Census 2011 – British Humanist Association Campaign

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The British Humanist Association (BHA), the national charity representing and supporting the interests of ethically concerned but non-religious people in the UK, has today launched ‘The Census Campaign’.

This is five months to the day before the next decennial population census of Great Britain asks people to make a voluntary declaration of their religious profession.

Under the tongue-in-cheek slogan, ‘If you’re not religious, for God’s sake say so!’, the campaign seeks to raise awareness of the potential dangers and damage arising from the non-religious not being accurately recorded by the census.

The BHA strongly feels that the 2001 census, the first to include the question about religious affiliation, ‘produced inaccurate and misleading data on religion, grossly undercounting the number of non-religious people and greatly inflating the number of Christians.’

According to BHA’s Chief Executive, Andrew Copson, ‘these misleading statistics are used to support policies that entrench religious privilege and increase discrimination on grounds of religion in our society …’

The BHA press release also quotes BRIN’s David Voas as saying: ‘In 2001 people tended to treat the census question on religion as a question about ethnic heritage. Their answers were interpreted very differently, though, by churches, journalists and policy-makers. Which box you tick on the census form may seem trivial, but the results do make a difference in public life.’

Following a preview to BHA supporters, the Census Campaign’s fundraising has already raised nearly 50% of its first target. The proceeds of this ongoing appeal (www.justgiving.com/census) will underpin national advertising.

The full BHA press release, on which this post has drawn, will be found at:

http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/682

The Census Campaign is also accompanied by an interactive website, which sets out the key arguments why people who are non-religious should respond to the voluntary question on religion, and why many of those who registered as Christians in 2001 (so-called ‘cultural Christians’) should respond by ticking ‘No religion’ in 2011. This is at:

www.census-campaign.org.uk

Additionally, there is a presence on Facebook and Twitter:

www.facebook.com/censuscampaign

www.twitter.com/censuscampaign.

It remains to be seen what impact the BHA’s campaign will have. However, it will be recalled that, in connection with the 2001 census, a push to persuade people to register as Jedi Knights (of Star Wars fame) had significant effect. In the end, more Jedis than Jews were returned.

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Attitudes to new academy faith schools

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Siobhan McAndrew

The Academies Act 2010 is well underway, having received its Second Reading in the House of Commons on Monday 19 July, and with Education Select Committee days due this week.

A number of private and state religious schools have indicated interest in becoming state-funded academies, among about 1500 schools overall so far. For comparative purposes, the January 2009 Schools Census suggested there were 17,064 state primaries and 3,361 state secondaries in England.

The full list of schools indicating interest is available at the Department for Education website, and is updated intermittently. The list does not indicate directly which are schools ‘of a religious character’ – the British Humanist Association estimates that it is ‘over 300’.

The BHA has suggested that schools with a nominal faith tradition (such as Anglican primary schools without a strong faith ethos) will have no provision to change religious character to ‘none’ when becoming academies, even if the Governing Body were in favour.

However, non-faith schools will be able to adopt a religious character when becoming academies – perhaps under the influence of governors or potential sponsors – and this may lead to a proliferation of new faith schools. Its additional concern is that academies with a strong faith character will be freed from National Curriculum strictures, specifically with regard to the teaching of creationism and sex and reproduction.

The BHA commissioned a poll on public attitudes to the religious character of future academies, available here.

67% of respondents thought faith academies should be required to teach about other beliefs including non-religious beliefs. 23% did not, and 11% of respondents didn’t know.

The survey also asked,

‘If an academy were set up by a religious organisation, would you be very, quite, not very or not at all concerned that public money may be used to promote a particular religion or belief?’

35% were very concerned, 36% quite concerned, 16% not very concerned, 5% not at all concerned, and 7% didn’t know.

The survey was conducted 9-11 July 2010, by online interview, with 2000 respondents. The full polling report will be shortly available at http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/media-centre.php

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God on the Buses

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Does God have an advertising budget? Presumably not, but his advocates and critics certainly do, and their rival campaigns to promote or debunk Him have featured in an unlikely place: the annual report for 2009 of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Committee of Advertising Practice, which is available at:

http://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA/Annual-Report.aspx

The ASA received 28,978 complaints about all kinds of advertisements in 2009, of which 5.5% related to two campaigns battling over God and run through banner posters on the outsides of buses. These accounted for more than half of the percentage increase in the total number of complaints to the ASA between 2008 and 2009.

The British Humanist Association opened the batting early in the year with its slogan ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. This was the sixth most complained about advertisement in 2009, attracting 392 complaints. Critics alleged that it was offensive to people of faith and could not be substantiated. The ASA duly considered the matter and agreed that the claim was not capable of being objectively proved, while noting that the advertiser had avoided a hostile or offensive tone.

The Christian Party duly responded with a campaign proclaiming ‘There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life’. This was number 1 in the advertising complaint chart for 2009, drawing 1,204 complaints. Critics claimed that the advertisement was offensive to atheists and could not be substantiated. The ASA did not investigate in this instance, since advertisements for political parties lie outside its remit. Since the Christian Party, formed in 2004, managed to capture only 0.1% of the popular vote at the recent general election, or 18,623 votes, perhaps its bus advertising had limited impact.

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