public opinion towards Israel has tended to become more negative over the years. The Jewish state is no longer simply regarded as the ‘underdog’ in the Middle East, but is often cast in the role of ‘aggressor’. There are growing calls for boycotts of Israel, and there have recently been several high-profile disruptions of Israeli cultural performances in this country. As many as 17% of Britons contend that Israeli actors, dancers or musicians should not be welcome to perform in Britain, against 53% who say the opposite and 30% undecided. Moreover, 27% of adults think that British actors, dancers or musicians should not perform in Israel, compared with 37% who believe they should and 36% uncertain.

Source: YouGov survey for the Jewish Chronicle in which 1,739 adult Britons were interviewed online on 23-24 September 2012 (i.e. the same survey as the preceding entry). Published on 28 September, the headline in the Jewish Chronicle proclaiming ‘Massive majority opposes boycott’. Data table available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/0kh4fq1eb8/Jewish%20Chronicle%20Results%20120924.pdf

Feelings towards Religious Groups

‘There are common factors underlying less positive feelings towards religious groups. These include being male, holding no or lower-level qualifications, supporting a minor political party or having no partisan attachment, and lower levels of political engagement. Age, religious affiliation, personal importance of religion, and ideological beliefs show a more complex set of relationships with feelings towards religious groups.’ On a 0-100 scale, the feeling thermometer scores of attitudes to seven religious groups ranged from 46.8 towards Muslims to 62.6 towards Protestants, with the average across all groups being 56.2.

Source: Secondary (bivariate and multivariate) analysis of data from samples C and D (n = 2,236) of the British Social Attitudes Survey, 2008 by Ben Clements, ‘The Sources of Public Feelings towards Religious Groups in Britain: the Role of Social Factors, Religious Characteristics, and Political Attitudes’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 27, No. 3, October 2012, pp. 419-31. Published on 28 September. Article pay-per-view option at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2012.722036

 

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September Snippets

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Herewith the headlines from five new sources of British religious statistics, arranged in order of their date of release:

Creationism versus Evolution

Whereas 51% of Americans still believe that God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years, this view is shared by only 17% of Britons and 22% of Canadians. Some 69% of adults in Britain take the contrary line, that human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, with the figure rising to 74% among men and residents of the South of England outside London (in London itself it fell to 60%, reflecting the capital’s ethnic and religious pluralism). 14% of Britons were unsure what to think. 

Source: Survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion released on 5 September 2012. Online interviews were conducted with 2,010 Britons aged 18 and over on 30 and 31 August 2012, and also with representative samples of Americans and Canadians around the same time. Report available at:

http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012.09.05_CreEvo.pdf

Religion Hate Crimes in England and Wales, 2011/12

There were 1,621 religion-related hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2011/12, representing 4% of all hate crimes. This was a similar number to disability hate crimes but was overshadowed by the 35,816 race hate crimes. Religion hate crimes occurred in each police force area, albeit they only reached three figures in the Metropolitan Police Area and Greater Manchester, where they accounted respectively for 8% and 6% of all hate crimes. Three-quarters of religion hate crimes involved violence against the person, 19% criminal damage, and 6% other notifiable offences. Data for previous years have been published by the Association of Chief Police Officers but they are not strictly comparable with those now collated (for the first time) by the Home Office.

Source: Home Office statistical news release and tables of 13 September 2012, available at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hate-crimes-1112/hate-crimes-1112

Women Bishops

79% of English adults agree that the Church of England should allow women to become bishops. This compares with 74% of Britons in another poll (ComRes in July) and 85% of regular Anglican churchgoers (Christian Research in March-May). Proponents were most numerous among the under-35s and female respondents. Opposition, 11% overall, ran highest with the over-65s (20%). In the event of the Church not allowing women to become bishops (the matter is still being debated by the hierarchy and General Synod), 20% said that they would take a less favourable view of the Church, rising to 31% among the 18-24s. 67% claimed that it would make no difference to what they thought about the Church, the majority (38%) of whom already regarded the Church negatively (the 25-34s, skilled manual workers, and residents of North-East England being especially critical, all on 45%).   

Source: ComRes survey for BBC Local Radio released on 13 September 2012. Telephone interviews were conducted with 2,594 English adults between 24 August and 9 September 2012. Data tables available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/BBC_Religion_Women_Bishops_September2012.pdf

Cameron versus Miliband

Asked to rate Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband on a variety of attributes, 34% of electors considered Cameron to be the stronger ‘man of faith’, with only 16% saying the same of Miliband. The remaining 50% thought that neither deserved the designation or did not know. Cameron was most likely to be regarded as the stronger man of faith by Conservative voters, those satisfied with the Coalition Government, and the over-65s, while Labour supporters, the 18-24s, Northerners and manual workers disproportionately identified Miliband as the stronger man of faith. The reality, to judge by what they have said in interviews, is that Cameron has ‘a sort of fairly classic Church of England faith, a faith that grows hotter and colder by moments’, and that Miliband professes atheism although sometimes plays up his family’s Jewish roots.

Source: Ipsos MORI poll for the Evening Standard, released on 19 September 2012. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,006 adult Britons aged 18 and over between 15 and 17 September 2012. Full results contained in Tables 45 and 46 at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/ipsos-mori-political-monitor-september-2012-tables.pdf

Interest in Church Weddings

Unique visits to www.yourchurchwedding.org, the Church of England’s one-stop weddings website, increased by 50% between 2010 and 2011. The Church credits the growing interest in church weddings to the change in the law in 2008, which made it easier to marry in church, and to the Church’s greater visibility at wedding shows. The Daily Telegraph for 21 September 2012 also highlighted the positive effect of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in 2011. The actual number of marriages solemnized in the Church of England in 2011 is not yet known, but it was 54,710 in 2010, 4% more than in 2009.

Source: Church of England press release of 20 September 2012, available at:

http://churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/09/interest-in-church-weddings-up-nearly-50-per-cent.aspx

 

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Summer Shorts

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Herewith a round-up of some recently-published religious statistics which may be of interest to BRIN readers:

Religious Affiliation

Asked whether they consider themselves to be a member of any religious group, 56% of adults reply Christian, 6% some other religion, and 36% none. The number professing no religion decreases steadily with age, from 52% among the 18-24s to 23% for the over-65s (73% of the latter claiming to be Christian). The biggest concentration of adherents of non-Christian faiths is to be found in London (12%) and with the 18-24s (10%).

Source: Populus poll for Insight PA, conducted online on 4-5 July 2012 among 2,117 Britons aged 18 and over. Data reported in table 41 at:

http://www.populus.co.uk/uploads/OmPrivate_Public.pdf

Older Giving

Slightly more than half (52%) of the UK’s over-65s were online in June 2012, 6% more than in March 2009, albeit still 30% below the average for all adults. This advent of the ‘silver surfer’ is proving financially advantageous to religious causes, even as the traditional church collection plate shows signs of drying up. In May 2012 the over-65s were more likely than average to prioritize charities related to cancer, old age and religion when it comes to their online giving, and less likely to support organizations dedicated to animals, foreign aid, and homelessness. Online contributions by the over-60s to religious causes rose by 171% between 2007 and 2011, compared with 128% for all adults, although online donations to culture and the arts grew even faster (459% among the over-60s, 210% for the population as a whole).

Source: Infographic, compiled by JustGiving from multiple sources, and posted on its blog on 6 August 2012 at:

http://blog.justgiving.com/community/older-giving/

Superstitions

41% of adults describe themselves as superstitious (including 48% of the 18-24s and 45% of women), with 39% saying they are not superstitious at all. The most prevalent superstitious practices are: not walking underneath ladders (38%), touching wood (33%), not opening an umbrella indoors (27%), and crossing fingers (26%). 32% consider themselves as lucky, 27% have a lucky number, but just 6% have lucky underwear. Four leaf clovers (26%) and black cats (20%) are the most widely-regarded omens of good luck, and breaking a mirror (35%) and number 13 (20%) of bad luck. 8% fear 2013 may not be a good year for them because it contains the number 13 in the date.

Source: OnePoll online survey of 1,000 UK adults aged 18 and over in July 2012. OnePoll has kindly given BRIN sight of the full findings, but the only substantive public domain report to date appears to be the post from 20 July 2012 on OnePoll’s blog at:

http://news.onepoll.com/avoiding-walking-ladders-popular-superstition/

Same-Sex Marriage

The Coalition Government’s commitment to widen the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples is proving none too popular with churchgoing Christians, 58% of whom say they are less likely to vote Conservative as a result and 43% less likely to vote Liberal Democrat. Moreover, as a consequence of Government policy on the issue, 75% state their perceptions of Tory leader David Cameron have worsened and 65% report the same about LibDem leader Nick Clegg. 63% believe Cameron has been intolerant of the opposition to the plan and 54% that Clegg has failed to listen to public concerns about it. Three-fifths agree that ‘whether or not I would have voted for the Conservative or Liberal Democrat Parties, I will not do so under their current leaderships if they introduce this measure’. 79% are not persuaded by Government reassurances that places of worship would not be forced to conduct same-sex marriages, while 86% fear that, even if Government does provide an exemption along these lines, it could be overturned by the UK courts or European Court of Human Rights.

Source: Cpanel survey by ComRes for the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) in which 569 churchgoing Christians in the UK aged 18 and over were interviewed online between 26 June and 11 July 2012. Full data tables, including a wide range of breaks by demographics and religion, were posted on 22 August 2012 at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/C4M_full_data_tables_July_12.pdf

Newspaper coverage of the findings can be tracked via the C4M website under the entries for 18 and 19 August 2012 at:

http://c4m.org.uk/news/

Religious Studies GCSE Results, 2012

There were 239,123 candidates for the full course General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in Religious Studies (RS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland during the summer of 2012, an increase of 7.7% over the 2011 figure (8.0% for male students and 7.5% for female). RS entries accounted for 4.6% of the total for all subjects (4.3% for males and 4.9% for females), up by 0.3% on the previous year. Entrants achieving grades of A*, A, B or C at RS were 73.7% (67.1% for males, 79.4% for females), 4.3% more than the average for all subjects. As well as the full course, there is a short course in RS, with 235,916 entries in 2012 (8.5% less than in summer 2011, 9.2% down for males and 7.7% for females). Candidates in RS comprised 63.5% of the total for all short courses, with 53.8% achieving grades of A*-C (46.0% for males and 61.5% for females).

Source: Results tables (which include disaggregations by country) published by the Joint Council for Qualifications, representing the seven largest providers of qualifications in the UK, on 23 August 2012 at:

http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/1727/GCSE%20Results%202012.pdf

 

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Resonate Online Panel

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Christian Research’s new online panel, called Resonate, is now up and running and open for business, according to a letter which accompanies the latest mailing to Christian Research members.

Based on two recent online surveys, ‘over 5,000 respondents agreed to be participants in ongoing research studies, and this has enabled us to compile the UK’s largest online panel of Christian churchgoers and clergy’.

An initial snapshot of the Resonate panel, included in the same mailing, shows that in July 2012 it comprised 4,000 churchgoers and 1,000 clergy drawn from 2,850 individual churches, with the following basic demographic characteristics:

  • Gender: 52% male, 48% female (an underrepresentation of adult female worshippers, who constituted 58% at the English Church Census, 2005)
  • Age: 4% under 30, 23% 30-49, 71% 50 and above (in 2005 65% were aged 45 and over)
  • Marital status: 17% single, 67% in first marriage, 11% remarried, 3% widowed, 1% separated
  • Employment status: 34% full time, 15% part time, 10% self-employed, 2% unemployed, 32% retired
  • Voting in 2010 general election: Conservative 36%, Liberal Democrat 22%, Labour 14%, no answer 22%, did not vote 4%

These are evidently pretty devout Christians. 92% of them claim to attend church at least once a week and only 2% less than once a month. 82% say they read the Bible every day or most days. 76% give 5% or more of their net income to their church, and most seem to be involved in church leadership of one sort or another. 

Denominationally, the panel is predominantly Protestant, with only 3% Roman Catholics (a constituency Christian Research has often found it difficult to reach). 39% are Anglicans. Among the Free Churches, it looks as though Baptists may be overrepresented. 7% do not state a confessional allegiance.  

The panel is more internet-savvy than churchgoers as a whole, and this may have some impact on religious practices and attitudes. Whereas, by definition, 100% of Resonate members are internet users (with 52% also on Facebook and 17% blogging from a Christian perspective), the same is probably true for only a minority of all churchgoers (given their population pyramid is so top-heavy, skewed to older age cohorts who have been slow to get online, despite the ‘silver surfer’ phenomenon).

Obviously, these are very early days for Resonate, and BRIN naturally wishes the new commercial service well. Nevertheless, over time, Christian Research will need to demonstrate to its clients, members and users that it is addressing any known or perceived imbalances in the make-up of the panel, to ensure that it is reasonably representative of all churchgoing Christians. This could be achieved through targeted panel recruitment, selection of respondents for individual surveys, and weighting (where contextual demographics are available).

Similar methodological challenges have faced online surveys of research panels in general, since they appeared in the late 1990s. They have now almost become the norm among some polling organizations, as they can be conducted at a much lower cost and with greater speed than alternative forms of interviewing (face-to-face or telephone, or self-completion postal questionnaire).

They have proved particularly useful for capturing the views and behaviours of small, niche and spatially concentrated interest groups which are hard to reach in sufficient numbers through conventional national sample surveys, however large-scale. YouGov (launched in 2000) has had particular success in this regard, its British panel currently including 360,000 adults. BRIN has so far recorded 190 YouGov polls touching on aspects of religion.

Nor is Resonate the only online panel of Christians to be operating in the UK at present, although it seems to be the first to extend to clergy. Cpanel has been run by ComRes for the past four years, albeit its normal sample size is only around 500 churchgoing Christians. Data are weighted to reflect the profile of churchgoers in the English Church Census, 2005.

The Evangelical Alliance also runs a research panel of more than 3,000 evangelical Christians, just over one-third of whom respond to any particular quarterly survey. This is described by its parent body as ‘an opportunity sample of self-selecting volunteers’. So far as can be seen, no weighting is applied to the results.

Further details about Resonate can be obtained from Abbie Heath – abbie@christian-research.org.uk

 

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Archbishop of Canterbury

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Clive D. Field

There was some moderately cheering news this week for the members of the Crown Nominations Commission who are charged with coming up with a preferred name of the next Archbishop of Canterbury, in succession to Rowan Williams.

According to a Cpanel poll of 569 churchgoing Christians aged 18 and over in the UK, conducted online by ComRes for Premier Christian Radio between 26 June and 11 July 2012, the post is still seen as highly relevant from a variety of perspectives.

94% of all Christians (and 98% of Anglicans) said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was relevant to the Church of England, 92% (96%) to the Anglican Communion, 85% (94%) to Christians in the UK, and 71% (79%) to wider UK society.

Nevertheless, one-quarter of Christians felt that the post was no longer relevant to UK society, and this was particularly the view of men, those aged under 45, and members of Independent and New Churches.

Presented with a list of twenty-four possible characteristics and beliefs for a new Archbishop, the six cited as most important by all Christians (figures for Anglicans alone in parentheses) were:

  • Desire to stand up for the beliefs and values of Christians – 90% (96%)
  • Support for family values – 81% (77%)
  • Ability to communicate with normal people – 77% (83%)
  • Well-versed in biblical knowledge – 76% (89%)
  • Willingness to speak his mind – 69% (79%)
  • Support for same-sex marriage – 68% (62%)

The six attributes which came bottom of the list were:

  • Support for gay marriage – 4% (5%)
  • Liberal interpretation of the Bible – 6% (6%)
  • English nationality – 8% (6%)
  • Desire to increase overseas development aid spending – 16% (22%)
  • Opposition to the ordination of female bishops – 17% (7%)
  • Support for the ordination of female bishops – 23% (34%)

Of the twelve characteristics ranked of middling importance by all Christians, Anglicans were especially more likely than average to attach weight to:

  • Ability to cut through Church bureaucracy – 56% (67%)
  • Respected – 56% (66%)
  • Ability to unite the Church of England – 44% (56%)
  • Ability to unite the Anglican world Communion – 32% (50%)

Twelve potential candidates for the next Archbishop of Canterbury were offered to respondents. Combining first, second and third choices, John Sentamu (current Archbishop of York) headed the rankings for all Christians, at 51%, well ahead of Tom Wright (former Bishop of Durham and now at the University of St Andrews) on 27%. James Jones (Bishop of Liverpool) was in third place (19%) and Richard Chartres (Bishop of London) in fourth (17%).

Anglicans were less likely (28%) than all Christians (41%) to express no preferences at all. They also voted more strongly than the norm for Sentamu (56%), Wright (37%), and Jones (28%).

Some have expressed concerns about Sentamu’s candidature on the grounds of his age (he is 63), and it is interesting to note that he was much less popular among Christians under 35 years (40%). However, he was favoured by those Christians wanting to see an Archbishop with a traditional interpretation of the Bible (63%).

The full data tables from this poll, extending to 52 pages, are freely available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_Archbishop_Results_July_12.pdf

 

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Women Bishops

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The Church of England’s General Synod may have passed an adjournment motion last Monday, to send the draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure back for further episcopal review, but a majority of the general public seem to favour the idea of women bishops, according to two opinion polls released this week.

The first survey was undertaken by ComRes, on behalf of the Bible Society, with online fieldwork on 4 and 5 July 2012 among 2,117 Britons aged 18 and over. It was published on 9 July, to coincide with the anticipated (but unrealized) final vote on women bishops in General Synod. The full data tables have been posted at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Bible_Society_Women_Bishops_July2012.pdf

ComRes discovered that support for women bishops hovered around the three-quarters’ mark, depending a little upon question-wording. Thus:

  • 74% thought that the Church of England should allow women to become bishops;
  • 73% considered that the fact there was a debate at all showed the Church to be out of touch with society’s expectations of gender equality;  
  • 79% contended that, as women could already be appointed as vicars, they should also be able to become bishops;
  • 77% said that it would be wrong not to allow women to become bishops just because of their sex

Opposition to women bishops ran at 12% overall, peaking at 19% among the over-65s and 17% for professed Christians (against just 4% of those with no religion). 15% were undecided, including 25% of non-Christians.

On the other hand, opinion was finely balanced about whether the issue of women bishops was sufficiently important for the Church of England to be spending time discussing it at the moment. While 43% said that it was, 42% deemed it to be a lower priority for the Church than other topics. Scots (50%) particularly took the latter view.

Although 67% claimed that the debate suggested there were many Anglicans who were sexist, 44% (rising to 51% of Christians) agreed that opponents of women bishops were merely following a traditional interpretation of the Bible, rather than being sexist, and society ought to respect their values.

The second poll was conducted by YouGov and published today. The sample comprised 1,721 adult Britons, who were interviewed online on 8 and 9 July 2012. The results are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/nlslrhqpzu/YG-Archives-Life-YG-FemaleBishops-130712.pdf

YouGov posed only one question. Reminding respondents that ‘the Church of England is still considering how to accommodate the appointment of female bishops’, it asked whether the Church should allow such bishops or not.

The proportion opposed was the same as in the ComRes study (12%), but the number in favour was reduced to 55%, mainly because there was an explicit ‘no opinion either way’ option, which attracted 30% of the total vote (and 40% in Scotland).

Meanwhile, the mind of practising grass-roots Anglicans on the subject of women bishops has been tested by Christian Research for Forward in Faith (which describes itself as ‘a worldwide association of Anglicans who are unable in conscience to accept the ordination of women as priests or as bishops’).

1,125 regular Anglican churchgoers (95% attending services once a week or more) were interviewed online between March and May 2012. The sample was unweighted but was said by Christian Research to align closely with the composition, in terms of age and churchmanship, of the Church of England as a whole.

48% of these Anglican worshippers wanted to see the consecration of women bishops in the Church of England as soon as possible, 22% within the next 5-10 years, 15% when a consensus is reached among all other churches, and 16% never.

Churchgoers were mostly sympathetic to the position of those who could not, in conscience, support women bishops. 44% said that such persons should not be forced out of the Church, 31% wanted some form of compromise to enable them to remain within the Church, and 7% even thought they should have the right to veto the introduction of women bishops.

 

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LGBT Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The Government’s public consultation on ‘equal civil marriage’, which closes this Thursday (14 June 2012), continues to excite controversy. According to today’s The Times, there have already been more than 100,000 formal responses.

Much of the opposition to these proposals to legalize same-sex marriage has come from religious groups, both Christian and non-Christian, who regard them as an attempt to redefine the nature and meaning of marriage.

This is notwithstanding the fact that Government, in an effort to placate religious viewpoints, intends to restrict the marriage of same-sex couples to a civil ceremony conducted on secular premises. No eligibility is mooted for them to have a religious marriage ceremony on religious premises.    

However, religious leaders (including in the Church of England, which has today published its submission to the consultation) have suggested that this proposal wrongly implies that there are two categories of marriage, civil and religious; ‘this is to mistake the wedding ceremony for the institution of marriage’.

They also doubt whether the distinction would withstand legal challenge, in the form of discrimination claims, and fear that places of worship will eventually have to offer religious ceremonies for same-sex couples.

It has now emerged, from hitherto unreported results of an online poll commissioned by Catholic Voices, that gay people are also dissatisfied with the Government’s compromise in offering same-sex marriages in secular venues only.

The survey was carried out between 27 April and 20 May 2012 among 541 adult Britons aged 18 and over who self-identified as LGBT – gay, lesbian, bisexual or other non-heterosexual – in a screening question asked of 10,139 persons. Full data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Catholic_Voices_Marriage_Poll_Data_Tables.pdf

Among the various questions and statements put to LGBTs were two about same-sex marriage in places of worship, the first being ‘true marriage equality would mean that same-sex couples could marry in places of worship as well as in civil locations’.

Three-fifths (61%) of LGBTs agreed with this proposition, rising to almost three-quarters in South-West England, Wales and Scotland. Women (67%) were more in favour than men (58%). Only 15% of all LGBTs disagreed, with 24% undecided.

The second statement was that ‘faith groups should be forced to allow gay weddings in places of worship’. This split LGBT opinion down the middle, with 35% wanting faith groups compelled to permit same-sex weddings in their places of worship, peaking at 46% among the 35-44s, 51% in Scotland, and 53% of those agreeing with the first statement. 38% dissented and 27% were uncertain.

There are two interesting methodological aspects of this poll. First, the percentage of the initial ComRes screening sample self-identifying as gay was three times that in the Government’s Integrated Household Survey, which is conducted by a combination of face-to-face and telephone interviews. ComRes suggests as a possible explanation for the discrepancy that ‘online polls tend to attract younger, urban populations where numbers of openly gay people are higher’.

Second, ComRes admits to having weighted the data ‘to be representative demographically of the wider GB adult population’. This rather implies that heterosexuals and LGBTs have the identical demographic profile, which is probably not the case.

 

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Diamond Jubilation

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Her Majesty the Queen’s diamond jubilee weekend celebrations are now past. They seem to have resonated with a majority of the British public, but how many, one wonders, stopped to think about the meaning and origins of the word ‘jubilee’?

The same question occurred to the Bible Society, which – not unnaturally – wished to discover the extent to which people knew that jubilee has a Biblical derivation (Leviticus), the jubilee year marking the end of seven cycles of sabbatical years.

The Society commissioned ComRes to ask a representative sample of 2,056 adult Britons aged 18 and over ‘Where does the term jubilee come from?’ Fieldwork was undertaken online on 25-28 May 2012, and the data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Bible_Society_Diamond_Jubilee_May12_data_tables.pdf

Only 12% of all respondents knew that jubilee had its roots in the Bible, and even among professing Christians it was no more than 14% (with 10% each for those of other religions or no religion).

The over-65s (22%) were most knowledgeable, twice the number in all other age cohorts. The top social group (the ABs) were also good at identifying the Biblical link (18%), while men – perhaps surprisingly – scored better than women (16% versus 9%).

The most popular answer to the question was Queen Victoria (30%), reflecting the fact that she was the only monarch before Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate a diamond jubilee. 7% said William Shakespeare, but 49% had no idea where jubilee came from.

This is not the first time that Bible Society has surveyed public knowledge of the biblical origins of common words or phrases. Just over a year ago, in connection with the quatercentenary of the Authorized Version, the Society funded ComRes to ask Britons to name the source of five quotations, all of which came from the Bible.

On that occasion, while 56% knew that ‘my brother’s keeper’ derived from the Bible, just 7% to 19% identified it as the origin of the other four quotations. Biblical literacy was again found to be highest among the over-65s and the ABs. See BRIN’s coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2011/influence-of-the-bible/

 

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Recent ComRes Polls

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Clive D. Field

This post summarizes findings from three recent ComRes polls of the general public aged 18 and over and which have touched on religious issues.

Defender of the Faith

Pretty strong numerical support for the continuation of the faith links of the monarchy is revealed in a poll conducted in England on behalf of BBC local radio, and involving telephone interviews with a sample of 2,591 adults between 30 March and 15 April 2012. Data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/BBC_Defender_of_the_Faith_Poll_April12_data_tables_rerun.pdf

79% agree that the Queen still has an important faith role, and only 25% say that she and future monarchs should not have any faith role or title at all. 73% are in favour of them retaining the titles of Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith, while 50% are prepared to accede to Prince Charles’ request that, on becoming king, he should be Defender of Faith (in general, with 35% opposed). There is some variation in results by demographics, notably above-average endorsement of the faith links of the monarchy among the over-65s.

The overall high figures may partially reflect the public’s perception of the importance which the Queen has been attaching to faith during her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and/or more positive views of the monarchy as an institution during the past year or so. However, as a meta analysis of all poll data on the various aspects of Church and State has shown (in the September 2011 issue of Implicit Religion), opinions on the subject tend not to be deeply held or well informed.

Talking about Religion

Britons feel more comfortable about discussing religion with family and friends (80%) than they do about money (75%), dying (71%) and sex (57%). Only politics (82%) and immigration (84%) score more highly as conversation topics. These findings emerge from a poll commissioned by the Dying Matters Coalition, and undertaken online on 13-15 April 2012 with 2,028 respondents. Data tables are at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Dying_Matters_Public_April12.pdf

The over-65s (86%) and Scots (85%) feel somewhat more relaxed about discussing religion than other demographic sub-groups. Just 14% of the whole sample find religion an uncomfortable topic of conversation, the proportion only reaching one-fifth among public sector workers.

Origins of the Universe

Just 26% of Britons (and no more than 35% of professing Christians) believe that God caused the Universe to exist and 41% disbelieve this, according to an online survey for Premier Christian Radio between 20 and 22 April 2012, in which 2,054 people were interviewed. 14% think neither scenario to be true, and 19% express no opinion. Data tables can be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_Universe_question_April12_data_tables.pdf

Younger persons (aged 18-34) are more likely (31%) to believe that God caused the Universe to exist than the over-55s (24%). Women are also more likely to believe this than men, the top social grade (AB) more than other groups, and public sector workers more than private sector ones. Disbelief in a divine origin of the Universe peaks at 54% in the East Midlands and 64% among those with no religion.

 

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Children and Pornography

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Today’s Daily Mail reports that the Government may be back-tracking, on civil liberties grounds, on its commitments to introduce tough measures to protect children from access to online pornography, which would entail explicit requirements to opt into adult content.

However, the UK’s churchgoing Christians are resolute in their determination that something needs to be done to curtail access to such content, according to a ComRes CPanel poll for Premier Christian Media Trust released on 18 April 2012.

Online interviews were undertaken with 519 Christians between 8 and 30 March 2012. Results – disaggregated by age, gender, region, denomination, churchmanship and parenthood – are available at:  

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_CPanel_Pornography_survey_March_2012.pdf

Asked whose responsibility it is to ensure children are prevented from accessing pornography on the internet, 99% of Christians replied parents, 84% internet service providers (ISPs), 72% mobile phone network providers, 65% regulatory bodies, 60% Government, and 35% children themselves.

88% of Christians favoured a system whereby pornographic content would be automatically blocked by ISPs, requiring customers aged 18 and over to opt into adult services. Only 8% favoured an opt out arrangement.

In the face of the strong reservations expressed by ISPs about blocking pornography, 75% of Christians wanted the Government to force providers to block such content, with 13% opposed and 12% undecided.

Somewhat fewer, 57% of Christians, said that they would be willing to pay more for their internet subscription to fund the cost of the filtering technology needed for an opt in scheme. 28% were unwilling to pay extra, and 15% could not make up their minds.

The traditional 9 pm watershed on television was widely regarded as being ineffective, following the introduction of replay services such as iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD. 79% were of this opinion, compared with just 8% who saw the watershed as still effective.

Questioned about the age from which someone should be allowed to watch pornography, bearing in mind that 16 is the age of consent, 11% replied from the age of 16, 27% from the age of 18, and 9% from the age of 21. But 42% (and 52% of women) wanted pornography banned altogether.

Looking at the root causes of the problem, four-fifths of respondents thought that the Churches should be doing more to support parents in educating their children about sex. 8% disagreed and 12% were uncertain.

Two unrelated topics were also covered in the poll. Most (78%) felt that the obligation to teach children to read rested with schools and parents equally. The responsibility to teach them about Christianity was seen to fall on parents (94%), Churches (93%) and schools (60%).

 

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