Religious Self-Identification and Other News

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Clive D. Field

 

Religious self-identification

The current issue of Religion (Vol. 44, No. 3, 2014) is a special theme issue on ‘Making Sense of Surveys and Censuses: Issues in Religious Self-Identification’, guest-edited by Abby Day and Lois Lee. It contains a number of contributions which will be of interest to BRIN readers, and these are detailed below (there are also three other papers on exclusively non-British topics). All can be accessed (via institutional subscription or pay-per-view options) through the journal issue homepage at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rrel20/44/3#.U94fmTZwbX4

Abby Day and Lois Lee, ‘Making Sense of Surveys and Censuses: Issues in Religious Self-Identification’ (pp. 345-56) – This provides a general introduction to the theme issue and summarizes the individual chapters. It also draws upon Day’s own research into the religion question in the 2001 UK census of population and upon her involvement in discussions with the Office for National Statistics regarding the 2011 and 2021 censuses.

Clive Field, ‘Measuring Religious Affiliation in Great Britain: The 2011 Census in Historical and Methodological Context’ (pp. 357-82) – This traces the history of the measurement of religious affiliation in Britain from the Reformation to the present day, with particular reference to the contribution of the Churches, the State, and empirical social science. Nominal affiliation is shown to have been universal until the time of the French Revolution and preponderant until as late as the 1980s. The phenomenon of religious ‘nones’ has emerged since the latter date, but its extent today is dependent upon the way each question about religious affiliation is formulated. Alternative question-wordings are revealed to lead to wide variations in the results obtained. There are twelve tables.

Conrad Hackett, ‘Seven Things to Consider When Measuring Religious Identity’ (pp. 396-413) – The author offers seven suggestions for those wishing to describe and understand religious identity using survey data. He draws upon a range of American and international examples to illustrate his arguments. One section (pp. 402-4) attempts to explain the apparent discrepancy in religious affiliation results between the 2010 Annual Population Survey in England and Wales and the 2011 census of population.

Serena Hussain and Jamil Sherif, ‘Minority Religions in the Census: The Case of British Muslims’ (pp. 414-33) – The article considers the benefits for religious groups of having census data on religion, and for Muslims in particular. Much space is given over to the successful campaign (involving, among others, the Muslim Council of Britain) to persuade Government to field a religion question in the 2001 census; to the profile of Muslims which emerged from the 2001 and 2011 censuses, not least concerning disadvantage; and to the public policy and media impacts of such data, including perceived Islamophobic responses to the results of the 2011 census. The authors conclude with a brief expression of concern about the potentially negative effects for publicly available data on religion of the proposed changes in the methodology for the 2021 UK census.

Martin Stringer, ‘Evidencing Superdiversity in the Census and Beyond’ (pp. 453-65) – The concept of ‘superdiverse’ communities, as originally defined by Steve Vertovec, is explored through the lens of religion and other census statistics for England and Wales, with particular reference to Birmingham. The discussion is somewhat inconclusive, partly because the full range of local census data was not available to the author at the time of writing, but the conclusion appears to be that a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures will be necessary to differentiate ‘superdiverse’ from simply ‘diverse’ communities. The paper will probably make most sense when read alongside Stringer’s book Discourses on Religious Diversity (Ashgate, 2013).

Lois Lee, ‘Secular or Nonreligious? Investigating and Interpreting Generic “Not Religious” Categories and Populations’ (pp. 466-82) – The author uses qualitative, ethnographic research among self-identifying non-religious in Cambridge and Greater London to investigate what non-religious categories actually measure, specifically whether they indicate non-affiliation or disaffiliation or an alternative form of cultural affiliation. The widespread assumption that such categories merely denote secularity or secularization is questioned, many who subscribe to non-religious categories identifying with substantive (albeit diverse) non-religious and spiritual cultures. Distinctions between religious and non-religious categories as, respectively, ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ are thus flattened. The paper is somewhat jargon-ridden.

Vivianne Crowley, ‘Standing Up To Be Counted: Understanding Pagan Responses to the 2011 British Censuses’ (pp. 483-501) – Although the number of people self-identifying as Pagan increased between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, from 44,000 to 85,000, many Pagans remain reluctant to declare their Paganism, and census statistics of Pagans thus fall below those from other sources. The paper principally reports the results of an online questionnaire completed by 1,706 Pagans in Britain in May-June 2013 who were recruited via ‘snowballing/viral methods’, the sample consequently being ‘skewed heavily towards those well-networked Pagans who are active in e-groups, rather than those whose community links are weaker and more diffuse’. Respondents were asked about how they had handled the 2011 census question on religion and about their motivations for doing so. Overall, 85% recollected that they had written in Pagan on the census form, the remainder opting for another religion category (including none), not answering the census question, or being unable to say what they had done two years before. Crowley concludes that: ‘The census is not a good instrument for measuring the number of Pagans in Britain, particularly when based on household rather than individual forms.’

2021 census

On 18 July 2014 the Government, under the signature of Francis Maude (Minister for the Cabinet Office), gave its response to the National Statistician’s recommendations for taking the 2021 population census. It accepted the proposal to have a predominantly online census in that year supplemented by more extensive use of administrative and survey data. However, Government made it clear that its support for this dual-track approach was restricted to 2021 and that its ‘ambition is that censuses after 2021 will be conducted using other sources of data and providing more timely statistical information’. The exact content of the 2021 census has still to be determined, so it is not yet definite that a question on religion will be included for a third time.

Christians, sex, and marriage

The UK’s practising Christians mostly continue to uphold a ‘traditional’ view of Christian marriage but are far from being strait-laced or immune from marital failure. This is according to a new survey by Christian Research on behalf of Christian Today, published on 30 July 2014, and for which 1,401 churchgoers and church leaders were interviewed online on 28-30 June 2014. More than two-thirds said that Christians should not cohabit before marriage. About four-fifths felt it important to marry another Christian, and of those who were married, a similar proportion had done so. Nearly seven in ten thought their spouse or partner had been specially ‘put aside’ for them by God, and almost half had explicitly looked for their ideal partner in a Christian context. Although two-thirds believed that personal desire did not need to translate into the sex act, more than seven in ten agreed that ‘my spouse/partner and I love the physical part’. Some 12% reported that their relationships had failed, in that they were either divorced or separated or remarried after divorce. A surprisingly high 0.6% of practising Christians claimed to be in civil partnerships, which only came into effect in December 2005, and this was the lead finding from the poll in the Christian Today coverage (there are currently no data tables in the public domain), which is at:

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/one.in.200.churchgoers.in.same.sex.relationships/39175.htm

Ex-Anglican Catholic Priests

Research by Professor Linda Woodhead and Fr Christopher Jamison, reported in the current issue of The Tablet (2 August 2014, p. 32), suggests that 389 Catholic priests in England and Wales are former Anglican clergy, most of them believed to be working in Catholic parishes and chaplaincies, and a very large proportion of them married. The figure is approaching one-tenth of all active Catholic priests, secular or religious, in England and Wales. Of the 389, it is estimated that 250 left the Church of England between 1994 (when the first women were ordained in that Church) and 2000, 52 from 2001 to the present, with a further 87 joining the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham following its establishment in 2011. The report is online at:

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/1028/0/new-figures-show-almost-400-catholic-priests-were-anglicans

Muslim heroes

Today marks the centenary of Britain’s entry into the First World War. It is an appropriate moment to remember the service and sacrifice of millions from Britain and its then Empire who supported the war effort in the front line and on the home front. Among them were 400,000 Muslims, preponderantly from the then unpartitioned India (covering the area of the present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), who fought in the British armed forces, alongside 800,000 Hindus and 100,000 Sikhs. Few contemporary British citizens are aware of the strength of this Muslim contribution to the First World War, according to the results of an ICM Research poll for the British Future think tank which were released on 2 August 2014 to coincide with the Living Islam festival. Asked to estimate how many Muslims fought with Britain in the First World War, only 2% correctly placed the number between 250,000 and 500,000. Another 600,000 Muslims fought in the Second World War.

Islamic terrorism

Almost half (46%) of the population view Islamic terrorism as a critical threat to Britain, according to an opinion poll by YouGov, conducted online on 31 July and 1 August 2014 among 2,083 adults aged 18 and over. The proportion rose to 71% of UKIP voters, 60% with the over-60s, and 59% for Conservatives. A further 33% regarded Islamic terrorism as an important but not critical threat to Britain, bringing to 79% the figure for those deeming it some kind of serious threat (and 92% or 93% for Conservatives, UKIP supporters, and over-60s). Just 2% (peaking at 8% of 18-24s and 6% of Londoners) saw it as no threat at all, with another 10% assessing it as only a minor threat. Islamic terrorism was seen as a greater danger to Britain than Russia’s military in the post-Ukraine crisis world; 11% viewed Russia as a critical threat and 47% as an important but not critical threat. Data tables can be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/1hdxa38zho/InternalResults_140801_NATO_W.pdf

Anti-Semitic incidents

The Community Security Trust announced on 31 July 2014 that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in the first six months of the year was, at 304, 36% up on the January-June 2013 figure. The reasons for the increase are unclear, since no specific ‘trigger event’ occurred during that half-year, but the Trust speculates that improved reporting of incidents as well as more anti-Semitism both contributed to the trend. Naturally excluded from the data are incidents registered in July 2014, over 130 of them in what the Trust describes as ‘the second worst outburst’ of anti-Semitism in recent memory, and largely linked to the ongoing Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza. Antisemitic Incidents Report, January-June 2014 can be downloaded from:

http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Incidents%20Report%20Jan%20-%20June%202014.pdf

 

Posted in Historical studies, Measuring religion, News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

British Academy Recognition and Other News

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Clive D. Field

 

BRIN secures British Academy recognition

The British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences, announced on 23 July 2014 that BRIN is to be one of fine new Academy Research Projects in the social sciences. Following an open and peer-review-based competition, BRIN has been awarded funding for five years in the first instance, with the potential for further support thereafter. BRIN and the four other projects ‘have been recognised for the excellence of their scholarship, and the promise and exciting nature of their programmes’. The British Academy’s announcement can be found at:

http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/news.cfm/newsid/1123

Ipsos Global Trends Survey, 2014

Britain has often been placed toward the bottom of international league tables of religiosity, and this continues to be the case according to the newly-published inaugural Ipsos MORI Global Trends Survey, 2014. Fieldwork was undertaken online in 20 developed and developing countries in two waves (3-17 September and 1-15 October 2013) among a sample of adults aged 16/18-64 (thereby excluding the over-65s, who tend to be the most religious cohort, as well as the group least likely to use the internet). Britain was ranked sixteenth in terms of identification of its citizens with any religion or faith (57% against the unweighted global mean of 71%), and sixteenth equal for the personal importance of religion/faith (27%, with 64% of Britons saying it was not important to them). It was also fifth equal for agreement with the statement that ‘organised religion is not for me’ (72%, with just 21% dissenting and 7% uncertain). The most consistently religious of the nations investigated were Argentina, Brazil, India, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States. Topline results can be extracted from the survey website at:

http://www.ipsosglobaltrends.com

Prospects for religious revival

In an important new article, ‘Late Secularization and Religion as Alien’, published on 17 July 2014, Steve Bruce of the University of Aberdeen argues that it is ‘sociologically implausible’ that secularization could be reversed in the UK since there are too many obstacles to ‘religious revival’, whether of Christianity or other creeds. In particular, ‘the shared stock of religious knowledge is small, the public reputation of religion is poor, and religion is carried primarily by populations that are unusual in being drawn either from a narrow demographic or from immigrant peoples’. These ‘carriers of religion’ in the UK have been allegedly reduced to elderly women, residents of rural peripheries, Poles, West Africans, and Muslims, leading to the conclusion that ‘religion is now alien’. ‘Being religious is no longer a characteristic that is thinly but fairly evenly distributed throughout the population: it is concentrated in specific minority populations, which reinforces the sense that religion is what other people do.’ The article is published in Open Theology, Vol. 1, 2014, pp. 13-23 and available for free download at:

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opth.2014.1.issue/issue-files/opth.2014.1.issue.xml

No religion hotspots

In a recent post on the Nonreligion & Secularity blog, dated 21 July 2014, Katherine Sissons of the University of Oxford explores the potential of DataShine, a data visualization tool developed at University College London, for the study of the distribution of no religion in the 2011 census: ‘“Godless Cities” and “Religious Enclaves”? The Distribution of Religion and Nonreligion in England and Wales’. She cautions against an over-simplistic interpretation of the data, noting that, although there are some apparent no religion urban ‘hotspots’ (such as Brighton and Norwich), religious and non-religious populations are generally not as spatially segregated as is often assumed, with, for example, above average levels of irreligion occurring in several more rural areas, such as large parts of Wales, East Anglia, and the South-West. The post can be read at:

http://blog.nsrn.net/2014/07/21/godless-cities-and-religious-enclaves-the-distribution-of-religion-and-nonreligion-in-england-and-wales/

Churches and social capital

‘The Church in England reaches approximately 10 million people each year through its community activities, even excluding “familiar” church activities – Sunday services, Christmas, Easter, Harvest, baptisms, weddings, and funerals.’ So concludes Paul Bickley in a new report prepared by Theos think tank for the Church Urban Fund: Good Neighbours: How Churches Help Communities Flourish. The report itself is largely based on an analysis of twelve case studies of the work of Church of England congregations in areas of high deprivation but is informed by an online survey from ComRes among 2,024 English adults aged 18 and over between 19 and 21 February 2014.

Respondents in the national study were first asked to select from a list of community activities and services (i.e. delivered by churches, charities, or voluntary organizations, rather than by private companies or the state) those which they or someone in their immediate family had accessed in the last twelve months. Almost half (48%) reported accessing such activities and services and 43% not. Among those who had taken up the provision, 51% recalled that it had come from a church or a church group (the tables fail to clarify how this figure was calculated). Setting aside weddings or funerals, the majority of this voluntary provision was church-based in only six areas: pastoral support for pub- and club-goers (68%), marriage/relationship advice (64%), food banks (56%), community events such as lunch clubs and cafés (56%), assistance of asylum seekers/migrants (55%), and counselling/befriending services (50%). In the other eleven areas secular agencies predominated.

Good Neighbours can be read at:

http://www.cuf.org.uk/sites/default/files/PDFs/Research/Good%20Neighbours%20Report-CUF-Theos-2014.pdf

and the ComRes data tables at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Theos_and_Church_Urban_Fund___Churches_in_the_Community___Final_Data___25th_February_2014.pdf

United Reformed Church statistics

The General Assembly of the United Reformed Church met in Cardiff on 3-6 July 2014, and this provides an opportunity to record its latest Britain-wide statistics, which reveal a pattern of decline characteristic of most of the ‘historic’ Free Churches (the United Reformed Church itself evolved after 1972 as a union of several previous denominations). The following table has been abstracted from:

http://www.urc.org.uk/statistics.html

 

2012

2013

% change
Churches

1,512

1,487

-1.7
Active ministers

615

576

-6.3
Retired ministers

900

915

+1.7
Active lay preachers

484

479

-1.0
Serving elders

11,229

10,247

-8.7
Non-serving elders

8,791

8,396

-4.5
Members

61,627

59,077

-4.1
Regular attenders

20,596

19,968

-3.0
Average congregation

61,725

59,828

-3.1
Children associated with Church

44,771

42,076

-6.0
Children worshipping at main service

15,504

15,473

-0.2

Faith and Belief Scotland

Faith and Belief Scotland: A Contemporary Mapping of Attitudes and Provisions in Scotland, by Anthony Allison, is a report on research undertaken in 2013-14 by the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh on behalf of the Equality Unit of the Scottish Government. The project was designed to investigate the compliance of Scottish councils with the Public Sector Equality Duty of The Equality Act 2010 in respect of religion and belief as a protected characteristic. Data-gathering comprised qualitative research in eight council areas and an online national survey completed by 1,407 adults aged 16 and over between December 2013 and March 2014.

Although respondents to the online survey were drawn from all 32 Scottish councils, the method of distribution of the questionnaire (‘through various religion and belief mailing lists and popular social media platforms’) means that the sample cannot be considered as statistically representative. In particular, relative to the results of the 2011 Scottish census, adherents of the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church appear to be seriously under-represented and non-Christians and those professing no religion to be over-represented.

Nevertheless, the 37 questions in the online survey do yield some interesting findings, including the significant number of people who rejected the Equality Act’s definitions of religion (43%) and belief (38%), seemingly because they incorporate the lack, as well as the existence, of religion and belief. It is also noteworthy that only 7% of respondents regarded Scotland as a Christian country, with 33% viewing it as a post-Christian or secular nation, and 60% as a society of many religions and beliefs. In part reflection of this fact, there was a significant amount of discomfort with religious organizations providing schools (47%), adoption (39%), and foster care (38%), while 47% were opposed to state funding of religion or belief groups (with 34% in favour).

The report can be found at:

http://faithandbelief.div.ed.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Faith-and-Belief-Scotland-FINAL-VERSION-OF-REPORT.pdf

An interactive map, permitting analysis of all 37 questions by gender, religion or belief group, and council is at:

http://faithandbelief.div.ed.ac.uk/fabs/

Anti-Semitism

A spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK has arisen this month as a direct consequence of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in much the same way as occurred with the similar conflict in January-February 2009. The Community Security Trust is reporting that the number of incidents in this country is currently running at double the level which would be expected under ‘normal’ circumstances (approximately 100 since 1 July 2014 compared with 58 for the whole of July 2013). Recent YouGov polling (as tabulated below) also indicates that, since Israeli military action commenced on 8 July 2014, Britons have been somewhat and increasingly more sympathetic to the Palestinian than the Israeli cause, although the plurality remains neutral and a substantial minority is undecided.

Sympathize with (%)

13-14/7/14

20-21/7/14

24-25/7/14
Israelis

14

14

14
Palestinians

20

23

27
Neither

40

40

41
Don’t know

26

23

19

 

Posted in News from religious organisations, Official data, Religion and Social Capital, Religious Census, Survey news, visualisation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Recent Journal Articles and Other News

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Clive D. Field

As well as carrying the usual miscellany of news, this post reports on a selection of recent articles in academic journals which may be of interest to BRIN users. We give a URL for each, in line with our standard practice, but it should be noted that the articles themselves are behind paywalls, only available ‘free’ to those with a personal or institutional paid subscription to the journal concerned. If you do not have such access, you can use the online pay-per-view option or ask your local library to obtain a copy.

Religious polarization

Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme (Nuffield College, University of Oxford), ‘Toward Religious Polarization? Time Effects on Religious Commitment in US, UK, and Canadian Regions’, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 75, No. 2, Summer 2014, pp. 284-308.

http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/75/2/284.abstract

The article tests the theory of polarization between religious and secular people by reference to cross-sectional datasets for 13 regions in three countries from 1985 to 2009-10. The four UK regions are England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The UK datasets are the British, Scottish, and Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Surveys and the Northern Ireland Life and Times Surveys, with a combined sample of 118,244 respondents. A religious commitment typology was devised from measures of self-reported religious affiliation and religious attendance to produce three categories of: no religion, affiliate but attend less than monthly (nominally affiliated), and affiliate and attend monthly or more (committed). Increasing polarization is shown to have occurred in England, Wales, and Scotland (also in Alberta and British Columbia) in that, while there has been undoubted growth in nones over time, the proportion of religiously committed has been fairly stable, thereby averting a decline of religion into nothing. In Northern Ireland, by contrast, religious commitment has decreased and nominal affiliation has risen.

Religious attendance

Marion Burkimsher (University of Lausanne), ‘Is Religious Attendance Bottoming Out? An Examination of Current Trends Across Europe’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 53, No. 2, June 2014, pp. 432-45.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12111/abstract

The article examines self-reported religious attendance monthly or more in 24 European countries (including 10 ex-Communist states) on the basis of European Values Studies and European Social Surveys for the years 1990-2012. Four different methods of assessing trends in religious participation are deployed: inter-cohort differentials, attendance of young people (aged 18-29), attendance by post-war cohorts born in 1950-81, and life-course variations (child versus young adult). Overall, decline is being experienced in some previously high-attending Catholic countries, while attendance in traditionally secular countries (including Britain) is stabilizing at a relatively low level. Only on the child-adult attendance measure was a decline recorded in Britain. A few ex-Communist countries are seeing sustained growth.

UK religious census

A.J. Christopher (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), ‘The Religious Question in the United Kingdom Census, 1801-2011’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 65, No. 3, July 2014, pp. 601-19.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9281949&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0022046912003636

The author offers an overview of the historical debates and controversies, inside and outside Parliament, surrounding the attempts to include a religion question in the population census of the various nations comprising the United Kingdom. Apart from Ireland (where a question on religious affiliation was included from 1861) and in Northern Ireland (from 1926), these efforts only succeeded in mainland Britain in 2001. The principal exception was the one-off census of religious accommodation and worship in 1851, which is barely discussed by Christopher, notwithstanding the vast primary and secondary literature to which it has given rise. The most detailed consideration in his article is reserved for the debates on the 1861 and 1911 censuses, while the survey of the campaign in the 1990s to add religion to the 2001 census schedule is somewhat brief and fails to cite several of the published first-hand accounts.

Anti-Catholicism

Clive Field (University of Birmingham and University of Manchester), ‘No Popery’s Ghost: Does Popular Anti-Catholicism Survive in Contemporary Britain?’ Journal of Religion in Europe, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2014, pp. 116-49.

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-00702004

In accordance with the self-archiving policy of the publisher (Brill), an open access version of this article is also available on the author’s personal website at:

https://clivedfield.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/anti-catholicism-published.pdf

Anti-Catholicism has been a feature of British history from the Reformation, but it has been little studied for the period since the Second World War, and rarely using quantitative methods. A thematically-arranged aggregate analysis of around 180 opinion polls among representative samples of adults since the 1950s offers insights into developing attitudes of the British public to Catholics and the Catholic Church. Anti-Catholicism against individual Catholics is found to have diminished. Negativity toward the Catholic Church and its leadership has increased, especially since the Millennium. Generic and specific explanations are offered for these trends, within the context of other manifestations of religious prejudice and other religious changes.

Jediism

Beth Singler (Pembroke College, University of Cambridge), ‘“See Mom It is Real”: The UK Census, Jediism, and Social Media’, Journal of Religion in Europe, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2014, pp. 150-68.

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-00702005;jsessionid=23bvmdgci17ic.x-brill-live-02

The author considers Jediism (of Star Wars fame) as an ‘invented’ New Religious Movement (NRM) and, in particular, its ‘Internet Event’, in the shape of online campaigns to encourage self-identification as Jedi Knight in response to the religion question in the 2001 and 2011 UK censuses of population. These campaigns had significant impact in 2001, with 390,127 individuals (0.7% of UK residents) writing in Jedi as their religion from a wide variety of motivations, including as a joke, but were much less effective in 2011 (when there were 176,632 Jedis). In practice, the Office for National Statistics chose to categorize Jedis as no religion rather than other religion. The use of email (in 2001) and social media, notably Twitter (in 2011) in underpinning these campaigns is explored as a legitimation strategy for NRMs. In this way even ‘invented’ religions such as Jediism can acquire a source of tradition.

Trust in the Church

A majority (55%) of the British public distrusts the Church, according to the latest results from nfpSynergy’s Charity Awareness Monitor (CAM), which were published on 23 June 2014. For the twelfth time since 2003 a representative sample of 1,000 Britons aged 16 and over was asked about the degree of trust which they had in various public bodies and institutions, 24 being included in the most recent survey, conducted online in April 2014. The nfpSynergy press release, with links to some Powerpoint slides, will be found at:

http://nfpsynergy.net/trust-2014

Response options included ‘very little’ and ‘not much’, which have been combined to give a distrust score, and ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ which have been merged to produce a trust figure. The table below, ranked according to level of distrust, summarizes the findings for 2014.

%

Distrust

Trust

Difference
Political parties

83

12

-71
Government

75

20

-55
Insurance companies

71

24

-47
Newspapers

71

24

-47
Multinational companies

70

20

-50
Banks

68

27

-41
Local authorities

63

32

-31
Trade unions

62

30

-32
Civil service

57

34

-23
Legal system

56

39

-17
Church

55

37

-18
Supermarkets

47

49

+2
TV and radio stations

45

50

+5
BBC

42

53

+11
Police

42

55

+13
Royal Mail

40

56

+16
Charities

38

56

+18
Royal family

38

57

+19
Fundraising Standards Board

35

28

-7
Schools

34

61

+27
Small businesses

30

62

+32
NHS

29

68

+39
Scouts and guides

26

64

+38
Armed forces

25

70

+45

The Church was the eleventh most distrusted of all the institutions, with 18% more adults distrusting it than trusting it, and only 10% trusting it a great deal (against 27% quite a lot, 29% not much, and 26% very little). A majority from 52% to 65% has distrusted the Church in every single CAM since September 2006, and a plurality of 45% in the first CAM in November 2003.

The relatively poor showing of the Church in terms of public esteem exemplifies how secularization can be understood (following a famous article by Mark Chaves in Social Forces in 1994) as declining religious authority.

Religious freedom

The recent allegations of a ‘Trojan horse’ plot in some Birmingham state schools have sparked off a debate about the importance of teaching so-called ‘British values’. Several opinion polls have tried to get the public to define precisely what those values might encompass. Little weight is apparently attached to religious freedom, according to one such survey, conducted by ComRes on behalf of the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday between 11 and 13 June 2014, for which 2,034 adult Britons were interviewed online. Out of a list of 12 possible British values, religious freedom was ranked tenth in importance, with just 12% of the vote, albeit twice that (23%) among the over-65s. Freedom of speech came top (48%), followed by respect for the rule of law (34%), and fairness and tolerance (27% each). Full details on pp. 73-6 of the data tables at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/SM_IoS_Political_Poll_15June_2014.pdf

Scottish Episcopal Church statistics

The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church met in Edinburgh between 12 and 14 June 2014 and, on its final day, debated a motion from the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, calling on the College of Bishops to devise an annual statistical return which would better reflect the full range of the Church’s activities, some of which were said to go unrecorded under the present system. In an attempt to provide a fuller picture, the Diocese had compiled a supplementary ‘Fresh Expressions Statistical Return’ for 2011-12, which is reproduced on pp. 157-8 of the General Synod agenda and papers at:

http://www.scotland.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Synod-Papers.pdf

There is a summary of the debate in the Church Times for 20 June 2014 (p. 10). The main speaker was Professor David Atkinson, from the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, who claimed that ‘there is an imbalance between the numbers we collect and what we are experiencing’.

The Church’s latest figures are included in its annual report to 31 December 2013, disaggregated to individual ‘charge’. Three measures are given: persons of all ages belonging to the congregation (members) – 34,119 in 2013 (down 2.3% on 2012); names on the communicants’ roll – 24,852 in 2013 (up 0.8% on 2012); and attendance on a Sunday before Advent – 13,631 in 2013 (3.5% down on 2012). The annual report can be found at:

http://www.scotland.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-Annual-Report1.pdf

Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life

The independent Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, an initiative of the Woolf Institute at Cambridge, has recently launched a national consultation, which is, in effect, a call for written evidence in answer to both general and specific questions. The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2014. It does not appear that the Commission intends to conduct a representative national cross-section survey, to set alongside the views of what will inevitably be a self-selecting group of individual and organizational respondents to the consultation and of those invited to attend seven national and local public hearings. Further information can be found at:

http://www.corab.org.uk/national-consultation

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Religious Attitudes Towards Gay Rights in 2013

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Ben Clements

This post looks at religious groups’ views on gay rights and related issues based on newly-released data from the British Social Attitudes 2013 survey. The 2013 survey asked various questions on this topic, some of which were carried in earlier surveys in the BSA series and some of which have not been asked before. The data have been compiled from the BSA’s interactive, online data catalogue – BritSocAt (the full survey dataset will probably not be made available via the UK Data Service for some time). Those interested in reading about the various topics covered in the 2013 survey can access and download chapters and other material from the accompanying microsite – which can be found here. This analysis builds on previous BRIN posts which have used the BSA (and sometimes other social surveys) to analyse religious groups’ attitudes in this area. The previous posts are as follows:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2014/religion-and-social-morality-issues-in-2012/

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/anglicans-and-attitudes-towards-gay-marriage/

http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/attitudes-towards-gay-rights/

This post focuses on attitudes on the basis of religious affiliation (or belonging). It uses the BSA’s standard categorisation which is itself derived from a more much more detailed classification of religious belonging. Religious affiliation has five categories: Anglican, Catholic, other Christian, other religion, and no religion.

The first two questions looked at here asked respondents about their views of lesbian women and gay men (asked as part of a broader set of questions concerning different groups in society). This is the first time these questions have been asked in the BSA series. The questions were worded as follows:

People have more positive attitudes towards certain groups in society and more negative attitudes towards others. Please tick one box to show how you feel about each of the following groups in Britain. Lesbian women.

People have more positive attitudes towards certain groups in society and more negative attitudes towards others. Please tick one box on each line to show how you feel about each of the following groups in Britain. Gay men.

Responses are shown in Table 1. Note that some of the response options have been collapsed into broader categories: ‘negative’ includes the responses ‘very negative’ or ‘somewhat negative’ and ‘positive’ comprises the responses ‘somewhat positive’ and ‘very positive’. The pattern of responses shows that, in relation to lesbian women, those with no religion are less likely to have a negative feeling compared to all religious groups. In fact, for each group, the most prevalent view is one of having neither positive nor negative feelings – this view is held by a majority of Anglicans, other Christians and those with no religion. Around a third of those with no religion hold a positive view (33.0%), next highest at around a quarter of Catholics (25.7%). A similar picture is evident from the responses to the question on feelings towards gay men. Again, in every group bar one, holding neither negative nor positive feelings is the most prevalent view. The exception is for adherents of other (non-Christian) religions, amongst whom a majority (56.2%) have negative feelings towards gay men, compared to around a quarter or even lower for the other groups. Those with no religion are again more likely to have positive feelings, at just over a third (35.5%).

Overall, then, within all groups a clear majority either holds negative or neutral feelings towards lesbian women or gay men. The majorities are somewhat smaller amongst those with no religious affiliation (64.0% for lesbian women and 63.0% for gay men).  Within these majorities, however, those holding neutral feelings always outnumber those with negative views. The one exception here is for attitudes towards gay men on the part of those belonging to other religions.

Table 1: Attitudes towards lesbian women and gay men

Anglican

(%)

Catholic (%)

Other Christian (%)

Other religion (%)

No religion (%)
Lesbian women
Negative

15.1

24.7

18.1

27.4

9.8
Neither

58.9

47.8

61.5

44.2

54.2
NEGATIVE OR NEITHER

74.0

72.5

79.6

71.6

64.0
Positive

22.3

25.7

17.4

16.1

33.0
Can’t choose

3.6

1.8

3.0

12.3

3.1
Gay men
Negative

23.9

14.9

24.6

56.2

17.1
Neither

47.6

61.3

44.7

12.6

45.9
NEGATIVE OR NEITHER

71.5

76.2

69.3

68.8

63.0
Positive

25.7

20.3

27.9

20.4

35.5
Can’t choose

2.9

3.5

2.8

10.8

1.5

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

Next, Table 2 shows responses to a question asking about same-sex couples and parenting. The wording is as follows:

Please tick one box to show how much you agree or disagree with this statement. A same sex couple are just as capable of being good parents as a man and a woman.

The ‘agree’ category includes those who answered ‘agree strongly’ or ‘agree’ and, similarly, the ‘disagree’ category includes those who responded ‘disagree’ or ‘disagree strongly’. Two questions asking about male and female same-sex couples bringing up children were also asked on the 2012 survey – see here for analysis of opinions by affiliation and religious attendance.

In 2013 respondents were much more likely to agree than disagree with the statement. Agreement was highest for those with no religion (at 65.0%), followed by Catholics (at 57.5%). Around two-fifths of Anglicans and other Christians expressed agreement, which was lowest for adherents of other religions (at just 19.1%). Disagreement was therefore much higher amongst those belonging to other religions, at 69.6%, and lowest amongst those with no religion (at 19.1%). In each group, relatively small proportions opted for a neutral stance – reaching just over a fifth of Anglicans and other Christians and lowest for adherents of other religions (at 11.4%) and those with no religion (15.8%).

Table 2: Attitudes towards parenting

Anglican

(%)

Catholic (%)

Other Christian (%)

Other religion (%)

No religion (%)
Agree

43.0

57.5

39.5

19.1

65.1
Neither

21.5

13.2

22.7

11.4

15.8
Disagree

35.5

29.3

37.8

69.6

19.1

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

The BSA 2013 also asked a question about equal opportunities, which was worded as follows (a similar question, albeit slightly different in wording, was asked in the 1994 survey):

Do you think attempts to give equal opportunities to lesbians, gay men and bisexuals have gone too far or not gone far enough?

Major reforms in this area – including civil partnerships, adoption and, most recently, same-sex marriage – have been enacted under recent governments. In Table 3, the category ‘gone too far’ consists of ‘gone much too far’ and ‘gone too far’ responses, while the category ‘not gone far enough’ includes the responses ‘not gone far enough’ and ‘not gone nearly far enough’. It is clear that those with no religion are less likely to perceive that equal opportunities have gone too far, at 23.1%, compared to the religious groups (highest at 55.3% for those belonging to some other religion). Interestingly, Catholics are somewhat less likely to offer this response (30.0%) compared to Anglicans (47.5%) and other Christians (41.2%). The view amongst religious groups that things have gone too far may have been influenced by the divisive debate in 2012 and beyond over the coalition government’s same-sex marriage proposals, which met with strong opposition from religious leaders and organisations, representing both Christian traditions and other faiths. Even so, not too dissimilar proportions of every group – those belonging to non-Christian faiths aside – think the situation is about right (in the region of 40.0%-47.0%). There is some divergence in perceptions of whether things have not gone far enough, albeit it is a minority viewpoint in each case – highest amongst Catholics (18.4%) and those with no religion (27.5%).

Table 3: Attitudes towards equal opportunities

Anglican

(%)

Catholic (%)

Other Christian (%)

Other religion (%)

No religion (%)
Gone too far

47.5

30.0

41.2

55.3

23.1
About right

40.2

46.7

45.3

18.3

44.6
Not gone far enough

8.5

18.4

10.5

11.3

27.5
Don’t know

3.8

4.9

3.1

15.1

4.8

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

Respondents were also asked about how they would feel about informal or formal social interaction, based on the following two questions:

How would you feel socialising with someone, for example as part of a sports club or leisure activity, who you knew or thought to be gay, lesbian or bisexual?

How would you feel talking to someone in a formal setting such as in a workplace or in a shop, who you knew or thought to be gay, lesbian or bisexual?

The distribution of responses is shown in Table 4. The responses ‘very comfortable’ and ‘fairly comfortable’ have been combined in the ‘comfortable’ category and, likewise, the ‘uncomfortable’ category includes the responses ‘fairly uncomfortable’ and ‘very uncomfortable’. First, in terms of informal interaction in a sports club or leisure activity, large majorities of respondents in each group report being comfortable with this form of social contact. Such views are highest amongst those with no religion (at 87.2%) and Anglicans (81.4%), and lowest amongst those belonging to non-Christian faiths (66.1%). Across all groups, small proportions report either that they feel to an extent uncomfortable with this type of informal social interaction or that they would not feel either comfortable or uncomfortable. Those from other religions are more likely to say they would feel uncomfortable or to be unsure.

In terms of social interaction in a more formal setting (such as in the workplace or a shop), again large majorities declared they would be comfortable talking to someone who they know is, or who they perceive to be, gay, lesbian or bisexual. As with the previous questions, feeling comfortable is most likely amongst those with no religion (87.2%), followed by Anglicans (at 81.4%). Those belonging to other religions are similarly more likely to report they would feel uncomfortable with more formal social interaction (at 16.9%) or to be unsure (8.2%). Overall, a very similar pattern of results is evident for both questions.

Table 4: Attitudes towards social interaction

 

Anglican

(%)

Catholic

(%)

Other Christian (%)

Other religion

(%)

No religion (%)
Socialising with someone (sports club or leisure activity)
Comfortable

81.4

76.1

73.8

66.1

87.2
Neither

11.2

18.5

13.0

8.4

8.0
Uncomfortable

7.1

4.5

12.7

17.4

4.2
Don’t know

0.3

0.9

0.6

8.2

0.6
Talking to someone in a formal setting (workplace or shop)
Comfortable

83.8

82.9

78.3

65.0

87.7
Neither

11.1

13.0

10.2

10.0

8.4
Uncomfortable

4.7

4.1

11.0

16.9

3.0
Don’t know

0.3

0.0

0.6

8.2

0.9

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

A question, carried in both 2006 and 2013, asked respondents if they personally know anyone who was gay or lesbian (responses are not shown in tabular format here). On each occasion, only a small minority of Christians and those with no religion said they did not know someone who was gay or lesbian. Amongst those with no religion, 18.8% reported they did not know such a person in 2006 (comparable to 19.0% of Catholics) and just 10.6% said this in 2013 (with Catholics again lowest amongst Christian groups, at 15.6%). The exception here on both occasions were those belonging to non-Christian faiths, amongst whom around half in reported that they did not know someone who was gay or lesbian (2006: 53.6%; 2013: 52.1%).

Finally, Table 5 presents the distribution of responses to two other questions asked in the BSA 2013, which were asked in earlier surveys and allow for over time comparison of attitudes. They concern approval of same-sex relations in general – a long-running BSA question since its inception – and acceptance of marriage between same-sex couples. The question wordings are as follows:

About sexual relation between two adults of the same sex. Do you think it is always wrong, almost always wrong, wrong only sometimes, or not wrong at all?

How much do you agree or disagree that … gay or lesbian couples should have the right to marry one another if they want to?

Looking first at approval of sexual relations between same-sex individuals – reporting the proportions who think it is ‘rarely wrong’ or ‘never wrong’ in 1983 (the first BSA survey) and 2013 – it is clear that there has been substantial liberalisation of opinion over time, across all groups. Those with no religion were most likely to offer either of these responses in both years, at 29.2% in 1983 and 81.2% in 2013. Just a small minority of Christians – regardless of tradition or denomination – adopted these views in 1983 (a fifth or lower), but majorities expressed such opinions in 2013 (highest at 65.1% for Catholics). In 2013, those from other religions are much less likely to take a liberal standpoint on this question, with only 26.7% saying such relations are rarely or never wrong (1983 survey data are not reported as this group comprised a very small proportion of the sample).

In terms of support for marriage for same-sex couples (showing the proportions who either agreed or strongly agreed), most groups show an increase in support from 2007 to 2013, albeit the magnitude of the increase varies. Support amongst Anglicans has noticeably risen from 32.0% to 45.6%, while amongst the group with no religion it increased from 59.7% to 69.3%. Positive sentiment has remained the same amongst Catholics and marginally increased amongst other Christians. As in 2007 Catholics (at 56.4%) remain more supportive than other Christians in 2013, but are now less so relative to those with no religion. In both surveys, those belonging to other religions are much less likely to favour a right to marry among same-sex couples, with positive opinion amounting to around a third in 2007 (32.0%) and just a fifth in 2013 (22.5%).

Table 5: Attitudes towards same-sex relations and same-sex marriage

 

Anglican

(%)

Catholic (%)

Other Christian (%)

Other religion (%)

No religion (%)
Sexual relations
1983: Rarely or never wrong

19.5

16.8

15.0

–

29.2
2013: Rarely or never wrong

52.1

65.1

52.7

26.7

81.2
Right to marry
2007: Agree

32.0

57.4

40.0

32.0

59.7
2013: Agree

45.6

56.4

43.9

22.5

69.3

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

Summary

Overall, the data presented here from the 2013 BSA survey (as well as based on comparisons with earlier points in time) show some clear differences in view on the basis of religious affiliation. While most groups have become much more approving of same-sex relations in recent decades, show considerable support for same-sex marriage and parenting, and overwhelmingly declare themselves comfortable with informal and formal social interaction with gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, those with no religion generally stand out as having the most tolerant or liberal stances in this issue area. Amongst those with a religious affiliation, Catholics are sometimes more likely to hold supportive attitudes compared to other Christian groups (such as same-sex parenting and marriage). Also notable are the more socially-conservative views adopted by those belonging to other religions, evident for a number of the questions analysed above. Indeed, those with no religion and those belonging to other (non-Christian) religions are generally furthest apart in their views and feelings towards gay rights and associated issues. Of course, the higher levels of tolerance shown by those with no religious affiliation will partly reflect their disproportionately younger age profile. What is perhaps surprising is that levels of positive appraisal of both gay men and lesbian women are not higher: across all groups – even amongst those with no religion – a clear majority has either negative feelings or feels neutral, although the latter is usually the more preponderant view.

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British Social Attitudes, 2013

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Clive D. Field

 

Results have recently started to emerge from the 2013 British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey, although it will still be some time before the full dataset is available at the UK Data Archive. Meanwhile, the best available source for rather more limited online statistical analysis is the British Social Attitudes Information System, which can be found at:

http://www.britsocat.com/

BSA has been conducted by NatCen Social Research on an annual basis since 1983 (except in two years), and on behalf of the Economic and Social Research Council and a consortium of Government and charitable funders.

Interviewing is face-to-face, supplemented by a self-completion questionnaire. For the 2013 survey (undertaken between June and November) the sample comprised 3,244 adults aged 18 and over living in private households in Britain. However, many questions were only put to one of three sub-samples.

This post is confined to reporting the headline results for the religion questions posed in the 2013 BSA, with trend data for previous years, where extant. The British Social Attitudes Information System also permits, as a standard feature, analysis of all other questions by religious affiliation, and we hope to provide additional coverage from this perspective in due course.

Religious affiliation

BSA has routinely asked: ‘do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’ This was question Q857 on the main BSA questionnaire in 2013. Results at ten-yearly intervals are shown in the following table:

% down

1983

1993

2003

2013
No religion

31.4

36.8

43.4

50.6
Christian – no denomination

3.2

4.6

6.6

11.8
Christian – Church of England

39.9

32.6

26.8

16.3
Christian – Roman Catholic

9.6

10.8

8.9

8.8
Christian – other

14.0

11.8

8.2

4.8
Non-Christian

2.0

3.5

6.0

7.7

It will be seen that the proportion professing no religion has steadily climbed, from 31% in 1983 to 51% in 2013, with a rise also in the number of non-Christians (from 2% to 8%). All forms of denominational Christianity have lost ground, but notably the Church of England (from 40% to 16% over the three decades) and other Protestant Christians (the Free Churches and Presbyterian Churches, down from 14% to 5%). Although the number of non-denominational Christians has virtually quadrupled, the increase has not stemmed the overall fall in Christians, from 67% to 42%.

BSA also asks about religion of upbringing (main questionnaire Q866). Setting religion of upbringing alongside current affiliation, in the table below, emphasizes the extent of loss of faith over the life-cycle, with the Church of England losing half its original constituency but even non-Christian faiths subject to a modest ‘leakage’.

% down

2013

2013

2013
 

Upbringing

Current

Change
No religion

19.0

50.6

+31.6
Christian – no denomination

16.7

11.8

-4.9
Christian – Church of England

31.3

16.3

-15.0
Christian – Roman Catholic

14.5

8.8

-5.7
Christian – other

10.4

4.8

-5.6
Non-Christian

8.0

7.7

-0.3

Religious attendance

It should be noted that BSA does not ask the entire British cross-section sample about attendance at religious services other than for the rites of passage. This question (main questionnaire Q868) is only put to those declaring some religion at the time of interview and/or reporting a religion of upbringing. It is important to interpret the statistics in this light. Self-reported attendance dropped considerably between 1993 and 2003 but seems to have been more stable over the past ten years, albeit the majority of this sub-sample (58%) never worship.

% down

1993

2003

2013
Once a week or more

18.9

13.9

13.1
At least once in two weeks

3.2

2.4

2.5
At least once a month

9.0

5.8

6.4
At least twice a year

16.6

10.1

8.4
At least once a year

8.5

5.8

4.2
Less often

6.1

4.3

5.5
Never

36.7

56.7

58.4
Varies

1.0

1.1

1.4

Christianity and Britishness

Respondents were given a list of attributes which potentially define what it means to be ‘truly British’ and asked to rate their importance. One of the factors was ‘to be a Christian’ (self-completion questionnaire, Version A, Q2e). This question had been included in three previous BSA surveys, although the 2008 data are omitted from the published discussion by Zsolt Kiss and Alison Park, ‘National Identity: Exploring Britishness’, British Social Attitudes, 31, 2014 Edition, eds Alison Park, Caroline Bryson, and John Curtice (London: NatCen Social Research, 2014), pp. 64-5, which is at:

http://www.bsa-31.natcen.ac.uk/media/38202/bsa31_full_report.pdf

The results from all four surveys are shown below. It will be seen that the proportion thinking ‘to be a Christian’ is important to Britishness has reduced from just under one-third in 1995 and 2003 to just under one-quarter in 2008 and 2013. However, between 2008 and 2013 the number believing a Christian profession to be very important to British identity has doubled, while those deeming it unimportant have reduced by four points, from 75% to 71%. These changes coincide with greater public concern about Muslims (see the next item) and Christianophobia.

% down

1995

2003

2008

2013
Very important

18.5

15.1

6.2

12.5
Fairly important

13.5

15.6

17.4

12.0
Not very important

27.3

23.7

37.3

26.2
Not at all important

35.1

39.0

37.7

45.0
Can/t choose/not answered

5.7

6.6

1.4

4.4

‘To be a Christian’ came last in the 2013 list of nine factors defining what it means to be ‘truly British’, well behind sharing customs and traditions in eighth place on 50%. The top three attributes were an ability to speak English (95%), having British citizenship (85%), and respecting institutions and laws (85%).

Attitudes to Muslims

Q467 in the main questionnaire repeated a question asked in 2003 about whether Britain would begin to lose its identity if more Muslims came to live here. Far more agreed with the proposition in 2013 (62%) than in 2003 (48%), with the number who agreed strongly doubling. The growth perhaps exemplifies greater anxieties about Muslims after 7/7 and about immigrants in general. Dissentients reduced from 30% to 22% over the decade.

% down

2003

2013
Agree strongly

17.1

35.3
Agree

31.0

26.8
Neither agree nor disagree

17.0

15.0
Disagree

26.1

16.7
Disagree strongly

4.1

5.2
Don’t know/not answered

4.6

0.9

Respondents were also asked about the scenario in which a close relative married a Muslim, from two perspectives, the perceived reaction of most white people in Britain if one of their relatives was involved (main questionnaire Q656) and the likely reaction of the respondent if it was one of his/her relatives (Q659). The results are tabulated below:

% down

2013

2013
 

White people

Own reaction
Mind a lot

34.0

23.4
Mind a little

36.3

21.0
Not mind

22.7

51.5
Other/DK/refused

7.0

4.0

As so often happens in sample surveys, respondents claimed a greater degree of tolerance for themselves than they were inclined to see in others. Whereas 70% thought that most white people would mind about a relative marrying a Muslim, only 44% felt that they would object themselves.

This particular question has not been asked before, in exactly the same words, but the 2003 BSA did pose a similar one, about reactions to a close relative marrying or otherwise forming a long-term relationship with a Muslim. At that time, just 25% voiced unhappiness at the prospect, 19% less than in 2013, suggesting a growth in Islamophobic attitudes over recent years.

 

Posted in church attendance, Historical studies, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Personal Values and Other News

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Clive D. Field

 

Personal values

Religion is not regarded as a particularly important value either in the UK or in the European Union (EU) generally, according to newly-released data from Special Eurobarometer 415, which was undertaken in March 2014 as wave 81.2 of Eurobarometer among representative samples of adults aged 15 and over in each of the 28 member states of the EU. UK fieldwork was conducted by TNS UK on 15-24 March 2014 with 1,296 respondents.

Interviewees were presented with a list of twelve values and asked to select a maximum of three which were most important to them personally. Only 7% in the UK picked religion (the same figures as a year previously), which relegated it to eleventh position, just ahead of solidarity (a concept which very few related to in the UK compared with other European countries – otherwise, religion might have come bottom of the list). As in the EU as a whole, the top three UK values were respect for human life, human rights, and peace. The highest priority to religion was accorded in Cyprus (21%), Malta (17%), Greece (15%), and Romania (12%). Summary data are tabulated below, with the full topline statistics available on pp. T60-61 of the report at:

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_415_data_en.pdf

%

UK

EU
Respect for human life

44

40
Human rights

35

43
Peace

35

41
Equality

33

20
Rule of law

27

18
Individual freedom

24

23
Democracy

22

26
Respect for other cultures

18

9
Tolerance

16

14
Self-fulfilment

8

9
Religion

7

5
Solidarity

5

15

Church membership

There were 5,436,500 church members in the UK in 2013, 4.5% fewer in absolute terms than in 2008 (with an even bigger fall relative to the rising population), according to Dr Peter Brierley writing in the June 2014 issue of FutureFirst, the bimonthly bulletin of Brierley Consultancy. The 2013 figures derive from a form sent to each of the UK’s almost 300 denominations augmented by estimates in the case of non-response or missing data. The overall rate of decline appears to have lessened from the preceding period, and this is attributed to two principal factors: the establishment of new black and other immigrant churches, and Fresh Expressions of church.

However, the absolute decrease in members between 2008 and 2013 was unevenly distributed across the four home nations, reaching 8.4% in Wales, 11.7% in Northern Ireland, and 17.3% in Scotland (the contraction being especially concentrated in, respectively, the Union of Welsh Independents, Roman Catholic Church, and Church of Scotland). England actually registered a small increase (0.4%) over the five years, thanks to growth among the New Churches, Orthodox Churches, and Pentecostal Churches. A full analysis of the data will appear in the forthcoming second edition of Brierley’s UK Church Statistics.

Same-sex marriage

Prime Minister David Cameron may have recently extolled the virtues of Britain as a Christian country, but, in a poll chiefly about same-sex marriage, 34% of its citizens think he has actually undermined Christianity in the nation, the figure rising to 41% of over-65s and 60% of UKIP voters. Dissentients to the proposition number 42%, including 62% of Conservatives, with 25% don’t knows.

Likewise, a plurality of 45% disagrees that Cameron has improved religious freedom in the UK, with 63% for UKIP supporters. Only 19% consider that he has enhanced religious liberty (among them 37% of Conservatives and 30% of Liberal Democrats), a substantial 35% being undecided.

Notwithstanding the multiple locks (to protect religious sensibilities) built into the English and Welsh legislation for same-sex marriage, 44% feel it inevitable that the Church of England will be forced to conduct such unions (the Welsh being especially pessimistic, on 58%), 30% disagreeing and 26% uncertain.

The findings come from a survey commissioned by the Christian Institute from ComRes, and for which 2,056 adult Britons were interviewed online between 9 and 11 May 2014. Full data tables were published on 19 May at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/CI_SSM_Poll_May_2014.pdf

YouGov miscellany

YouGov’s final European election polling for The Times on 20-21 May 2014, employing an especially large sample of 6,124 adults, included several questions on miscellaneous topics, a couple of which are relevant to BRIN.

The first asked respondents to reflect on various changes in Britain in recent times and to say whether, on balance, each had been good or bad for the country. On the list was allowing supermarkets and other big shops to open on Sundays. This legislative change was approved by 63%, with 17% neutral and 16% opposed. Support was greater among the under-40s than over-40s, the figure for women over 40 falling to 55%.

The second question of interest to BRIN posed the statement: ‘Even in its more moderate forms, Islam is a serious danger to western civilisation’. A plurality of 47% agreed, rising to 75% of UKIP voters. Endorsement was much greater among the over-40s than under-40s (22% more in the case of men and 23% for women). Disagreement to the proposition ran at 28%, peaking at 46% of Liberal Democrats and 58% of Greens, with 18% undecided. Data tables are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/n966r6px4w/Full_EU_Poll_Final_CUKIP.pdf

Armed forces

FOI releases published by the Ministry of Defence on 28 and 29 May 2014 provide details of the religious affiliation of regular members of the UK armed forces as at 1 October 2013, thereby updating the statistics for 1 April 2013 which were noted in our post of 3 October 2013.

The newly-released data may be summarized (aggregating all non-Christian religions) thus:

 

Army

Navy

RAF

Total

%
Church of England

47,950

15,820

18,380

82,150

49.3
Roman Catholic

11,600

3,790

3,800

19,190

11.5
Other Christian

21,070

5,680

5,310

32,060

19.3
Non-Christian

2,470

290

310

3,070

1.8
No religion

13,770

7,860

6,800

28,430

17.1
Undeclared

170

80

1,320

1,570

0.9
Total

97,030

33,520

35,920

166,470

99.9

The breakdown of the 3,070 non-Christians was as follows: 870 Hindus, 650 Muslims, 550 Buddhists, 160 Sikhs, 120 Pagans, 120 Rastafarians, 70 Jews, 40 Spiritualists, 30 Kiratis, 20 Wiccas, 10 Baha’is, and 430 other religions. The two FOI releases are at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315082/PUBLIC_1391420325.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315106/PUBLIC_1391430963.pdf

Women bishops

The Church of England’s internal strife over female bishops may be coming to an end, according to the final tabulation (published on 23 May 2014) of voting in diocesan synods on the current draft legislation to permit women to be appointed to the episcopate. In aggregate, the bishops were 94.9% in favour, clergy representatives 87.7%, and lay representatives 88.6%. Apart from Europe (which could not arrange a vote in time), every diocese voted in favour, including London and Chichester (which had rejected the then proposal for women bishops in 2011), albeit 31.4% of the members of the Chichester synod still remain opposed (among them the Bishop of Chichester). The legislation will now go to the Church’s General Synod in July for final approval. The full diocesan record of voting is at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1995951/pr%2064.14%20diocese%20vote%20table.jpg

Anglican school chaplaincy

The extent and nature of chaplaincy in Anglican secondary schools was revealed in a report published on 25 May 2014 by the Church of England Archbishops’ Council Education Division and the National Society. The underlying research was conducted by Michael Camp in the spring and summer terms of 2013, on the basis of an online survey of 198 schools, of which 72 replied, with 27 follow-up visits or structured telephone interviews. The Public Face of God: Chaplaincy in Anglican Secondary Schools and Academies in England and Wales is available at: 

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1989177/nschaplaincyreport.pdf

Four-fifths (58) of the responding secondary schools were found to have a designated chaplain (or chaplaincy team). A majority of individual chaplains (34) were ordained, 22 were lay, and one was a religious. A plurality (26) were full-time appointments, 23 part-time employees, and eight were volunteers. Employed chaplains were more likely to be on support staff rather than teaching staff contracts.

Events

A reminder that the Church of England’s annual Faith in Research Conference is taking place this coming Wednesday (4 June 2014) at the Novotel, 70 Broad Street, Birmingham, with the Bishop of Manchester in the chair. The programme of keynote and breakout sessions can be found at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1957190/session%20and%20speakers.pdf

Meanwhile, BRIN readers who live within reach of North-East England may be interested to attend a forthcoming public lecture by Dr Peter Brierley on ‘Church Statistics: the Latest Picture’. This will be given at 5 pm on Monday, 23 June 2014 at Etchells House, Cranmer Hall, 16 South Bailey, Durham. The lecture has been arranged by the Centre for Church Growth Research at St Johns College, Durham University, where Peter is a Visiting Fellow. Anybody intending to attend the lecture is kindly requested to email in advance to: d.j.goodhew@durham.ac.uk.

 

 

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Christian Country and Other News

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Clive D. Field

 

Christian country?

The recent public and media debate about whether Britain is a Christian country or not, sparked by Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments before Easter, rumbles on. It has gained added impetus through Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg renewing the call for disestablishment of the Church of England (which is his Liberal Democrat Party’s long-standing policy).

In the last BRIN post, on 24 April 2014, Ben Clements subjected the controversy to empirical scrutiny by charting how the level of Christian affiliation has changed in Britain over recent decades, as reflected in sample surveys.

Here we offer a couple of poll-based time series about the public’s perceptions of whether Britain is a Christian country and should be one. In both cases there have been variations in methodology and question-wording between individual surveys, so the comparison is not entirely like-for-like, but we do get a sense of how attitudes have changed. The two tables appear at the end of this news item.

In terms of Britain being perceived as a Christian country, there has been a notable decline since the first poll on the subject, by NOP in 1965, when four-fifths of adults characterized Britain as Christian. This decrease is much as one might have expected, given the downward movement in most other indicators of Christian religious belonging, behaving, and believing since the 1960s.

Less anticipated, however, is the fact that the number considering Britain to be a Christian country reached a nadir after the Millennium and has risen since. The effect is probably exaggerated by the fact that the two YouGov surveys in 2007 asked whether Britain was mainly a Christian country, but question-wording alone probably does not fully explain what has been happening.

There appears to have been a reawakened sense of Britain’s Christian heritage and character. This may perhaps be attributed to: i) a growing backlash against multiculturalism and immigration and, particularly, deteriorating attitudes toward Islam and Muslims; ii) the influence of media and legal campaigns against allegedly ‘Christianophobic’ attitudes and behaviour, exemplified in ‘aggressive secularism’ and diversity legislation viewed as penalizing Christians; and iii) explicit and tacit support for Christianity as a bulwark of all faith on the part of some sections of non-Christian communities.

Interestingly, there seems to have been no parallel trend in response to the question whether Britain should be a Christian country. This indicator has decreased continuously since the 1960s, although it is notable that, even today, a majority (58%) thinks Britain should remain a Christian country. This is probably not true of most of those who profess no religion, but, unfortunately, there are no breaks by religion in the published tables for YouGov’s 2014 poll, despite a question on religious affiliation being asked.

So there is definite support for David Cameron among the British public in saying that Britain both is a Christian country and ought to be one. Precisely what Britons mean when they express these sentiments, given that de-Christianization mostly continues apace in practice, is pretty unclear. The fact that there are more ‘don’t knows’ on the topic than ever may suggest that there is genuine confusion.

Is Britain a Christian country?

% Agency

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know
3/1965 NOP

80

19

1
12/1989 Gallup

71

21

8
4/2007 YouGov

39

51

9
12/2007 YouGov

43

57

0
11/2010 ComRes

50

47

3
2/2012 YouGov

56

33

11
4/2014 YouGov

55

33

12
4/2014 ICM

56

30

14

Should Britain be a Christian country?

% Agency

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know
1-2/1968 ORC

81

15

3
3-4/1984 Harris

67

31

3
6-7/1987 Insight

69

22

8
2/2012 YouGov

61

22

18
4/2014 YouGov

58

23

19

Meanwhile, Michael Lipka of Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project has a statistical take on ‘Cameron’s “Christian Country”’ (using census and British Social Attitudes Survey data) at:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/24/camerons-christian-country-what-the-numbers-say-about-religion-in-the-united-kingdom/

Or post-Christian nation?

Britain’s cultural memory may be ‘quite strongly Christian’, but the reality is that it has become ‘post-Christian’ in that it is no longer ‘a nation of committed believers’. So says former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams of Oystermouth, in an interview with Cole Moreton for The Sunday Telegraph today (27 April 2014). The story is enriched by a poll which the newspaper commissioned from ICM Research, for which 2,001 adult Britons were interviewed online on 23-25 April 2014. The data tables will presumably appear on ICM’s website in due course (they are not there at the time of writing), but there is reasonable coverage of the findings in the article on pp. 1-2 of the newspaper which can be found at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10790495/Former-archbishop-of-Canterbury-We-are-a-post-Christian-nation.html

Notwithstanding the fact that only 14% of respondents described themselves as practising Christians, with a further 38% as non-practising Christians, 56% continued to regard Britain as a Christian country, rising to 73% of over-65s and, surprisingly perhaps, including more men than women. Less than one-third (30%) said Britain was a non-religious society, although 41% thought of themselves as non-religious. A plurality of the whole sample (48%) asserted that Christians are afforded less protection for their beliefs by the state than adherents of other faiths, with the proportion reaching 57% among the over-65s, 56% for practising Christians, and 62% for non-practising Christians. Overall, 28% perceived Christians as having the same and 8% greater protection than other religions. One-half of respondents also agreed that Christians had become afraid to express their beliefs because of the rise of ‘religious fundamentalism’, with 32% disagreeing and 18% uncertain. Even two-fifths of non-religious people agreed with this statement compared with over three-fifths of Christians (both practising and non-practising).

Surrogate religion

Confirmation that football is a surrogate religion for its devotees, a periodic theme in the sociological literature, appears to come from a recent survey conducted by The Leadership Factor (TLF) on behalf of the makers of Warren United, a new animated sitcom about a fervent fan of a chronically disappointing football team (no, not Manchester United, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons last week!) Through its YourSayPays online panel, TLF quizzed 1,201 football fans (all of whom attended one or more professional games a season) in March 2014. They were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement that ‘I am more likely to change my religion than the football team I support’. The majority of fans (56%) agreed with this proposition and only 18% disagreed. For the sub-set of 255 really dedicated fans who were season ticket holders with their clubs, the level of assent was still higher (75%) and dissent reduced to 10%. A press release about the poll was issued on 17 April 2014 and can be found at:

http://www.warrenunited.net/id-change-my-religion-before-my-team-say-fans/

An ancient saint

St George’s Day has been and gone for another year (it was on 23 April, in case you missed it). According to a YouGov poll for Channel 5 among 1,461 adults on 22-23 April 2014, England is seen as the UK’s home nation least good at celebrating its patron saint’s day. Just 7% think the English excel at honouring St George, compared with 8% for the Scots and St Andrew, 12% for the Welsh and St David, and 59% for the Northern Irish and St Patrick. Two-thirds would like to see the English do more to celebrate St George’s Day, disproportionately Conservative and UKIP voters and with the Scots (24%) being the main dissentients, and 69% support the day being made an official bank holiday in England. The data tables are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/7sicd7muvh/Channel5_Results_140422_StGeorgesDay.pdf

A modern saint

Two of the great leaders of the twentieth-century Roman Catholic Church, Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, were canonized by Pope Francis in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square, Vatican City today (27 April 2014), which was also attended by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. So far as BRIN is aware, no surveys have yet been carried out in Britain to test the reactions of the public or the Catholic faithful to the canonizations. However, John Paul II was the subject of polling during the time when he was Pope (from 1978 until his death in 2005), not least in connection with his pastoral and ecumenical visit to Britain between 28 May and 5 June 1982 (which was overshadowed by the war between Britain and Argentina for control of the Falkland Islands). A digest of this polling forms part of my forthcoming article in Journal of Religion in Europe on ‘No Popery’s Ghost: Does Popular Anti-Catholicism Survive in Contemporary Britain?’ However, given the canonization, a few anticipatory points may be made here, although we will not be summarizing the many polls by Gallup about the visit itself (you will need to read the article for them).

John Paul II’s papal visit, combined with the length of his pontificate, meant he became a well-known figure in Britain, 62% of adults being able to name him in August 2003 (MORI), albeit only 7% recognized his birth name of Karol Wojtyla in November 2004 (BMRB). On the eve of his visit, in April 1982 (NOP), he was rated a very good or good religious leader by 78% and a very good or good world leader by 45%. His religious leadership qualities were still positively assessed (by 74%) in March 1993 (Continental Research), albeit he was eclipsed by fellow Catholic Mother Teresa in Gallup popularity rankings of religious figures in December 1987, December 1988, and September 1989. One-fifth of Britons continued to regard John Paul II as inspirational in December 2000 (MORI), but, by this time, his influence was waning through increasing frailty and conservatism. In June 2004 (Harris) he was rated positively by just 31% in Britain, and negatively by 29%, the positive score being lowest of the five Western European nations surveyed (and well behind Italy, on 78%). The worst of the worldwide revelations about child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests came out since John Paul II’s death, but they clearly occurred on his ‘papal watch’, and many have opposed his canonization on the grounds that he did not do enough to root out the scandal and punish the perpetrators. More generally, the perceived inadequate response to the abuse crisis by the Roman Catholic Church has been a major factor in increased polling negativity toward it during recent years, both among the public and Catholics.

When we’re 42

Newly released to the UK Data Service’s Nesstar catalogue as SN 7473 is the latest wave of the 1970 British Cohort Study, which has been following the lives of babies born in Britain one week in 1970. Information was gathered by TNS BMRB between May 2012 and April 2013 from 9,841 members of the cohort at the age of 42, by a combination of face-to-face interview and self-completion questionnaire. Here we present the topline findings for the religion questions for all those who provided valid answers. No weighting is applicable.

Affiliation: Two-thirds of the cohort received a religious upbringing, but only half still profess a religion now, all Christian denominations losing market share, but especially the Church of England. The figures are as follows:

%

Upbringing

At age 42
None

33.0

49.8
Non-denominational Christian

14.2

13.7
Church of England

30.1

20.6
Roman Catholic

10.9

7.1
Other Christian

8.2

4.5
Non-Christian

3.7

4.3

Practices: Three-quarters never or very rarely attend any religious services, while 10% claim to go monthly or more and 15% occasionally. Attendance has diminished slightly since cohort members were aged 29, when 11% went monthly or more, 17% occasionally, and 72% never or rarely. Membership of a religious group or church organization is claimed by 7%, as is readership of factual books on religion or philosophy.

Beliefs: Disbelievers in God number 22%, with a further 14% disbelieving in a personal God. The uncertain amount to 21%, while 12% believe in God some of the time, 19% believe but have doubts, and 12% are absolutely convinced that God exists. A slim majority (52%) definitely or probably does not believe in life after death, with 18% definitely believing and 30% probably.

Opinions: Very few (6%) agree that ‘we trust too much in science, not enough in religious faith’, 57% disagreeing and 36% undecided. One-half agree that ‘people with strong religious beliefs are often too intolerant’, with just 14% saying the opposite and 35% uncertain. Still more (67%) concur that ‘around the world, religions bring more conflict than peace’, 11% dissenting and 22% expressing no view.

 

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Christian affiliation in Britain

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Ben Clements

Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent pronouncements on the role and status of Christianity in Britain have stimulated public debate, quickly receiving both supporting and dissenting remarks from representatives of faith groups and secular organisations and from media commentators. Pollsters have been somewhat slower off the mark in gauging the reaction of the British public. However, data from a newly-released YouGov poll on this topic provide the following results:

  • 37% regard themselves as belonging to a Christian religion.
  • 23% say they are very or fairly religious.
  • 55% say they believe Britain is a Christian country.
  • 58% say they think Britain should be a Christian country.
  • When presented with an excerpt of text from David Cameron’s article in the Church Times (‘I believe we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country, more ambitious about expanding the role of faith-based organisations, and, frankly, more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.’), 50% agreed with its sentiments and 35% disagreed.

Full results from the poll, conducted online between 22 and 23 April 2014 and based on a sample of 2,143 adults in Britain, are available here. Some comparative data for these questions (except for the last one) are available from previous YouGov surveys undertaken in February 2012 and April 2012.

Given that it is commonplace in public debate for various statistics – from sample surveys or from the 2001 and 2011 censuses – to be cited regarding levels of Christian identity amongst the British population, it is perhaps worth revisiting some of the recurrent social surveys which have collected micro-level data on religious affiliation across recent decades. Figure 1 shows overall levels of identification with a Christian religion based on data from three nationally-representative survey series, which have sampled the adult population: the British Election Study (BES), the cross-national European Values Study (EVS) and British Social Attitudes (BSA). The data are taken from the earliest and the most recently-available surveys from each series. Note that the survey series span different time periods, with the BES starting in 1963 and the other two in the early-1980s.

Figure 1: Per cent reporting a Christian affiliation

Untitled

Source: Compiled by the author from BES, EVS and BSA surveys

The BES 1963 survey showed that that was near-universal affiliation with a Christian religion amongst the electorate at 96.2%. Similarly, the 1959 Civic Culture Study, where Britain was one of five nations where survey fieldwork was undertaken, showed that 94.3% claimed a Christian affiliation. In the 2010 BES, in contrast, this proportion had fallen to 44.8%. The EVS surveys also show a considerable drop in Christian affiliation between 1981 and 2008 (although the fieldwork for the British sample was actually conducted in 2009-10), from 84.4% to 46.1%. The BSA series shows a lower level of Christian affiliation in 1983 (at 66.6%) compared to that obtained by the EVS in 1981. The most recently-released BSA survey, from 2012, shows that 46.3% claimed some form of Christian affiliation. The most recent surveys from these three long-running series therefore show similar levels of identification with a Christian religion, albeit they are somewhat higher than the figure from the YouGov survey cited above. As a further comparison, data for Britain from the 2012 European Social Survey (which began undertaking biannual surveys in 2002) show that 40.5% reported having a Christian affiliation.

Of course, responses to such questions on affiliation can be influenced by question wording and the response options available for a particular survey as well as the social prestige or – at least historically – cultural norms in favour of religious identification, but the direction of travel over recent decades is evident across multiple survey sources.

 

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Religion, Identity, and Other Issues

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Clive D. Field

Church of England and Britishness

Although only a tiny minority attends its services, and very many are critical of its stance on diversity issues, the majority of Britons (51%) still consider the Church of England to be important in defining Britishness, much the same as three years ago (52%), albeit it ranked only 19th of 25 factors. This is according to a new poll by YouGov for The Sunday Times, undertaken among an online sample of 2,036 adults on 10-11 April 2014 and published today. The proportion thinking the Church of England important in defining Britishness was especially high for women (60%), the over-60s (59%), and Conservative voters (57%). Not unexpectedly, it was at its lowest in Scotland (31%). Data tables can be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/qvi85im0s2/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-140411.pdf

The full list of factors considered important in defining Britishness follows (all figures being percentages):

William Shakespeare

73
Monarchy

72
Common law

71
House of Commons

69
Composed of three nations

68
Britain’s role in the world

68
Undivided by civil war since 17th century

64
Pubs

62
BBC

61
Our weather

61
‘God Save the Queen’

61
Driving on the left

59
No identity cards

56
‘Land of Hope and Glory’

55
Double-decker buses

55
Red telephone boxes

55
Formerly had a great empire

54
Battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo

52
Church of England

51
Cricket

49
Quality of British restaurants

49
Motorway network

47
Stiff upper lip

44
Membership of European Union

37
Warm British beer

24

Respondents were also asked to identify from a list of 50 prominent British people the ten who best reflect Britain today. Just one religious leader was included on the list, John Sentamu (Archbishop of York), who collected 5% of the vote, less than the arch-atheist Richard Dawkins (8%). The table was headed by Her Majesty the Queen (on 63%).

Religion and identity

Religion is not an especially significant factor in defining personal identity, according to an Ipsos MORI poll for the BBC which was published on 7 April 2014, for which 2,517 UK adults aged 15 and over were interviewed face-to-face between 13 and 31 March. The question put to respondents was: ‘If you were introducing or describing yourself to somebody you hadn’t met before, apart from your friends and family, the job or work you do, and where you live, which three or four of these, if any, would you say are most important to your identity?’ A list of 17 options was offered.

‘My religion’ was selected by 10% of respondents, putting it in 11th place, a long way behind interests or leisure activities (44%), values and outlook (38%), and personal views and opinions (34%). Religion also scored less than other demographic characteristics such as age or generation (22%), nationality (20%), and gender (13%) but more than social class (7%), ethnicity (6%) or sexual orientation (2%). Religion was most likely to be chosen as a self-identifier by BMEs (24%), female over-55s (17%), and over-65s generally (15%). Full results are available in tables 22-25 at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/ipsos-mori-bbc-identity-poll-2014-tables.pdf

Multiple religious identities

Survey questions on religious affiliation invariably assume that it is only possible for a person to have a single allegiance at any one time. This was true, for example, of the voluntary question on religion in the 2011 census, even though the question om national identity permitted more than one option to be ticked and that on ethnicity had a category for mixed/multiple ethnic groups. Such a unitary approach can be problematical for some people of South Asian origin, as a recently-published essay about a study of 300 households (n = 1,993 individuals) in the UK Nepali community in 2010 demonstrates: David Gellner and Sondra Hausner, ‘Multiple Versus Unitary Belonging: How Nepalis in Britain Deal with “Religion”’, in Social Identities Between the Sacred and the Secular, edited by Abby Day, Giselle Vincett, and Christopher Cotter (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 75-88. The work derives from the ‘Vernacular Religion: Varieties of Religiosity in the Nepali Diaspora’ project funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme.

The Nepali respondents were first asked, unprompted, to describe their religion, and at this stage 9.4% elected for a dual faith identity. But, when prompted by a list of possibilities which included dual and triple affiliations, no less than 26.6% selected a multiple identity, the commonest combination being Hindu and Buddhist (15.5%), with 9.1% choosing Kirat and Hindu, and 2.0% Kirat and Buddhist. Buddhists were the group most likely to change between the unprompted and prompted phases, one-third reassigning themselves to a multiple identity, mostly Buddhist and Hindu (to which 28.6% subscribed). Fewer (one-fifth) of Hindus altered their affiliation, but that minority was redistributed in more complex ways, with 9.2% shifting to Hindu and Kirat, 7.4% to Hindu and Buddhist, and 3.8% to other religious positions (including non-religious). Kirats changed least of all (11.5%).

Religious census

On 11 April 2014 the UK Data Service announced a further release of 2011 census aggregate statistics through InFuse, a portal providing free and open access (with no requirement for registration or login) via an online tool that allows users to build queries and extract the data they need. InFuse incorporates census data collected and processed by the three respective national statistical agencies in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The latest release includes multivariate data for England and Wales down to the output area level of geography from the third, fourth and fifth releases of 2011 census aggregate statistics from the Office for National Statistics, as well as comparable univariate data across the UK down to the district level of geography from the key statistics and quick statistics for local authorities in the UK Part 1 release. Religion is one of the topics covered. For further information, consult the UK Data Service’s press release at:

http://census.ukdataservice.ac.uk/news-and-events/newsitem/?id=3761

Religion and abortion

Public opinion on abortion in Britain has progressively liberalized over the years, even within religious groups, but residual hostility to it, both in general and in particular circumstances, is still associated with religion. The precise nature of this relationship between religious factors and opposition to abortion in Britain is explored in a new article by Ben Clements: ‘Religion and the Sources of Public Opposition to Abortion in Britain: The Role of “Belonging”, “Behaving”, and “Believing”’, Sociology, Vol. 48, No. 2, April 2014, pp. 369-86. Data are drawn from the 2008 waves of the British Social Attitudes Survey (all four sub-samples) and the European Values Study, relate to adults aged 18 and over, and explore support for abortion for both elective and traumatic reasons. Breaks by religious affiliation are provided for each question asked about abortion (tables 1 and 2), but the bulk of the article focuses on multivariate analysis, using binary logistic regression techniques, to assess the relative influence of ‘belonging’ (religious affiliation), ‘behaving’ (attendance at religious services and salience of religion), and ‘believing’ (religious beliefs) dimensions of religion (tables 3, 4, and 5). ‘The main finding is that opposition to abortion is not solely based on differences in faith or denominational affiliation but that greater religious involvement or commitment, as measured by attendance at services and personal salience, and more traditionalist beliefs underpin opposition. These findings generally hold across surveys, different estimation techniques and different specifications of the dependent variable.’ Article access options are explained at:

http://soc.sagepub.com/content/48/2/369.full.pdf+html

Religion and happiness

Did you celebrate United Nations International Day of Happiness on 20 March 2014? One group which certainly did was Action for Happiness, an international movement dedicated to creating a happier society. Founded in 2011 and part of the Young Foundation, it marked the day by commissioning YouGov to conduct an online survey of 2,391 UK adults on 10-11 March 2014. The second of the three questions asked respondents to identify the factors most important for their own happiness and wellbeing. They could choose three from a list of nine options. Their religious/spiritual life came in seventh position with 8%, just ahead of appearance and possessions, which scored 4% each. Ranked a resounding first were relationships with partner/family (80%), followed by health (71%), money and financial situation (42%), friends and community (35%), place/area of residence (21%), and work (15%). The Action for Happiness press release, dated 19 March 2014 and giving only these topline results, is at:

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/news/national-happiness-matters-more-than-national-wealth

Religious education teachers

There were 15,400 teachers of religious education (and philosophy) in publicly-funded secondary schools in England in November 2013, according to the Department for Education’s latest annual workforce census, which was published on 10 April 2014. This number represented 6.6% of all teachers, although the hours for which they actually taught religious education (123,000) was only 3.3% of all teaching hours, suggesting that most taught other subjects, also. Fewer than half (46.8%) had a relevant post-A Level qualification in the subject, which was one of the smallest proportions of any discipline. Only ICT (44.9%), foreign languages except for French, German and Spanish (38.8%), media studies (22.6%), engineering (18.6%), and citizenship (7.4%) had lower figures. For further information, see tables 11-13 and 15 at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-in-england-november-2013

Religious newspapers

Further to our coverage of the Jewish and Muslim press in our post of 6 April 2014, BRIN has checked to see which other religious weeklies are registered with the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC). Unfortunately, only the Roman Catholic publication The Tablet appears to be. It had an average weekly circulation of 20,471 copies throughout 2013, of which 70% were distributed in the UK and the Republic of Ireland and 30% in other countries, with 96% in print and 4% in digital format. For the rest, The Universe and the Catholic Times were once registered with ABC but not since 2003. All the other religious weeklies which BRIN can think of, such as the Church Times and Catholic Herald, do not appear in the ABC database. The most recent tabulation of circulation data for all religious newspapers and periodicals would appear to be the UK Christian Resources Handbook, 2009/2010 (Bible Society, 2009), p. 223, but circulation will have dropped for many titles since then and some have disappeared completely as print editions (such as the Baptist Times).

Bibliometrics and religion

BRIN readers interested in the comparative quantitative analysis of published scholarship (bibliometrics) may like to know of an article in the current issue of Religion (Vol. 44, No. 2, April 2014, pp. 193-219): Steven Engler, ‘Bibliometrics and the Study of Religion/s’. Although the author contends that bibliometric measures are inherently biased against work in the study of religion/s, and the humanities and social sciences more generally, he does advance ‘a case for the limited value of bibliometrics in making quantitative comparisons within and across clearly delimited disciplinary contexts’. In particular, he presents a range of statistical data about the content of academic journals in religion, including in table 1 an analysis of the proportion of corresponding authors from the UK and other countries contributing to fifteen leading journals between 1996 and 2013. The UK figure is at its highest, 51%, in the case of Journal of Contemporary Religion, with a mean of 10% for all the titles. The article is currently available on an open access basis at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0048721X.2014.893680

40 years ago this month …

The leadership of organized religion already commanded less public confidence than did most other institutions and professions, according to an Opinion Research Centre poll for The Times which was undertaken face-to-face on 13-19 April 1974 and published in that newspaper on 30 April 1974. The proportion of electors expressing a great deal of confidence in people ‘running’ religion was only 22%, ranking it 12th out of 18 institutions, well behind the police (68%) and medicine (62%) in the top two spots, and 4% down on the year before. The best-known individual British religious leaders of that time would have been Michael Ramsey (Archbishop of Canterbury) and Cardinal John Heenan (Archbishop of Westminster).

 

Posted in Historical studies, Official data, Religion and Ethnicity, Religion and Politics, Religion in the Press, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Religion and social-morality issues in 2012

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Ben Clements

 

This BRIN post looks in some detail at data on religion groups’ views on social-morality issues, based on the British Social Attitudes (BSA) 2012 survey. The BSA report from the latest survey was released in September 2013, which was covered at the time by BRIN, and the dataset has now been made available for wider usage via the UK Data Service. An overview of the BSA series can be found here.

Previous BRIN posts have already looked at trends in religious groups’ attitudes towards homosexuality and euthanasia in recent decades. This post provides a ‘snapshot’ of religious groups’ views on the following four topics, discussing each one in turn.

 

  • Abortion
  • Euthanasia
  • Homosexuality
  • Gender roles

 

For each topic, attitudes are compared on the basis of religious affiliation and frequency of attendance at religious services. They are classified as follows:

 

  • Anglican, Catholic, other Christian, non-Christian, no religion
  • Frequently-attends (once a month or more), infrequently-attends (less than once a month), never attends

 

Throughout, the results presented are based on weighted data.

 

Abortion

The BSA surveys have carried a set of questions since 1983 asking whether abortion should be allowed under different circumstances. This set is similar to that which has been asked on the U.S. General Social Survey, which has been running since the early-1970s.

 

The full question wording used in the BSA surveys is as follows:

 

Here are a number of circumstances in which a woman might consider an abortion. Please say whether or not you think the law should allow an abortion in each case.

 

The woman decides on her own she does not wish to have the child.

The couple agree they do not wish to have the child.

The couple cannot afford any more children.

There is a strong chance of a defect in the baby.

The woman’s health is seriously endangered by the pregnancy.

The woman is not married and does not wish to marry the man.

The woman became pregnant as a result of rape.

 

Table 1 (affiliation) and Table 2 (attendance) present the results for these seven questions, showing the proportions responding ‘no’ (i.e. against an abortion being allowed).

 

Looking at Table 1, opposition is much lower for three sets of circumstances (strong chance of a defect in the baby, the woman’s health being seriously endangered, and a woman becoming pregnant as a result of rape). Opposition to abortion is generally higher for the other four sets of circumstances.

Looking at variation in attitudes based on affiliation, the lowest levels of opposition are in each case registered by those with no religion. Catholics offer the highest levels of opposition for some, but not all, sets of circumstances. In some areas, their opposition is exceeded by those belonging to non-Christian faiths.

Generally, Anglicans and other Christians express lower levels of opposition than Catholics but higher levels than those with no religion. On three measures Catholic opposition reaches a majority (a woman deciding on her own, where the woman is not married, and where the couple cannot afford any more children).

On no occasion does Anglican opposition to abortion reach a majority and on only one occasion do a majority of other Christians oppose abortion (where a woman decides by herself to have an abortion).

 

 

Table 1 Opposition to abortion by religious affiliation, per cent saying ‘no’

  Anglican (%) Catholic (%) Other Christian (%) Non-Christian (%) No religion (%)
Woman decides

on her own

 41.2 56.8 48.6 52.2 24.5
Woman is not

married

 42.6 66.1 51.5 36.6 33.0
When the

couple agree

 29.1 40.0 33.5 32.7 15.3
Couple cannot

afford any

more children

 37.4 55.0 40.5 40.8 24.7
Strong chance

of a defect

in the baby

 14.8 26.7 18.9 30.5 10.6
Woman’s health

is seriously

endangered

 4.2 10.8 7.7 9.0 2.9
Woman becomes

pregnant due

to rape

 3.7 14.4 10.1 19.1 4.3

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

 

Table 2 presents attitudes based on attendance at services. There is a consistent pattern across the seven different scenarios. That is, frequent-attenders are always more likely to express opposition to abortion, which reaches a majority in three cases. In one case (the woman deciding on her own) infrequent-attenders are about equidistant in their opposition, placed in-between frequent-attenders and non-attenders. For the other measures, they are much closer to the level of opposition expressed by non-attenders. The highest level of opposition registered by non-attenders is in the case of a woman not being married, at around a third, and reaches a quarter for two other scenarios. In the cases of a woman’s health being seriously endangered and the pregnancy being a result of rape, less than 5 per cent of infrequent-attenders and non-attenders express opposition.

 

Table 2 Opposition to abortion by religious attendance, per cent saying ‘no’

 

Frequently-attends (%)

Infrequently attends (%)

Never attends (%)
Woman decides on her own

58.6

42.7

26.3
Woman is not married

58.6

38.2

34.3
When the couple agree

44.1

25.9

17.6
Couple cannot afford any more children

54.2

30.6

26.4
Strong chance of a defect in the baby

27.6

14.1

11.6
Woman’s health is seriously endangered

13.2

2.4

3.3
Woman becomes pregnant due to rape

20.0

2.9

4.3

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

 

Assisted dying

A single question on the issue of assisted dying or euthanasia was asked in the BSA 2012. The question wording was:

 

About a person with a painful incurable disease. Do you think that doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient’s life, if the patient requests it?

 

Respondents could respond ‘yes’, ‘no’, or did not answer (this question did not offer an explicit ‘don’t know’ or ‘can’t choose’ option). Table 3 presents the full distribution of responses for religious affiliation and Table 4 does the same for religious attendance. There is overwhelming support for a doctor being allowed to end a patient’s life amongst Anglicans, other Christians and those with no religion (highest at 88.1 per cent). Support is somewhat lower among Catholics, at around two-thirds, and lower still amongst members of non-Christian faiths, at around half.

 

Table 3 Attitudes towards assisted dying by religious affiliation

Anglican (%)

Catholic (%)

Other Christian (%)

Non-Christian (%)

No religion (%)
Yes

81.6

68.6

75.0

51.4

88.1
No

13.1

28.1

22.6

48.6

8.8
Not answered

5.3

3.4

2.4

0.0

3.0

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

 

Looking at Table 4, over four-fifths of both infrequent-attenders and non-attenders support assisted dying with the involvement of a doctor. Those who frequently attend services stand apart from these two groups, as just over half responded ‘yes’.

 

Table 4 Attitudes towards assisted dying by religious attendance

Frequently-attends (%)

Infrequently attends (%)

Never attends (%)
Yes

53.1

81.2

88.1
No

44.4

16.9

8.2
Not answered

2.5

1.9

3.8

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

 

 

Homosexuality

A series of questions on same-sex relations were asked, including those gauging views on same-sex marriage, adoption and homosexual people holding particular roles and occupations. Also asked was a long-running question on sexual relations between two adults of the same sex. The wordings for the questions on sexual relations, same-sex marriage, bringing up children and adoption were as follows:

 

About sexual relations between two adults of the same sex. Do you think it is always wrong, almost always wrong, wrong only sometimes, or not wrong at all?’

How much do you agree or disagree that  … gay or lesbian couples should have the right to marry one another if they want to?

Children grow up in different kinds of families. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements … A same sex male couple can bring up a child as well as a male-female couple.

Children grow up in different kinds of families. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements … A same sex female couple can bring up a child as well as a male-female couple.

Do you think homosexual couples should be allowed to adopt a baby under the same conditions as other couples?

 

Data for these questions are shown in Table 5 (affiliation) and Table 6 (attendance). Both tables report the proportions holding negative views on these questions – those who think sexual relations between homosexuals are always or mostly wrong, who disagree with same-sex marriage, and so on. Generally, those with no religion are distinctively more liberal in their views compared to the four religious groups. Just 16 per cent think that sexual relations between homosexuals are always or mostly wrong and just 14 per cent disagree with same-sex marriage. Levels of opposition are higher, though, in relation to adoption and the two questions on bringing up children. In relation to the questions on sexual relations and same-sex marriage, the highest levels of opposition are expressed by members of non-Christian religions. Anglicans report the highest levels of opposition to the question on adoption, and they, along with non-Christians, are most likely to disagree with same-sex male couples being able to raise children as well as heterosexual couples would. Broadly similar levels of disagreement – slightly above two-fifths – are expressed by the four religious groups in relation to the question on same-sex female couples bringing up children.

 

Table 5 Attitudes toward same-sex relations by religious affiliation

Anglican

(%)

 Catholic

(%)

 Other Christian (%) Non-Christian (%) No religion (%)
Sexual relations

between two adults of the same sex:

Always / mostly wrong

 40.1 35.1 35.4 61.2 15.5
Same-sex marriage:

Disagree / strongly disagree

 32.5 25.5 31.8 44.0 14.0
Same-sex female couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree 44.7 44.9 42.0 45.2 25.3
Same-sex male couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree 51.2 48.7 45.0 52.4 28.4
Allowed to adopt under same conditions as other couples: No 59.5 49.4 55.6 44.9 33.2

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

 

Table 6 shows results for attendance at religious services. Across-the-board, frequent attenders are much more likely to express negative views on issues concerning homosexuality and gay rights. They are more likely to think that sexual relations between homosexual couples are wrong, to disagree with same-sex marriage, less likely to favour same-sex couples being allowed to adopt under similar conditions as heterosexual couples, and less likely to believe that same-sex couples – male or female – can bring up children as well as heterosexual couples.

Across groups, the highest levels of opposition are expressed on the adoption issue, followed by the two questions on bringing up children. In relation to the questions on raising children, opposition is slightly higher towards same-sex male couples. In each case, those who never attend religious services express the lowest levels of negative sentiment, with a fifth thinking sexual relations between homosexual couples are always or mostly wrong and even fewer being against same-sex marriage.

 

Table 6 Attitudes toward same-sex relations by religious attendance

Frequently-attends (%) Infrequently attends (%) Never attends (%)
Same-sex relations:

Always / mostly wrong

 52.2 35.0 20.0
Same-sex marriage:

Disagree / strongly disagree

 46.8 25.4 16.0
Same-sex female couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree 54.9 32.4 30.6
Same-sex male couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree 59.7 41.7 33.3
Allowed to adopt under same conditions as other couples: No 60.3 50.0 39.0

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

 

The BSA 2012 survey also asked three questions on homosexual people being able to hold certain role or occupations. These questions began with:

 

Is it acceptable for a homosexual person …

 

Respondents then answered in relation to holding a responsible position in public life, teaching in schools and teaching in colleges and universities. Table 7 shows the results for affiliation and Table 8 for attendance, reporting the proportions who responded ‘no’. Looking at the results for affiliation, we can see that while levels of opposition are generally low across the groups, negative sentiment is always higher for homosexuals being allowed to teach in schools or in colleges and universities. Those with no religion express the lowest levels of opposition in each case, with only 3 per cent thinking a homosexual should not be allowed to hold a responsible position in public life. Those from non-Christian faiths stand out here as they tend to express higher levels of opposition than all the other groups. Nearly a half oppose homosexual people being allowed to teach in schools and more than a third are against them holding positions in public life or teaching in other settings. Across Christians, the highest level of opposition is registered by Anglicans, with a fifth against homosexuals being allowed to teach in schools.

Table 7 Attitudes towards a homosexual person holding certain roles and occupations by religious affiliation, per cent saying ‘no’

Anglican

(%)

Catholic

(%)

Other Christian (%)

Non-Christian (%)

No religion (%)
To hold a responsible position in public life

7.2

5.5

11.2

36.8

2.7
To be a teacher in a college or university

15.3

11.8

13.3

38.1

5.4
To be a teacher in a school

19.2

14.4

15.7

47.2

7.5

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

 

Table 8 shows a consistent pattern for attendance at services. Those who are frequent-attenders always express higher levels of opposition but, even so, this amounts to less than a quarter in the case of being allowed to teach in school, where the proportions against are highest across all of the three groups. Infrequent-attenders are broadly equidistant between the other two groups in their opposition to homosexuals being allowed teaching roles, but are closer to the views of non-attenders concerning homosexuals holding positions in public life.

 

Table 8 Attitudes towards a homosexual person holding certain roles and occupations by religious attendance, per cent saying ‘no’

Frequently-attends (%)

Infrequently attends (%)

Never attends (%)
To hold a responsible position in public life

18.3

6.5

4.8
To be a teacher in a college or university

19.4

13.6

8.9
To be a teacher in a school

23.8

17.5

11.0

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

 

Gender roles

The final issue looked at is that of gender roles, based on responses to a question which the BSA series first used back in 1984. It asks:

 

Do you agree or disagree that … a husband’s job is to earn money; a wife’s job is to look after the home and family?

 

Table 9 (affiliation) and Table 10 (attendance) show the full set of responses to this question. Looking first at affiliation, with the exception of adherents of non-Christian faiths, varying majorities disagree with the above statement, highest at nearly three-quarters of those with no religion. Around two-fifths of those belonging to a non-Christian religion disagree to some extent with the statement. This group shows the highest proportions agreeing with the statement (about 29 per cent) and expressing a neutral position (neither agreeing nor disagreeing). Agreement is lowest amongst those with no religion, and is at similar levels for Anglicans, Catholics and other Christians.

Table 9 Attitudes towards gender roles by religious affiliation

Anglican (%)

Catholic (%)

Other Christian (%)

Non-Christian (%)

No religion (%)
Strongly agree or agree

16.8

17.3

15.2

28.6

7.8
Neither

22.8

18.7

21.2

31.0

19.5
Disagree or strongly disagree

58.9

64.0

63.6

40.5

72.3
Can’t choose

1.5

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.4

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

 

Looking at views based on frequency of attendance, around a fifth of each group opts for a neutral position on the question. Those who frequently-attend are around twice as likely as non-attenders to express a traditionalist stance; that is, more likely to agree with the statement. Across groups, however, the majority view is that the statement is wrong, with opposition highest at nearly 70 per cent for those with no religion, followed by those who attend infrequently.

 

Table 10 Attitudes towards gender roles by religious attendance

Frequently-attends (%)

Infrequently attends (%)

Never attends (%)
Strongly agree or agree

20.8

12.9

10.9
Neither

22.9

23.3

19.8
Disagree or strongly disagree

55.6

63.8

68.8
Can’t choose

0.7

0.0

0.5

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

 

Summary

The above review of religious groups’ attitudes on several social-morality topics, based on data from the BSA 2012 survey, shows that those with no religion – the religious ‘nones’ – are generally more liberal in their views. That is, they tend to express less socially-conservative attitudes on all four topics: abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and gender roles. On the ‘life issues’ examined here – abortion and assisted dying – the opposition expressed by Catholics was in some cases rivalled or exceeded by that of non-Christians. On other questions, non-Christians also registered more socially-conservative views. On the basis of attendance, those who did not attend services (a group which includes those with and without a religious affiliation) were usually more liberal in their views, sometimes closely-followed by those who attend services infrequently.

 

Further analysis of this broad area of topics, based on data from the 2012 study and earlier surveys can be found in the following source:

Park, A. and Rhead, R. (2013), ‘Personal Relationships: Changing attitudes towards sex, marriage and parenthood’, in A. Park, C. Bryson, E. Clery, J. Curtice and M. Phillips (eds), British Social Attitudes: The 30th Report. (London: NatCen Social Research). Available at: www.bsa-30.natcen.ac.uk.

Further analysis of religious groups’ views on gender roles and the ordination of women is available in the following article:

Clements, B. (2014), ‘Changing attitudes towards gender equality and the ordination of women’, Modern Believing, 55(1): 16-21.

 

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