New Poll Findings

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Clive D. Field

There have been no substantive polls on religion in Britain during recent weeks, but here are a few findings from disparate surveys which BRIN has yet to report and which some of our readers may have missed:

Religious affiliation

56% to 58% of Britons consider themselves to be a ‘member’ of Christianity, and 7% to 9% of a non-Christian faith, while 32% to 33% claim they have no religion. 18-24s are most likely to say they have no religion (42% to 47%) and over-65s the least (20% to 24%). Non-Christians are most prevalent among the 18-34s and in London (where they form one-fifth of the population).

Source: Three Populus polls on (respectively) executive pay, the monarchy and the European Union commissioned by various clients, and undertaken online on 11-13 May, 25-28 May and 8-10 June 2012 among samples of approximately 2,000 adults aged 18 and over. Detailed statistics will be found in the classification section of the respective data tables at:

http://www.populus.co.uk/uploads/Populus%20Executive%20Pay_Shareholder%20Rights%20Results(1).pdf

http://www.populus.co.uk/uploads/May%202012%20monarchy.pdf

http://www.populus.co.uk/uploads/European%20Union%20Referendum%20Poll.pdf

Interfaith matters

Religious ignorance is an issue in the UK, according to 64% of Britons. In seeming confirmation of this, only 43% know that Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in the same God (dropping to 29% of the 18-24s, compared with 57% of over-65s). Less than one-third understand that Jesus is recognized as a major prophet in Islam, with almost half thinking this to be untrue. 51% (including 60% of 18-24s) admit to making an initial judgment of a person based on their religion.

Source: Populus poll of adult Britons aged 18 and over, conducted for the Maimonides Foundation. Headline results were published on 29 May 2012 and featured in Church Times (1 June), Jewish Chronicle (1 June), Church of England Newspaper (3 June), and Daily Telegraph (9 June). Full tabulations and methodological details have not yet been disclosed, but BRIN has requested them. 

Religious education

Of those expressing an opinion, 58% of Britons agree that it is beneficial for pupils to study religious education (RE) at school, and 53% want it to remain a compulsory subject. Among 18-24s, with the most recent direct experience of school RE, the figure rises to 63% in each case. Again excluding the don’t knows, 50% of all adults regard RE as an essential component of a multi-faith society, against 9% who see RE as harmful and 13% who think it should not be taught in schools at all.

Source: YouGov poll for the Religious Education Council (REC) of England and Wales, undertaken online among 1,825 adults aged 18 and over in England and Wales on 9-12 March 2012. The REC tells BRIN that full data will not be available until the autumn. Meanwhile, a press release from the REC – dated 11 June, and the basis of various print and online media coverage – can be found at:

http://www.religiouseducationcouncil.org/content/view/246/46/

Same-sex marriages

68% of Scots agree that religious organizations should have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to perform same-sex marriages, with 21% disagreeing and 10% uncertain. Agreement is higher among women (72%) than men (64%), the over-55s (72%) than the 18-24s (64%), and Conservative voters (76%) than Scottish Nationalists (64%).

Source: Ipsos MORI poll for the Equality Network, conducted by telephone among 1,003 Scottish adults aged 18 and over on 7-13 June 2012. A press release and charts were published on 17 June and are available at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/2978/Majority-of-Scots-support-gay-marriage.aspx

 

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LGBT Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Clive D. Field

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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What Anglicans (and others) think about homosexuality and disestablishment

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Siobhan McAndrew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier today, the Church of England responded to the Government’s proposals to introduce same-sex marriage. For further information, follow these links to coverage by BBC News, the Guardian, and the Telegraph; furthermore, the Church of England’s full response is available here.

In view of the discussion generated by the response, it is worth examining what Anglicans themselves think about gay relationships. My colleague Ben Clements at the University of Leicester has recently looked at data from the British Social Attitudes surveys and the European Values Surveys to see how attitudes to homosexual relationship have changed over the past three decades or so.

We recently published his full report here as part of our Figures section, which provides an array of statistics on attitudes to gay relationships, towards gay people, to adoption and other issues. To summarise:

  • In 1983, 70 per cent of Anglicans considered sexual relationships between people of the same sex were always or almost always wrong. By 2010, this had nearly halved to 37 per cent.
  • In 1983, 75 per cent of Catholics considered same sex relationships were always or almost always wrong; by 2010, this had fallen to 41 per cent.
  • In 1983, 80 per cent of Other Christians considered such rlationships wrong; by 2010, this had fallen to 47 per cent.
  • In 1983, 58 per cent of those with no religion considered such relationships wrong; by 2010, this had fallen to 21 per cent.

A specific question on the right to marriage was asked on the British Social Attitudes survey in 2007:

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

Again, Ben broke the responses down by religious affiliation. There is some variation by religious affiliation, although note that age or ‘social generation’ effects may also be a key driver here: those of no religion are generally considerably younger than Anglicans. More complex analysis would be required to assess how far religious affiliation determines attitudes compared with other socio-demographic variables such as sex, education, socioeconomic status, and so forth.

 

Discussion today has also focused on the position of the Church of England as the established church. The Church of England argues that the proposals mean that the institution of marriage would be redefined in law to mean something the Church would ‘struggle to recognise’ as marriage:

‘the institution of marriage would have been redefined generally for the purposes of English law. At the very least that raises new and as yet unexplored questions about the implications for the current duties which English law imposes on clergy of the Established Church’ [Annex, paragraphs 21, 22].

Relatedly, Ben has also recently looked at attitudes to disestablishment of the Church of England. He analysed data from the British Election Study (BES) AV Referendum Study, undertaken in spring 2011, which included a number of questions regarding reform of British institutions. The full report is also available here in the Figures section.

The question on disestablishment, which was asked on the post-campaign survey wave, was:

 ‘The Church of England should keep its status as the official established church in England.’

The response options were: ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘neither agree nor disagree’, ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’.

While the BES does not ask respondents their religious affiliation, we can break down responses by other demographics. To simplify, the ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ response categories were collapsed. To summarise:

  • Overall, 54 per cent of respondents agreed the Church of England should remain the established church, 22 per cent neither agreed nor disagreed, 16 per cent disagreed (i.e. favoured disestablishment), and 8 per cent didn’t know.
  • Women are more in favour of the status quo than men ( 57 per cent of women agreed with the proposal compared with 50 per cent of men; 12 per cent disagreed compared with 19 per cent of men).
  • 54 per cent of Whites and 55 per cent of Black respondents are in favour of the status quo compared with 40 per cent of Asian respondents. However, the percentage disagreeing was similar for White and Asian respondents (16 and 15 per cent respectively) while that for Black respondents was 8 per cent – notably, 20 per cent of Asian respondents replied that they didn’t know.
  • There is some variation by age category. 63 per cent of those aged 65 and over favour the status quo compared with 41 per cent of those aged 18 to 24; 13 per cent of those aged 65 and over disagreed with the proposition (presumably, therefore, favouring disestablishment) compared with 19 per cent of those aged 18 to 24.
  • English respondents were more likely to support the Church of England continuing as the established church: 56 per cent agreed compared with 51 per cent in Wales, where the Anglican ‘Church in Wales’ was disestablished in 1920, and 31 per cent in Scotland (where the Church of Scotland is recognised as the national church but is not established). 15 per cent of English respondents disagreed, compared with 17 per cent of Welsh respondents, and 24 per cent of Scottish respondents.
  • Conservative Party supporters are more likely to favour continuing establishment: 69 per cent compared with 49 per cent of Labour supporters, 46 per cent of Lib Dems, and 45 per cent favouring no particular party. 8 per cent of Conservative Party supporters disagreed, thereby favouring disestablishment, compared with 19 per cent of Labour supporters, 25 per cent of Lib Dems, and 18 per cent of those favouring no particular party.
  • 74 per cent of Daily Mail readers favour the Church of England remaining established, compared with 65 per cent of Telegraph readers, 61 per cent of Sun readers, 52 per cent of Times readers, 36 per cent of Independent readers, and 28 per cent of Guardian readers.  7 per cent of Daily Mail readers favour disestablishment, compared with 13 percent of Telegraph readers, 7 per cent of Sun readers, 25 per cent of Times readers, 34 per cent of Independent readers, and 45 per cent of Guardian readers.

Again, the full reports and breakdowns are available in the Figures section via the drop-down menu, where the contact details for Ben are also available (although note that he is currently on paternity leave – congratulations Ben!).

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Children and Pornography

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Clive D. Field

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Channel 4 Britishness Poll

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Although, as reported by BRIN on 18 February 2012, 56% of adults think that Britain is a Christian country and 61% that it should be, only 4% (and no more than 8% in any demographic sub-group, the peak being among over-65s) consider that not being a Christian stops people from being fully British.

This compares with not speaking English (59%), being born outside the UK (26%), not mixing with other groups (25%), not living in Britain (18%), having foreign-born parents (11%), not being white (9%), dressing differently (8%), and having an accent (7%).

This new finding is from an Ipsos MORI survey for Channel 4 in connection with the latter’s recently-broadcast two-part documentary Make Bradford British. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 998 Britons aged 18 and over between 27 January and 5 February 2012. Data tables have now been posted online at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Britishness%20tabs.PDF

Two other questions from the poll will also be of interest to BRIN readers:

  • During the past year 68% of respondents claimed to have regularly (monthly or more) mixed socially (outside work or school) with persons of a different religious belief, against 66% in the case of people from a different ethnic background, 90% from a different generation, and 62% of a different sexuality – inter-religious mixing was most pronounced among the 15-34s (74%), non-manuals (73%), graduates (75%), readers of broadsheet newspapers (79%), non-whites (83%), Londoners (88%), and those disagreeing that there were too many immigrants (80%).
  • 62% of Britons correctly identified the date of St George’s Day, when England’s patron saint is commemorated, albeit the proportion fell to only 49% of the 15-34s, 48% of the lowest (DE) social grade, and 32% of non-whites.

 

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Sunday Trading and the Olympics

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Chancellor George Osborne is expected to use his budget speech today formally to announce Government plans to introduce emergency legislation to suspend the Sunday Trading Act 1994 for eight weeks from 22 July 2012, during the period around the Olympic and Paralympic Games, in a move designed to signal to the world that Britain is ‘open for business’.

Sunday shopping hours would thus be deregulated in England and Wales, permitting large shops to open for more than six hours on Sundays for the first time. No public consultation on the matter is mooted. Although the relaxation would be temporary, the Treasury has indicated that it will regard the suspension as an experiment, quantifying the economic effects of deregulation.

In the first test of public opinion on the proposal, an online YouGov poll of 676 adults on 19 March has revealed that 31% of Britons support the temporary suspension of restrictions on Sunday shopping, but that an additional 35% wish to go one stage further and abolish them permanently. That leaves just 27% endorsing the status quo and opposing any temporary change for the Games, with 7% undecided.

The strongest advocates of total, long-term deregulation are the Scots (46%), even though they already enjoy deregulated Sunday shopping themselves (since the Act only applies to England and Wales). Then follow residents of the Midlands and Wales (44%) and the 25-39s (41%).

Proponents of the current position, and thus resisting suspension of the Act for the duration of the Games, are particularly to be found among men, the over-40s, and Londoners. Of course, the attitudes of these demographic sub-groups may not only be conditioned by Sabbatarian principles but by a dislike of shopping (in the first two cases) and by anxiety about the extra disruption on the life of the capital (in the case of the third).

The full data table is available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/k8huwhvfnq/Results%20120320%20Sunday%20retail.pdf

The results of this survey are broadly consistent with a OnePoll study for The People on 23 and 24 February 2012, in which 33% elected for unrestricted Sunday trading, with, at the other end of the spectrum, 22% wanting to turn the clock back to the ‘old days’ when most shops were shut and a further 12% requesting large stores to be open for less than six hours.

However, a GfK NOP poll for the Association of Convenience Stores (which defends the status quo) on 26-28 March 2010 revealed 76% endorsing the current six-hour limit on large shops, and only 19% opposing it. Moreover, 52% of those opponents actually wished to see no Sunday opening at all.

Lovers of statistics (hopefully, we have a few reading this site) may like to note that this is the 500th post on the BRIN blog since the service was launched on 4 January 2010.

 

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Honour Crimes

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Almost two-thirds (69%) of young British Asians aged 16-34 consider that families should live according to the concept of ‘honour’ or ‘izzat’. The proportion is lowest among Asian Christians (62%) and Hindus (64%) and greatest for Muslims (70%) and Sikhs (79%).

This is one of the findings of a ComRes poll undertaken on behalf of the BBC as background for a Panorama special on ‘Britain’s Crimes of Honour’, being broadcast tonight (BBC One, 8.30 pm). 500 young Asians living in Britain were interviewed by telephone between 23 and 27 February 2012. Data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/BBC_Blakeway_Honour_Crime_Feb12.pdf

A similar number of respondents (66%) argued that, while ‘izzat’ exists in some sections of society, its extent has been exaggerated by the media. This was particularly felt by young Asian Muslims (73%) and Sikhs (72%), less so by Christians (65%) or Hindus (53%).

Backing for the extremer manifestations of ‘izzat’ was small. Thus, only 6% of all young Asians believed that, in certain circumstances, it could be right to punish physically a female member of the family if she brought dishonour to it or the community. No Sikhs agreed with this, but 9% of Hindus, 8% of Christians, and 6% of Muslims did so.

Notwithstanding, three times this number (i.e. 18%) in the entire sample selected one or more of five ‘reasonable justifications’ for physical punishment of female members of the family. The figure was highest among Asian Christians (23%), followed by Muslims (20%), Sikhs (14%), and Hindus (13%).

The relative weight attached to each of the five justifications varied somewhat, but generally disobeying paternal wishes was the top concern for Asian Christians (10%), going out in the evening unaccompanied most perturbed Muslims (9%), and wanting to terminate an existing or prearranged marriage preoccupied Sikhs (9%).

The ultimate punishment of ‘honour killing’ was sanctioned by 3% of young Asians, including the same number of Muslims and Hindus, but rising to 4% of Sikhs and Christians. Support for ‘honour killings’ has thankfully fallen since 2006 when, in a similar survey of young Asians aged 16-34, 8% overall justified such killings, peaking at 14% among Hindus and Christians.

‘Izzat’, therefore, does not appear to be the preserve of any particular faith but seems to reflect the wider cultural inheritance of many young British Asians. Presumably, the same is likely to be true of older Asians, among whom the concept may be stronger, and perhaps endorsement of ‘honour killings’ slightly higher.

However, the ComRes poll strikingly illustrates that ‘izzat’ is not just a generational attitude, which will eventually die out as the older and less ‘westernized’ British Asian cohorts pass on. It is clearly a concept which has been successfully transmitted by their parents to young British Asians of all faiths, albeit in a somewhat attenuated form.

The Crown Prosecution Service is quoted as saying that there are between 10 and 12 honour killings a year in this country. A recent analysis of police force statistics identified over 2,800 honour crimes annually, but experts suspect this to be a significant underestimate.

 

 

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Gay Marriage and the Church

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The debate about gay marriage has become more charged during recent weeks, as the Government’s plans for its legalization in England and Wales approach the public consultation stage. In particular, there has been heavyweight opposition to same-sex (gay) marriage from the serving Archbishops of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, albeit declarations of support from some other leading Anglicans. 

In its regular weekly poll for The Sunday Times, conducted online on 8 and 9 March 2012 among a sample of 1,707 Britons aged 18 and over, YouGov included several questions about gay marriage, one of which was: ‘Do you think the Church of England is right or wrong to defend marriage as an institution for just heterosexual couples?’ Results can be found on page 8 of:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/8xrr8zjqs7/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-09-110312.pdf

In reply, 47% of Britons said that the Church was right to oppose gay marriage, peaking at 69% of the over-60s and 66% of Conservative voters (notwithstanding that the Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, is backing gay marriage). 37% criticized the Church, including 54% of Liberal Democrats and 50% of the 18-24s. 16% expressed no views on the subject (disproportionately Scots and the under-40s).

In most demographic sub-groups the balance of committed opinion was in favour of the Church. However, among Labour and Liberal Democrat voters, the under-40s, and Londoners pluralities were hostile to the Anglican stance, by margins of between 1% (in London) and 22% (18-24s).

The 47% who supported the Church’s defence of marriage as a heterosexual partnership only was consistent with the 47% who, in the opening question, said that they were opposed to gay marriage. But it is perhaps harder to square with the fact that 62% claimed that same-sex relationships are just as valid as heterosexual ones.

 

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Religious Education in Schools

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Fewer than one in seven Britons believe that religious education (RE) should not be taught at all in schools, and the proportion does not rise beyond 24% even for those who do not belong to a religion or 28% among persons describing themselves as not at all religious.

The finding – yet another contribution to the ongoing debate about whether Britain is or should be a ‘Christian country’ – comes from a YouGov survey undertaken online on 22 and 23 February 2012 among a sample of 1,690 adults aged 18 and over. Results were posted on the internet on 8 March at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/juzpkudtij/Results%20120223%20RE%20in%20Schools.pdf

At the other end of the spectrum, a mere 6% argued that RE in schools should be solely about Christianity, with 10% being the largest figure for any demographic sub-group (the over-60s).

However, a further 42% thought that RE in schools should be primarily about Christianity (the legal position), albeit with coverage of other faiths. The proportion developed into an absolute majority among Conservative voters (52%), the over-60s (53%), professing Christians (65%), and the very or fairly religious (58%).

Just under one-third (31%) wanted RE in schools to teach about all the major world faiths equally. This was especially the view of Liberal Democrats (45%), the young (48% for the 18-24s, 43% for the 25-39s), Londoners (39%), and the religiously unaffiliated (39%). 7% elected for none of the foregoing options or expressed no opinion.

 

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