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Eight Shorts

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Eight short items of statistical news feature in today’s second post, clearing a small backlog which has built up during a week’s absence from the desk.

Hate crime

The overwhelming majority of the British public (84%) consider that an attack on someone because of their religion should be treated as a hate crime, second only to those who deem an attack on someone because of their race as a hate crime (88%), and ahead of the numbers regarding as hate crimes attacks on the basis of sexuality (83%), transsexuality (81%), disability (78%), gender (75%), sub-culture (68%), age (59%), weight (56%), height (51%), hair colour (51%), and political views (51%). The proportion who do not think that an attack on the grounds of religion should be classed as a hate crime is 10% overall, but 13% for men and Conservative supporters, and 14% among the 18-24s. The survey was conducted by YouGov on 14-15 May 2013 with an online sample of 1,886 adults, and the data tables are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/i4jqy1c3rk/YG-Archive-hate-crime-results-150513.pdf

Sunday stress

Far from being a day of rest, Sunday has become the most stressful day of the week for one-third of Britons, according to a ‘Sunday Stress Audit’ of over 2,000 adults commissioned by the Really television channel. Indeed, 65% now claim to have busier schedules on Sunday than on an ordinary weekday, and 67% report that ‘Sunday blues’ kick in at some point during the day. More than half (51%) consider Sundays to be a day ‘for getting things done’, with an average of 3 hours and 36 minutes being spent on various household tasks, and 35% admitting that they nag or are nagged by their partners to carry out such chores. Such is the level of ‘busyness’ that 34% never get a lie in bed on Sunday, and 53% never get chance to read the Sunday newspapers properly. Sunday lunch (which takes 2 hours to prepare and 26 minutes to eat) and seeing extended family remain key elements of the Sunday tradition, with two-thirds getting together with their wider family at least one Sunday each month, not always without friction. Full results and methodological details of the survey have not been released, and the above summary is largely taken from the Daily Mail for 10 May 2013 at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322269/Sunday-Its-day-rest-day-stress-Two-thirds-say-Sabbath-busiest-time-week.html

Church organs

‘The traditional church organ is a must for special occasions but, Sunday to Sunday, congregations would rather have a guitar-based worship group.’ This is the conclusion drawn by Christian Resources Exhibitions International from a poll conducted between 26 April and 3 May 2013 among 2,250 UK churchgoers who are members of the Christian Research online panel (Resonate). A guitar-based group was the preference for ordinary Sunday services of 44% of churchgoers compared with 30% for the organ, while almost two-thirds of respondents disagreed with the statement that a church with no organ is like a pub with no beer. More than half the sample had experience of organists slipping ‘unrelated’ secular music into their repertoire. Detailed results of the poll have not been published, but there is a brief press release at:

http://www.creonline.co.uk/news.asp?pageid=13

Church Commissioners

The Church Commissioners, who make a substantial contribution to the finances of the Church of England (especially in respect of its ministry), published their annual report and accounts for 2012 on 14 May 2013. They demonstrate a return on investments of just under 10% for the year, almost matching the Commissioners’ average for the past 20 years. This return exceeds the Commissioners’ target of inflation plus 5%, as well as the performance of a comparator group of funds. The report can be found at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1743919/w1025_cc_annual-report_final.pdf

A century and more of Catholic statistics

The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales has performed a useful service in collating the available national statistics of the Catholic Church in England and Wales until 2010, of ordinations since 1860, priests since 1890, and baptisms, marriages, receptions (formerly adult conversions), and estimates of Catholic population since 1913. Updating the series already available on BRIN (reproduced, with permission, from Churches and Churchgoers, 1977), they were published in spreadsheet format (as a series of tables and graphs), together with a brief and not entirely unbiased commentary, on the Society’s news blog on 17 May 2013 at:

http://www.lms.org.uk/news-and-events/news-blog/may-2013#statistics

With the exception of ordinations (where the lists of men each year have been counted), the data have been taken from the Catholic Directory for England and Wales, a commercial publication but issued with the official sanction of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Although the best source we have, it should not be forgotten that, through no fault of the Catholic Directory, these figures present a variety of challenges in terms of methodology and quality, reflecting weaknesses in the Church’s statistics-gathering at diocesan and national levels. Indeed, the Catholic Directory has recently deemed them so problematical that it has ceased to publish them entirely.

The Latin Mass Society’s principal gloss on the data is to highlight ‘the striking decline of a range of statistical indications of the health of the Catholic Church in England and Wales in the 1960s and 1970s’. According to the Society’s chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw, ‘it is not fanciful to connect this catastrophe to the wrenching changes which were taking place in the Church at that time, when the Second Vatican Council was being prepared, discussed, and, often erroneously, applied’. No mention here of wider historical and sociological debates about the secularization of British society and of what some historians view as the ‘religious crisis’ of the 1960s.

Mass-Observation

Mass-Observation was a social research organization founded by Tom Harrisson and Charles Madge in 1937, employing a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, primarily in two fieldwork areas: Bolton/Blackpool and London. Its heyday was relatively short, just twelve years until 1949, after which it was succeeded by Mass-Observation (UK) Limited, with a focus on commercial market research. From the outset it displayed a particular interest in religion, and, although only one major religion-related project (Puzzled People, based on interviews with a sample of 500 Hammersmith residents in 1944-45) was ever published, much raw material survives in the Mass-Observation Archive, on deposit at the University of Sussex since 1975, significant portions of which have been reproduced on microform and online by Adam Matthew Publications. Despite being the subject of a considerable amount of secondary literature, there has not hitherto been a full-length history. It is, therefore, a great pleasure to welcome the new book by James Hinton, The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949 (Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967104-5). This is essentially arranged chronologically rather than thematically, but the volume does include some brief discussion of Mass-Observation’s religious research, including an account of Puzzled People on pp. 320-4.

NatCen trustees

NatCen (National Centre for Social Research), the independent and not-for-profit organization which undertakes a wide range of surveys (including the British Social Attitudes Surveys), is looking for four trustees to join its board. The closing date for applications is 17 June 2013. Further particulars are available at:

http://www.natcen.ac.uk/about-us/job-opportunities/trustee-x4

Public understanding of statistics

Although it contains nothing specific about religion, some BRIN readers may be interested in a poll conducted by Ipsos MORI for King’s College London and the Royal Statistical Society and published on 14 May. The sample comprised 1,034 British adults aged 16-75 interviewed online between 9 and 15 April 2013. In a crushing blow to the BRIN ego, only 6% of respondents agreed that online blogs report statistics accurately. About half the population (49%) have a great deal or fair amount of trust in information provided by statisticians, but the proportion falls to 23% for pollsters, albeit it climbs to 63% for trust in academics. The twenty questions and sub-questions also included some practical tests of the public’s numeracy. The topline results can be viewed at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/rss-kings-ipsos-mori-trust-in-statistics-topline.pdf

Posted in Historical studies, News from religious organisations, Survey news | Tagged Catholic Directory, Christian Research, Christian Resources Exhibitions International, Church Commissioners, church music, Church of England, church organs, discrimination, hate crime, Ipsos-MORI, James Hinton, King's College London, Latin Mass Society, Mass-Observation, NatCen, Really, Resonate, Roman Catholic Church, Royal Statistical Society, statistics, stress, Sundays, YouGov | Leave a comment

2011 Anglican Statistics and Other News

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Clive D. Field

As usual, there has been a lot of media interest today in the latest (2011) Statistics for Mission of the Church of England. They are always seen as something of a barometer of the spiritual state of England, and so it is appropriate that we give them a fair amount of space here, alongside five shorter items of religious statistical news.

Church of England statistics for mission, 2011

The Church of England has today released its Statistics for Mission, 2011, comprising 18 pages of tables with breaks to diocesan level and some national time series. This report (prepared by Archbishops’ Council, Research and Statistics), together with a brief press statement largely quoting the Bishop of Norwich on the more encouraging aspects of the data, can be found at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2013/05/church-annual-statistics-for-2011.aspx

The short-term picture, comparing 2011 with 2010, is a mixed but largely downbeat one, which has been the story for several years past. On the credit side, the best news was the 14.5% increase in Christmas Day attendance, albeit this must be attributed in large part to the very poor weather at Christmas 2010, which negatively impacted congregations, and to the fact that Christmas Day fell on a Sunday in 2011, which probably gave them a boost. Christmas Day communicants were up by 13.3%, for the same reasons. Usual Sunday attendance grew by 0.8%, but the report ascribes this to a new estimation process for filling in gaps on the parochial schedules. Baptisms and thanksgivings were up by 4.6% in total, including by 2.6% for infant baptisms, 7.5% for baptisms of children aged 1-12, and 44.5% for thanksgivings of children.

On the debit side, there were falls in average weekly attendance (-0.3%), average Sunday attendance (-1.2%), Easter Day attendance (-1.6%), Easter Day communicants (-0.7%), electoral roll (-0.1%), confirmations (-0.5%), marriages and blessings (-3.1%), and funerals (-2.7%, although deaths in England and Wales also fell, by 1.8%, during the year). The decreases in two of the three rites of passage must be particularly disappointing for the Church, for this is an area where it has been investing resource of late and has traditionally held sway, especially over the ‘nominals’, about whom we have heard much in recent weeks. Anglican infant baptisms now account for just 12.1% of live births and Anglican funerals for 35.7% of deaths.

These are naturally national trends, which conceal some diocesan variation. For example, the average all age weekly attendance figure ranged from an increase between 2010 and 2011 of 11.0% for Southwell and Nottingham to a decrease of 10.6% in Canterbury. Will the new Archbishop make a difference in the latter see? Well, he comes from Durham, which recorded a decline of 8.0%, so it is too soon to tell.

Taking a ten-year view (2001-11), which gives a better feel for real trends, the position is summarized in the table below, which will make for rather bleak reading for the Church, even bleaker if we factor in that the mid-year population of England grew by 7.9% over the decade (invariably making the relative decline greater than suggested by the absolute numbers).

	2001	2011	% change
Average all age weekly attendance	1,205,000	1,091,500	-9.4
Average adult weekly attendance	976,000	874,600	-10.4
Average children/young people weekly attendance	229,000	216,900	-5.3
Average all age Sunday attendance	1,041,000	898,300	-13.7
Average adult Sunday attendance	868,000	763,300	-12.1
Average children/young people Sunday attendance	173,000	134,900	-22.0
Usual all age Sunday attendance	938,000	807,500	-13.9
Usual adult Sunday attendance	781,000	690,700	-11.6
Usual children/young people Sunday attendance	157,000	116,800	-25.6
All age Easter Day attendance	1,593,100	1,365,000	-14.3
Easter Day communicants	1,134,900	979,700	-13.7
All age Christmas Day/Eve attendance	2,608,000	2,618,000	+0.4
Christmas Day/Eve communicants	1,227,900	1,008,500	-17.9
Electoral roll	1,372,000	1,206,000	-12.1
Baptisms and thanksgivings	160,200	146,330	-8.7
Confirmations	33,367	22,242	-33.3
Marriages and blessings	63,600	55,540	-12.7
Funerals	228,000	162,530	-28.7

Google ties with religion

In the latest variant of a trust in organizations survey, Google and religious institutions shared fifth equal place, 17% of Britons aged 16 and over who were interviewed reckoning that each had their best interests at heart. The 2,000 respondents were invited to rank their top three institutions from a list of sixteen. Most trusted – despite its recent high-profile failings – was the National Health Service (37%), followed by police (26%), charities (21%), and – notwithstanding the horsemeat scandal – supermarkets (19%). Least regarded as having the public’s best interests at heart were politicians (3%), the media (6%), banks (7%), and lawyers (8%) also scoring badly. These findings were released by communications agency OMD UK on 30 April 2013 as an initial output from its ongoing ‘Future of Britain’ project, in collaboration with MMR Research. The trust in organizations table is reproduced on the Sky News website at:

http://news.sky.com/story/1084991/britons-trust-google-as-much-as-religion

Religious opposition to same-sex marriage

Religious opposition to same-sex marriage in Britain is reviewed by Steven Kettell in a new article entitled ‘I Do, Thou Shalt Not’ published on 2 May 2013 in the ‘early view’ online version of Political Quarterly. Developments in Scotland are covered as well as in England and Wales. Religious arguments against same-sex marriage are analysed, the author noting how relatively little they deploy theology but rather invoke secular justifications. Some use is made of opinion poll evidence, although – inevitably for an academic journal – this is not absolutely up-to-date. Unsurprisingly, Kettell concludes that religious opposition to same-sex marriage has failed, with broader implications for religion’s public role. This is a subscription title; for access options, go to:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2013.12009.x/abstract

Equality and Muslims

Almost three-quarters of adults (73%, rising to 81% of over-60s) think it a very or fairly big problem in Britain that Muslim girls suffer discrimination at the hands of their own families by being told when to leave school and/or whom to marry, and 26% rate it as one of the most urgent problems facing the country (35% among the 18-24s and 34% among Conservatives and the highest income earners). By contrast, only 3% consider that unfair treatment of Muslim workers by their employers is an urgent problem (bottom of a list of ten equality challenges), with 73% contending that it is either not a problem at all or a fairly small problem (and 27% that it is a very or fairly big problem). These two questions were included in a survey of equality issues undertaken by YouGov for the YouGov@Cambridge think tank, with 1,925 Britons aged 18 and over being interviewed online on 25 and 26 February 2013. The detailed tables were released on 1 May and can be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/9a679g3m9i/YG-Archive-Cam-equality%20results-260213.pdf

National Jewish Community Survey

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) launched the National Jewish Community Survey on 1 May, with the intention of collecting data which will complement the 2011 civilian census for ‘Jewish people living in Britain, irrespective of the nature of their Jewish identity and level of involvement in the community.’ In addition to probing Jewish identity, questions are being asked about the demographic profile and charitable behaviour of Jews. The survey, which is being funded by a consortium of Jewish community organizations and foundations, is being conducted online during May and June 2013 in association with Ipsos MORI. According to an interview given to the current issue (3 May 2013, p. 2) of the Jewish Chronicle, JPR is confident that its online methodology will not lead to under-representation of strictly Orthodox Jews ‘as Charedim have greater access to the internet than many people think’. Respondents to the survey will be recruited by invitation only, initially on a random basis, and will thus not be self-selecting. Further information about the survey is available in the FAQs posted at:

http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/census-faqs.pdf

BRIN on BRIN

The latest BRIN site traffic statistics, kindly collated by Siobhan McAndrew, demonstrate that usage of BRIN has continued to build since the official launch of the website just over three years ago. Since that time there have been 186,000 visits to the site by 152,000 unique visitors who have viewed 422,000 pages. Judging by their IP addresses, 70% of visitors are from the United Kingdom and 11% from the United States, although 187 different countries are represented in all. The majority of visitors (65%) arrive at the BRIN website via Google, but 13% key the BRIN URL directly, and a similar proportion come as referrals from other sites (of which guardian.co.uk heads the list). The most frequently accessed blog post to date was from 21 September 2010 on ‘How Many Muslims?’ which accounts for just over 3% of all BRIN page views.

Posted in church attendance, Historical studies, News from religious organisations, Religion and Ethnicity, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Rites of Passage, Survey news | Tagged Archbishops' Council, church attendance, Church of England, discrimination, equality, Google, Institute for Jewish Policy Research, Ipsos-MORI, Jews, MMR Research, Muslims, National Jewish Community Survey, OMD UK, Political Quarterly, religious festivals, religious institutions, rites of passage, same-sex marriage, Siobhan McAndrew, Steven Kettell, YouGov, YouGov@Cambridge | 1 Comment

Assisted Dying and Other News

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Assisted dying heads the list of five religious statistical news stories today, rounding off BRIN’s coverage of the exclusive YouGov survey on religion and personal morality commissioned to inform the 2013 Westminster Faith Debates.

Assisted dying

The British public overwhelmingly (70%, with just 16% in disagreement) favours a change in the law to enable persons with incurable diseases to have the right to ask close friends or relatives to help them commit suicide, and without those friends or relatives running the risk of prosecution (as is currently the case). Moreover, while those who profess no religion are especially likely (81% versus 9%) to support reform, even people of faith back it overall (64% versus 21%), with the conspicuous exception of Muslims, who take the contrary line (by 55% to 26%). A plurality (49%, with 36% against) of individuals who actively participate in a religious group also wants to see the law amended. Not until we reach the ‘strict believers’ – the 9% of the population who take their authority in life from religious sources, who certainly believe in God, and who actively participate in a religious group – is there a religious core hostile to legalizing assisted dying and thus in tune with the teaching of many mainstream faiths and denominations. These believers’ motivations are that ‘human life is sacred’ (80%) and/or ‘death should take its natural course’ (69%).

These are some of the headlines from the sixth and final instalment of the YouGov poll commissioned by Professor Linda Woodhead in connection with the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which conclude today with a discussion of ‘Should We Legislate to Permit Assisted Dying?’ The poll was undertaken through online interviews with 4,437 Britons aged 18 and over between 25 and 30 January 2013. The detailed computer tables for the assisted dying module, including the two questions exploring the reasons for supporting or opposing a change in the law, have been posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/qsaixtu2j4/YG-Archive-University-of-Lancaster-300113-faith-matters-euthanasia.pdf

The press release for these results is at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/press_release_westminster_faith_debate_6_should_we_legislate_to_permit_assisted_dying

A consolidated list of media coverage for all six debates in the series is at:

http://religionandsociety.org.uk/faith_debates-2013/media_coverage

Assisted dying has been a contested matter for decades. The campaign organization now known as Dignity in Dying was founded as the Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society as far back as 1935. Soon afterwards, in 1937, Gallup conducted the first opinion poll on the subject, asking its sample whether ‘doctors should be given power to end the life of a person incurably ill’, and finding that 69% thought that they should. The proportion in favour of physician-assisted suicide has grown since, hovering around four-fifths in six British Social Attitudes Surveys from 1983 to 2008; in 2008 it stood at 82% (90% for those of no religion, 85% for Anglicans, 75% for Catholics, 70% for other Christians, and 63% for non-Christians). Endorsement of non-doctor-assisted suicide has run at a somewhat lower but still high level; a question worded not dissimilarly to that in the Westminster Faith Debates poll, asking about a change in the law to enable friends and relatives to assist in a suicide, was posed by YouGov on five occasions between 2008 and 2012, recording majorities for legislative reform of between 68% and 74%. However, it should be noted that the public is less approving of suicide in instances where an incurable disease does not exist; indeed, in the most recent (January 2013) Angus Reid poll only 29% of Britons deemed suicide in general to be morally acceptable.

Lent, 2013

No, there is nothing wrong with BRIN’s ecclesiastical clock; we know that Lent is long past! It is just that, after Easter this year, on 10 April, Opinium put out a press release about two online surveys of UK adults aged 18 and over which it had undertaken on behalf of the charity Street Kids International, and in connection with the latter’s ‘Give it Up for a Day’ campaign to coincide with the International Day for Street Children on 12 April. Thanks to the generosity of both Opinium and Street Kids, BRIN has been given access to both topline and detailed data from these surveys, and we are able to share some highlights from them with our constituency.

The first survey was completed by 2,021 adults and conducted between 12 and 15 February 2013, broadly coinciding with the start of Lent (13 February). Asked whether they had any plans to give anything up for Lent, 11% said yes, ranging from 14% of women to 8% of men, and from 17% of the 18-34s to 8% of the over-55s. Three-fifths of these prospective abstainers anticipated that they would sustain their sacrifice throughout the whole of Lent (66% of females and 72% of the 35-54s). Four-fifths (79%) had no intentions of giving anything up, with 65% of them attributing this to the fact that they did not celebrate Lent or were not religious; 29% could see no purpose in Lent, 10% confessed they could not be bothered, and 6% blamed a lack of willpower. 72% of the non-abstainers thought that they might manage to give up something for one day instead (which was the driver behind the Street Kids campaign). One in ten of all respondents admitted to being uncertain about their Lenten observance.

The second survey, in which 2,006 adults were interviewed, took place between 2 and 4 April 2013, immediately after the conclusion of Lent. A similar number to the first survey (10%) claimed that they had tried to give something up for Lent, peaking at 12% of women, 15% of the 18-34s, and 16% of Londoners, while 89% acknowledged that they had not. The top forfeits were very much the ‘traditional’ ones: eating chocolate (32% of the abstainers), drinking alcohol (19%), eating crisps (18%), eating sweets (16%), swearing (12%), drinking fizzy drinks (10%), and smoking (10%). By contrast, virtually nobody could bear to be parted from the technological trappings of modern life, such as television, mobile phones, social media, internet shopping, computer games, or Ipod music. Fewer than half (47%) of the abstainers had kept up their sacrifice throughout the whole of Lent, with the Welsh (69%) and Scots (62%) having the most staying power; at the other end of the spectrum, 31% had lasted seven days or less. Lack of willpower (30%), the temptation of a special occasion (19%), stress (19%), and forgetfulness (18%) were the most commonly cited reasons for caving in early.

Church music

The current state of, in particular, Anglican church music is partially illuminated in the results of a survey undertaken by the Royal School of Church Music and published on 20 April 2013 in connection with the conference ‘Church Music: Sound Ministry?’ held at Canterbury Christ Church University. The survey was open during a three-week period in March 2013, for completion either online or by post, and the 205 respondents were entirely self-selecting. They were also disproportionately from the UK, Anglican, and from churches’ music departments (meaning that they probably reflect the views of larger churches, which can afford to sustain such departments). The research must therefore be considered as illustrative rather than statistically representative. The principal question topic concerned the demand for music genres outside the ‘usual repertoire’ of churches, notably the spread of pre-recorded music at services, including the rites of passage, with pop, classical, and other secular music recordings being prevalent at weddings and funerals. One-quarter of respondents reported that their church had refused to perform or provide some requested music on the grounds that it was inappropriate. A summary of the survey, prepared by Stuart Robinson, is at:

http://www.rscm.com/assets/info_resources/SurveyReport.pdf

Prejudice against groups

Muslims are perceived to be the religious or ethnic group likely to experience most prejudice in Britain today, according to an online survey by Britain Thinks on behalf of British Future think tank, in which 2,032 adults aged 18 and over were interviewed on 16 and 17 March 2013. Topline results were published on 21 April in the appendix to Sunder Katwala, The Integration Consensus, 1993-2013: How Britain Changed Since Stephen Lawrence, which is available at:

http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/BRFJ726-Integration-Consensus_v8.pdf

Muslims were deemed to experience ‘a lot’ of prejudice by 54% of Britons, compared with 29% who said the same about Asians, 27% about white (Eastern) Europeans, 24% about blacks, 17% about Hindus, 17% about Sikhs, 14% about Jews, 11% about white British, 11% about Christians, 9% about people of mixed race, and 5% about atheists. Only 7% of the sample considered that Muslims suffered ‘hardly any’ prejudice, whereas for Hindus and Sikhs it was 23%, for Jews 28%, for Christians 50%, and for atheists 60%. These trends are broadly in line with previous poll evidence, including the widespread acceptability of atheism.

Abu Qatada

The British public generally shares the frustration of Home Secretary Theresa May and Prime Minister David Cameron about the current legal impasse with regard to the deportation to his native Jordan of Abu Qatada al-Filistini, the radical Muslim cleric given asylum in Britain in 1994 but who has since been implicated in Islamist terrorism, albeit he has not been convicted of any offences in the UK. A British court ruled in 2005 that Abu Qatada should be deported, but so far he has been able to block this in the British and European courts on the grounds that he would not receive a fair trial in Jordan as evidence obtained from torture might be used against him, despite new treaty guarantees from the Jordanian authorities that this would not be the case.

Although 51% of Britons agree that it would not be acceptable for evidence obtained by torture to be used against Abu Qatada (compared with 28% who say the opposite), far fewer (25%) argue that he should not be deported until the British Government is satisfied that the new treaty categorically ensures that evidence from torture will not be deployed. A clear majority (61%) wants Britain to deport Abu Qatada regardless of legal challenges and of what subsequently happens to him in Jordan; this view is strongly held by UKIP (90%) and Conservative (74%) supporters and by the over-60s (73%). Moreover, as many as 52% favour Britain’s temporary withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to be able to deport Abu Qatada, with 30% opposing this step (rising to 59% of Liberal Democrats) and 18% undecided.

These findings derive from a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times, conducted online on 25 and 26 April 2013 among a sample of 1,898 Britons aged 18 and over. Data tables appear on pp. 12-13 at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/lhnabrjag7/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-260413.pdf

BRIN’s coverage of previous YouGov/Sunday Times polls relating to the Abu Qatada case can be found at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/theresa-mays-bad-hair-day/

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/abu-qatada/

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged abstinence, Abu Qatada al-Filistini, assisted dying, atheists, Britain Thinks, British Future, Christians, church music, deportation, European Convention on Human Rights, euthanasia, Hindus, Islamism, Islamophobia, Jews, Jordan, legislation, Lent, Linda Woodhead, Muslims, Opinium, pre-recorded music, prejudice, religious festivals, Royal School of Church Music, Sikhs, Street Kids International, Stuart Robinson, Sunday Times, Sunder Katwala, terrorism, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | 1 Comment

Profile of Anglicans and Other News

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Today’s mix of religious statistical news stories includes a segmentation analysis of self-identifying Anglicans, support for St George’s Day as a public holiday, the faith of undergraduates, and an updated interactive gateway to important serial survey data covering religion in Britain.

Profile of Anglicans

The YouGov survey which Professor Linda Woodhead commissioned to inform the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, and which BRIN has been reporting after each debate, is likely to prove a very valuable dataset for subsequent secondary analysis. To illustrate the point, Professor Woodhead, with statistical support from the Revd Professor Bernard Silverman, has used the poll (conducted online among 4,437 Britons aged 18 and over on 25-30 January 2013) to undertake a segmentation analysis of contemporary Anglicans (1,261 identified themselves as such in the survey). Her findings are presented in her article ‘”Nominals” are the Church’s Hidden Strength’ in the current issue (26 April 2013, p. 16) of the Church Times. This is only available online to subscribers of the newspaper.

The analysis proper, which forms the first part of the article, distinguishes four types of Anglicans:

Godfearing Churchgoers (5% of Anglicans) – These are Anglicans who attend church, are very certain in their belief in God, and who say that God is the main source of authority in their lives. They are also likely to score highly on other indicators of religiosity (such as prayer and Bible-reading) and to hold conservative views on many issues of personal morality, particularly sexuality (setting them apart with Baptists and Muslims rather than fellow Anglicans).
Mainstream Churchgoers (12% of Anglicans) – These have more in common with Non-Churchgoing Believers than with the Godfearers. Apart from their churchgoing, they differ in being a little more religious than Non-Churchgoing Believers on a number of measures and a little more morally conservative.
Non-Churchgoing Believers (50% of Anglicans) – These share a good many of the attributes of Mainstream Churchgoers, notwithstanding that they do not attend church. They all believe in God (although some prefer the word Spirit), and significant numbers practise religious or spiritual activities regularly. ‘These “nominals” are more than Anglican in name only: they believe, practise, and identify with Anglicanism.’
Non-Churchgoing Doubters (33% of Anglicans) – These Anglicans are also more than merely nominal. Only 15% are outright atheists, most being agnostic or unsure about God, and more than one-fifth claim to practise some religious or spiritual activity in private. They are the most morally permissive of the four groups.

The second half of the article is an impassioned – some may say occasionally idealized – plea for the Church of England to take more seriously non-churchgoing Anglicans in general, and Non-Churchgoing Believers in particular, rather than representing Godfearing Churchgoers as the ‘most real Anglicans’. Woodhead contends that the Church is in danger of becoming too clerical and congregationally-based, and of abandoning its sense of being a lay institution governed by monarch and Parliament, and responsible to the people.

St George’s Day

Hopefully, you noticed – or at least did not forget – that last Tuesday (23 April) was St George’s Day, commemorating England’s patron saint. To mark the occasion, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Cardiff University, and the University of Edinburgh released some initial findings from YouGov polling commissioned for their collaborative ‘Future of England Survey, 2012’. Online fieldwork was undertaken between 23 and 28 November 2012 among samples of 3,600 English residents, 3,401 white English adults, and 651 black and minority ethnic (BME) English adults.

Respondents were asked whether St George’s Day should be a public holiday. Whereas two-thirds of all English and whites agreed with the proposition, under half (47%) of BMEs did so. Some 41% of BMEs were neutral on the matter or did not know what to think, compared with under a quarter of all English and whites. These differences appear to be related to the fact that BMEs are four times more likely than English and whites to identify themselves as British but not English, and three times less likely as English but not British. Strong agreement with St George’s Day becoming a public holiday was registered by 43% of English overall but by 60% of UKIP supporters, falling to 32% of Liberal Democrat voters. IPPR’s press release and the summary table can be found, respectively, at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/h00jyfvifw/YG-Archive-University-of-Cardiff-results-281112-english-british-st-george’s-day.pdf

http://www.ippr.org/press-releases/111/10678/7-out-of-10-want-st-georges-day-as-bank-holiday

Student faith

‘Christianity and the University Experience in Contemporary England’ was one of the projects funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme between 2009 and 2012. It sought to take the religious temperature of undergraduates attending 13 English universities through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods. The full results of the research will be published by Bloomsbury on 12 September 2013 in a book by Mathew Guest (principal investigator for the project), Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma, and Rob Warner, Christianity and the University Experience: Understanding Student Faith. Meanwhile, some findings are also being reported in academic journals, most recently in the May 2013 issue (Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 207-23) of Journal of Contemporary Religion, in which the same four authors have an article ‘Challenging “Belief” and the Evangelical Bias: Student Christianity in English Universities’.

Evangelicalism is often seen as the dominant form of campus-based Christianity, but this essay presents something of a corrective to that simplistic picture, by drawing upon the replies to an online questionnaire notified to a random selection of students at each university in 2010-11. The response rate was 12%, amounting to 4,341 undergraduates, and while weighting was able to correct for certain types of non-response bias, it is conceded that ‘our survey could be skewed, perhaps, in favour of those who are most interested in religion or who are religious themselves’. This may help to explain why the proportion of students professing a faith is somewhat higher than for equivalent age cohorts in surveys of the general population, as a consequence of ‘the religiously indifferent opting out’, albeit (more optimistically than I would be) the authors do not consider the ‘inflation’ to be ’dramatic’.

Overall, 34% of students said that they had no religion, while 51% were Christian, and 15% were of other faiths. Asked whether they considered themselves to be religious or spiritual, only 25% opted for religious, 31% for spiritual but not religious, 33% for neither religious nor spiritual, with 11% unsure. Among self-identifying Christians, more (40%) viewed themselves as religious, 31% as spiritual, 15% as neither, and 13% were uncertain. Again, for Christians, attending university had a net effect in marginally increasing religiosity, with 15% claiming they had become more religious, 12% less religious, and 71% remaining the same. Weekly churchgoing in term-time was reported by 29% of Christian undergraduates, outside term by 35%, which (if true) suggests less nominalism than in society at large. For all students, 75% described their religious perspective as unchanged since arriving at university, heightened or lessened religiosity cancelling each other out at 11%.

CCESD Information System

The CCESD Information System, hosted by the Centre for Comparative European Survey Data at London Metropolitan University, has recently been extended in scope. It now includes seven sub-sites, of which six are especially important for British and comparative data on religion and related topics. These are: British Social Attitudes Survey, British Election Study, Eurobarometer, European Social Survey, International Social Survey Programme, and European Values Survey. The sources can be browsed and searched, and analyses of data undertaken at topline level or through cross-tabulations by standard demographic variables. Data can be exported in a variety of formats. This is a reasonably simple and interactive system which requires no great statistical expertise, and registration for and use of it are entirely free. To access the CCESD Information System, go to:

http://www.ccesd.ac.uk/Home

Posted in church attendance, Religion and Ethnicity, Survey news | Tagged Anglicans, Bernard Silverman, Cardiff University, CCESD Information System, Centre for Comparative European Survey Data, Christianity, Church of England, Church Times, Institute for Public Policy Research, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Kristin Aune, Linda Woodhead, London Metropolitan University, Mathew Guest, patron saints, public holidays, Rob Warner, Sonya Sharma, St George's Day, undergraduate students, University of Edinburgh, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | 6 Comments

Politico-Religious News

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Today’s post (the 600th on BRIN in just over three years) examines three newly-released surveys which explore the intersection between religion and political issues.

Same-sex marriage

The Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales has now completed the Committee Stage in the House of Commons and is awaiting a date for Report and Third Reading Stage prior to the measure’s consideration by the House of Lords. Meanwhile, New Zealand last week became the thirteenth country to legislate for same-sex marriage, with a final vote to take place on the issue (and same-sex adoption) in France’s National Assembly next Tuesday.

Christian views on the matter in Britain were openly discussed last Thursday in the fifth of this year’s series of Westminster Faith Debates, and, as with the other debates, the discussion was informed by new survey data from a YouGov poll commissioned by Professor Linda Woodhead and conducted online between 25 and 30 January 2013 among a representative sample of 4,437 adult Britons. The data tables should be posted on YouGov’s public archive site during the next few days, at:

http://yougov.co.uk/publicopinion/archive/

More immediately, there is some coverage of the results (especially as they affect Catholics) in The Tablet for 20 April 2013 (pp. 10 and 30) and also a press release at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/press_release_do_christians_really_oppose_gay_marriage

Among Britons as a whole, 52% thought that same-sex couples should be allowed to get married, 34% disagreed, and 14% did not know what to think. There were significant differences between people of faith and those without: whereas 69% of those professing no religion favoured same-sex marriage, and only 20% dissented, persons affiliating to a religion evenly split at 43% for and against.

In terms of faith traditions, the greatest opposition to same-sex marriage was to be found with Muslims (59%), followed by Baptists (50%). Hostility also correlated with strength of religious attachment. Thus, it reached above-average levels among those describing themselves as religious (53%), actively practising their faith (46%), definite believers in God or a higher power (48%), also those who said their lives were guided by religious leaders (67%), their religion (58%), religious teachings (56%), or God (54%).

A second question asked respondents whether they felt same-sex marriage to be right or wrong. Among all Britons, 46% said right and 34% wrong, but religious people were more likely to say wrong (44%) than right (37%), while the no religion group was strongly inclined to say right (63% compared with 20% wrong). Muslims (64%), Baptists (55%), and Sikhs (54%) were especially prone to regard same-sex marriage as wrong, as were the self-assessed religious (54%), and those deriving guidance from religious leaders (67%), their religion (59%), religious teachings (58%), or God (57%). Excluding don’t knows, Christians divided 56% wrong and 44% right.

Overall, 44% of Britons disapproved of the opposition to same-sex marriage of the mainstream Christian Churches, with 33% choosing to back the Churches, and 23% uncertain. Hostility to the Churches’ stance against same-sex marriage was notable among Labour and Liberal Democrat voters (54% and 56% respectively), the 18-24s (56%), Scots (52%), degree-holders (54%), those professing no religion (60%), definite disbelievers in God (60%), and those whose lives were guided by science (55%). Agreement with the Churches’ line was concentrated among Conservatives (46%), the over-60s (51%), Baptists (60%), Muslims (52%), the self-styled religious (54%), individuals practising their faith (51%), definite believers in God (50%), and among those guided by religious leaders (65%), their religion (58%), religious teachings (57%), or God (56%).

Notwithstanding a tendency for people of faith to be disproportionately less disposed to same-sex marriage, among Christians who contended that same-sex marriage is wrong only 26% explicitly cited religion or scripture as the basis for their opposition. More common explanations of their position were the assertion that marriage should be between a man and a woman (79%), the claim that same-sex marriage would undermine the traditional family of a mother and a father (63%), and the conviction that it is not the best context in which to bring up children (52%). Christians who regarded same-sex marriage as right viewed the matter in terms of equality (77%) and the non-exclusivity of faithful love to heterosexual couples (70%).

It should be remembered that the fieldwork for this YouGov poll took place immediately before the Second Reading debate on the Bill on 5 February, when the salience of same-sex marriage was very high in respect of public opinion and the media. It is possible that views have shifted somewhat since, because either a) the salience of the issue has dropped, b) the fall-out from the Cardinal O’Brien affair in Scotland has made Church lobbying against the Bill somewhat less credible in England and Wales, or c) some Christians accept the inevitability of the Bill becoming law, given the substantial Commons majority at Second Reading.

On the last point, it is certainly the case that the Churches have had to accommodate themselves to all manner of things over the years which instinctively they did not like the sound of. These include civil partnerships which, however lauded by most Church leaders now (as justification for same-sex marriage not being needed), were widely opposed by people of faith at the time of their introduction.

Politics, ethnicity, and religion

Lord Ashcroft has taken advantage of the forty-fifth anniversary of Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech on immigration to commission Populus to undertake a survey of black and minority ethnic (BME) opinions on politics and multiculturalism. Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,035 BME Britons aged 18 and over between 22 March and 15 April 2013, comprising 501 Muslims, 150 Hindus, 100 Sikhs, 265 affiliates of other faiths, and a mere 18 persons (2%) professing no religion. Results, with breaks by religion, were published on 19 April in the form of both summary and full tables, available at:

http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lord-Ashcroft-Ethnic-Minority-Voters-poll-summary-April-2013.pdf

http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ethnic-minority-survey-April-2013-full-tables.pdf

The economic situation was viewed as the most important issue facing the country by most BMEs, including 57% of Muslims, 57% of Hindus, and 60% of Sikhs. Muslims and Sikhs had more confidence in the Labour team (Ed Miliband and Ed Balls) than the Conservative team (David Cameron and George Osborne) to manage the economy, 54% versus 30% for Muslims, and 51% versus 41% for Sikhs. Hindus, by contrast, placed more trust in the Conservative than Labour team (51% compared with 43%). A majority of Muslims (51%) and a plurality of Hindus (45%) and Sikhs (46%) also thought that Labour had the best plans for dealing with Britain’s overall problems.

Majorities of the three religious groups agreed that ‘if you work hard, it is possible to be very successful in Britain, no matter what your background’ (68% of Muslims, 73% of Hindus, and 70% of Sikhs). They also felt that their children’s lives would be better than theirs (57%, 60%, and 62% respectively), and – overwhelmingly – that Britain had become a multicultural nation (88%, 91%, and 88%). The Labour Party and its leader were seen as most supportive of multiculturalism by all three faith communities, followed by the Liberal Democrats, and with the Conservatives last. Most Muslims (62%) and Hindus (55%) had never heard of Enoch Powell, but the proportion was less (38%) for Sikhs, albeit only 40% even of these knew who Powell was and what he had said. Somewhat ironically, 32% of Muslims, 37% of Hindus, and 49% of Sikhs thought immigration into Britain had been ‘a bad thing’.

Jews and the news

The BBC is by far the most important provider of terrestrial television news (88% in the past seven days) and online news (52% in the past seven days) for British Jews, but the vast majority (79%, rising to 93% of Conservative voters) consider BBC news coverage to be biased against Israel (36% heavily so and 43% somewhat). Only 14% regard the coverage as generally balanced. In terms of newspapers, The Times and Sunday Times are the most widely read titles (46% of Jews having read the print version and 23% the online version during the previous week), as was also the case in 1995.

These are among the headlines from a report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research which was published on 15 April 2013. Coincidentally, they are appearing at the same time as it was announced that James Harding, the Jewish former editor of The Times, has been appointed as the BBC’s new director of current affairs and news. David Graham’s Jews and the News: News Consumption Habits and Opinions of Jews in Britain is available at:

http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/JPR%20Jewish%20news%20media%20report%20final.pdf

As is acknowledged in the introduction, the research now entering the public domain is actually relatively old, being undertaken between 7 January and 14 February 2010 among a self-selecting sample of 4,081 British Jews who completed an online questionnaire hosted by Ipsos MORI. Although the data have been weighted by synagogue membership, secular-religious outlook, and educational attainment, it is conceded that they may over-represent individuals interested in politics and international affairs. BRIN has already covered the first report from the survey (2010), dealing with the attitudes of British Jews toward Israel, at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/jewish-attitudes-toward-israel/

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Ethnicity, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Religion in the Press, Survey news | Tagged BBC, David Graham, economy, Enoch Powell, ethnic minorities, Hindus, homosexuality, Institute for Jewish Policy Research, Ipsos-MORI, Israel, Jews, Linda Woodhead, Lord Ashcroft, multiculturalism, Muslims, news, politics. Populus, same-sex marriage, Sikhs, The Times, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | Leave a comment

Sunday Activities and Other News

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Today’s post highlights four recent opinion polls, touching on the use of Sundays, the religious state of Scotland, and reactions to the funeral arrangements for the late Baroness Thatcher.

Sunday activities

Sunday has largely become a day dominated by secular routines, according to an online survey conducted by OnePoll in late March 2013 (the week before Easter Sunday) on behalf of the pub chain Chef & Brewer, and kindly made available to BRIN by the Spirit Pub Company. The sample comprised 2,000 UK adults aged 18 and over. Of these, 62% said that they usually spent their Sundays catching up on domestic chores (36% stating they did the bulk of those chores on Sundays, and 41% that they would be ‘lost’ if they did not have Sunday as a catch-up day); 31% shopped (33% considering that Sunday opening of shops had made their lives easier); and 16% went to work.

The average number of ‘little jobs’ done on a Sunday was 16, with only 5% doing none and 39% performing eleven or more. The commonest chores included: washing up (42%), tidying up (41%), clothes washing (39%), hanging out washing (29%), drying up (29%), vacuuming (26%), and ironing (21%). Most time was reckoned to be taken up by tidying the house (30%) and cooking Sunday lunch (25%). Two-fifths (42%) felt annoyed that they never had chance to unwind and really relax on a Sunday, and 54% felt bogged down with the amount of jobs they had to do at the weekend.

Nevertheless, 53% described Sunday as mostly a day of rest for them (more so for men, 57%, than women, 49%), with 77% thinking that the balance of their day still inclined towards relaxation, and just 8% reckoning Sunday to be the busiest day of their week. For 60% Sunday provided an opportunity for spending quality time with friends and family, and for 42% to catch up on sleep. Some also recharged the spiritual batteries. Although, in reply to question 10, 15% claimed that they ‘usually’ went to a place of worship on Sunday, fewer (7%) admitted to worshipping ‘pretty much every Sunday’ in answer to question 4. The second figure is likely to be the more realistic; it represented 6% of men versus 9% of women, and 12% of the over-55s compared with around 5% of younger cohorts.

Scottish faith

Scotland, formerly renowned for its religiosity relative to England, continues to be in the grip of secularizing tendencies, according to the latest opinion poll, conducted by Panelbase for the Sunday Times Scotland and Real Radio Scotland. The sample comprised 1,002 Scots aged 18 and over interviewed online between 18 and 25 March 2013. Some results were published in two articles (by Jason Allardyce and Gillian Bowditch) in the Sunday Times Scotland for 31 March 2013, while the full data tables can be found at:

http://www.panelbase.com/news/Religionforpublication020413.pdf

Asked whether they ‘belonged’ to any religion, 39% of Scots said that they did not, including 54% of men aged 18-34 and even more, 60%, of women in the same cohort. Church of Scotland adherents numbered 32%, Roman Catholics 13%, other Christians 10%, and non-Christians 4%. Christians amounted to 55%, rising, for men, from 34% among the 18-34s to 70% of the over-55s, and for women from 33% to 78%. The proportion of Christians is ten points down on the 2001 population census, and the trend is expected to be confirmed when the 2011 Scottish census results are released later this year.

Less than one-third (30%) were convinced that Jesus Christ was a real person who died and came back to life and was the Son of God, the proportion being highest among Catholics (67%) and lowest for women aged 18-34 (17%). 44% answered the question in the negative (58% of men and 54% of women aged 18-34), and 27% were uncertain what to think.

Rites of passage excepted, two-thirds of the sample never attended public worship or had not done so for more than a year, peaking at 87% of those professing no religion and 74% of women aged 18-34. 8% claimed to have attended within the last week and a further 8% within the past month. The majority (77%) said that the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the former leader of the Scottish Catholics, and his admission of sexually inappropriate behaviour would make no difference to their churchgoing, but 20% stated that they would now be less likely to attend church; there was no difference between Catholics and non-Catholics in this respect.

Unsurprisingly, 62% of all Scots wanted Pope Francis I to move the Roman Catholic Church in new directions (76% of Catholics), against 10% who desired him to maintain the Church’s traditional positions (18%), with 28% having no view (5%). Overall, 63% of Scots wanted the Church to get tougher with abusers (57% of Catholics), 61% to become more accepting of artificial contraception (55%), 55% to become more modern (54%), 54% to allow priests to marry (43%), 54% to become more open (53%), 44% to become more accepting in general (47%), 41% to become more accepting of homosexuality (27%), and 40% to become more accepting of abortion (18%).

Funeral of Mrs Thatcher

The country is as divided about the late Baroness Thatcher in the aftermath of her death as it was during her lifetime. One-half of the 1,893 British adults interviewed by YouGov online for The Sun on 8 and 9 April 2013 thought that it is right that she be given a full ceremonial funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral this coming Wednesday (17 April). Predictably, the proportion rose to 85% among Conservatives and 60% of UKIP supporters but dropped to 25% among Labour voters and 38% of Scots. Those thinking it wrong that she be given such a funeral numbered 32%, including 58% of Labourites and 45% in Scotland, with 18% expressing no view (possibly reflecting the fact that fieldwork took place in the immediate aftermath of Mrs Thatcher’s death, before people had the chance to think matters through). Full data table available on page 4 at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/jx8g4k4srj/YouGov-Sun-results-Thatcher-legacy-130409.pdf

A second YouGov poll, this time for the Sunday Times on 11 and 12 April 2013 among 1,981 Britons, asked a similar question but offered clarification of what was meant by a ‘ceremonial funeral’ at St Paul’s Cathedral (in contrast to a ‘state funeral’, as would be accorded to a monarch) and included different reply options. On this occasion, 42% of respondents preferred that Baroness Thatcher receive a ceremonial but not a state funeral, including 70% of Conservatives and 52% of Liberal Democrat and UKIP voters, and 73% of those who ranked Thatcher as ‘a great Prime Minister’. A further 8% (13% of Conservatives and 21% of those admiring her as ‘a great Prime Minister’) wanted her to have a state funeral, with 43% arguing that she should have neither a state nor a ceremonial funeral (70% for Labourites alone), and 8% undecided. Full data table on pages 21-2 at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/e4m8mi50q2/YG-Archive-Pol-Sun-results-120413.pdf

Posted in church attendance, Religion and Politics, Religion in the Press, Survey news | Tagged ceremonial funeral, Chef & Brewer, church attendance, Gillian Bowditch, Jesus Christ, Keith O'Brien, Margaret Thatcher, OnePoll, Panelbase, Pope Francis I, Real Radio Scotland, Religious Affiliation, Roman Catholic Church, Scotland, St Paul's Cathedral, Sunday activities, Sunday Times, Sunday Times Scotland, The Sun, YouGov | Leave a comment

Religious Slaughter and Male Circumcision

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Clive D. Field

In what will be seen by some as a blow to the dietary laws and rituals of Jews and Muslims alike, 45% of adult Britons say they would support a ban on the religious slaughter of animals, whereby they are not pre-stunned, a practice known as shechita by Jews and dhabihah by Muslims, which both faith communities regard as humane but which many people concerned about animal welfare do not.

Opponents of a ban number 27% (with a high of 31% in London, where many Jews and Muslims are to be found), with 28% uncertain what to think (including one-third of women, the under-40s, and Scots). The most significant demographic variation is the overwhelming majority of prospective UKIP voters (71%) who are in favour of a ban (compared with 48% of Conservatives, 40% of Labourites, and 36% of Liberal Democrats). A majority (52%) of the over-60s also backs a ban.

The findings derive from an online survey conducted by YouGov, on behalf of the Jewish Chronicle, on 21 and 22 March 2013 among a sample of 1,937 adult Britons. Headline results were published on pp. 1-2 of the 29 March print edition of the newspaper, although the online version contains only the text of the article by Simon Rocker and not the associated table; see:

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/103895/forty-five-cent-britons-ready-ban-shechita

The full tables will be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/fo6vyles56/YG-Archive-Jewish-Chronicle-results-220313-religious-slaughter-circumcision.pdf

So far as BRIN can determine, there has been only one previous poll touching on the religious slaughter of animals, undertaken by NOP Market Research in July 1987, and the question was very different. On that occasion, 92% of Britons agreed that ‘all animals to be slaughtered for food should first be humanely stunned to prevent pain, no matter whether their meat is intended for Christians, Muslims or Jews’ (Political, Social, Economic Review, No. 68, January 1988, p. 6).

By contrast, YouGov’s question seems rather less clear: ‘would you support or oppose a ban on religious slaughter of animals, such as that used in the production of kosher meat?’ Apart from containing no definition of what ‘kosher meat’ is, the question also conspicuously fails to mention that religious slaughter requires that animals are not pre-stunned and that they might suffer pain. Had this fact been explained, it seems highly probable that the level of opposition to religious slaughter reported by YouGov would have been significantly greater.

The YouGov/Jewish Chronicle survey also asked the sample whether they would support a ban on male circumcision for religious reasons (known as brit milah to Jews, although the question mentioned no particular faith context). In reply, 38% said they would (with only a minor gender difference – 39% of men, 37% of women), 35% were against (39% in London), and 27% were unsure. Once again, UKIP voters especially stood out as endorsing a ban (51%), followed by the over-60s on 45%.

The fact that UKIP sympathizers are so prominent in wanting to see both these religious rituals banned might suggest that the division of opinion on this issue is more complicated than one between defenders of religious tradition and freedom on the one hand and ‘liberals’ promoting the abolition of perceived inhumane and unnecessary customs on the other. Perhaps those who are drawn to UKIP tend to regard both practices as alien and ‘unBritish’ and/or there is a degree of implicit anti-Semitism at work.

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion in the Press, Survey news | Tagged animals, brit milah, circumcision, dhabihah, Jewish Chronicle, Judaism, kosher meat, men, rituals, shechita, Simon Rocker, slaughter, UKIP, YouGov | 2 Comments

Easter Day with the Sunday Times

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Just a fortnight after its last batch of questions on religion, the Sunday Times has taken advantage of its Easter Day publication to include another module in its weekly online omnibus poll conducted by YouGov. On this occasion, 1,918 Britons aged 18 and over were interviewed on 27 and 28 March 2013. Headline findings are shown below, with full data tables available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/j6bqjztt81/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-280313.pdf

Dipesh Gadher has an article about the poll (‘Out-of-Touch Church Gets Public Warning’) in the print edition of today’s newspaper (p. 20 of the main section). This mentions that a similar poll was conducted for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times, among an Irish sample, but BRIN has yet to see this.

Importance of religion

31% say that religion is important in their own lives, and this is especially true of the over-60s (42%), Londoners (41%), and Christians (68%, with 82% for Catholics alone). The majority (66%) admits that religion is not important, the middle-aged (40-59 years) being particularly likely to say so (71%).

Generational change in religiosity

39% of respondents assess that they are less religious than their parents are or were, the number being highest among Liberal Democrat voters (46%), and among the over-60s and Scots (44% in each case). 10% feel they are more religious than their parents, including 15% of the 18-24s and Londoners, and 19% of Christians. Apart from the 10% who did not give an explicit answer, the remainder see themselves as equally religious (15%) or equally irreligious (27%) as their parents.

God

38% say they believe there is a God, disproportionately women (44%, against 32% of men), over-60s (48%, compared with 29% of 18-24s), and Christians (77%, including 86% of Catholics). A further 21% do not believe in a God but do believe there is some sort of spiritual higher power, while 30% do not believe in either, and 11% are uncertain what to think.

Jesus Christ

30% accept that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (36% of women, 39% of over-60s, and 66% of Christians or 81% for Catholics alone). 39% think that He was probably not the Son of God but was nevertheless a real historical religious leader, leaving 13% who doubt His existence (23% of 18-24s, 18% of men, and even 2% of Christians) and 18% who hold other views or none at all.

Under one-third (31%) believe that Christ came back to life after His crucifixion, ranging by age from 19% of 18-24s to 42% of over-60s, with 68% for all Christians and 84% for Catholics. A plurality (47%) does not appear to believe in the Resurrection, becoming a majority among 18-24s (58%), men (56%) and Conservative voters (54%), with 22% undecided. A minority of Christians disbelieve – 16%, being 20% for Anglicans and 11% for Catholics. Believers in the Resurrection are much reduced from polls in the 1990s and 2000s, when the proportion averaged one-half.

Churchgoing

Apart from the rites of passage, 7% claim to attend a place of worship on a weekly basis (but 10% in London and among the over-60s and 18% for Christians) and a further 6% at least monthly. 29% say they go less frequently and 55% never, the latter figure being highest in Scotland (61%) and the Midlands and Wales(60%) and lowest for Christians (19%, particularly Catholics on 13%).

A religious country?

Only 29% consider that Britain can still be deemed a religious country, of whom one-quarter (7% overall but 13% of 18-24s and 11% of Scots) regard this as a bad thing. 16% assess that Britain is no longer a religious country and welcome the fact, including 22% of the 25-39 age cohort. 26% say that Britain is no longer religious but regret it, rising to 43% of prospective UKIP voters, 42% of Christians, and 39% of over-60s. 28% give other answers or none at all.

Trust in clergy

54% have a great deal or fair amount of trust in priests, vicars, and other clergy to tell the truth, rising to 73% among Christians, with 40% having little or no trust in them. Clergy are the sixth equal most trusted profession on a list of eighteen occupations, the range being from 83% for family doctors to 13% for estate agents.

Church of England

31% contend that the Church of England is doing a good job in providing moral leadership, over-60s (38%) and Christians (55%) being especially inclined to think so (54% for Anglicans). A majority (54%, including 65% of Liberal Democrats, who are committed to disestablishment, and 37% of Anglicans) rates it as doing a bad job, with 16% unsure.

Still more, 69%, feel that the Church of England is out of touch, with particular highs for UKIP voters (75%) and Scots (76%). Even 53% of Christians take this line. Just 21% of all adults view the Church as being in touch, and no more than 28% of over-60s and 41% of Anglicans. 10% express no opinion on the subject.

A plurality (49%) say the Church of England is wrong to oppose same-sex marriage, including 66% of 18-24s, 63% of Liberal Democrats, 60% of Scots, and even 37% of Anglicans. 37% support the Church’s position, with 57% for the over-60s and 52% of Anglicans. 13% are undecided.

78% feel that the Church of England should allow women bishops, including 89% of Liberal Democrats, 85% of Anglicans, 83% of Conservatives, 82% of women and Scots. Opponents of women bishops number 9% overall but 19% of Catholics, 15% of UKIP supporters, and 13% of Londoners. 13% do not know what to think.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Only 28% correctly identify Rowan Williams as the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, the best score – apart from Anglicans (and they only on 38%) – being recorded by Conservatives (35%). Ignorance is especially marked in Scotland (82%). Fewer (19%) can identify Justin Welby as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, leaving 81% unable to do so, including 71% of his own flock.

Pope

36% are optimistic that the new Pope, Francis I, will do a good job, with Catholics (71%), Christians generally (50%), Liberal Democrats (46%), Scots (44%), Londoners (43%), and over-60s (41%) most hopeful. Unsurprisingly, 53% are unable to express a view at such an early stage in his pontificate, albeit 11% have already seen, read or heard enough to predict that he will do a bad job (including 20% of 18-24s).

Posted in church attendance, Religion in the Press, Survey news | Tagged Archbishop of Canterbury, church attendance, Church of England, Dipesh Gadher, Easter, God, homosexuality, importance of religion, in touch, Jesus Christ, Justin Welby, moral leadership, out of touch, parents, Pope Francis I, religious country, Resurrection, Rowan Williams, same-sex marriage, self-assessed religiosity, Son of God, Sunday Times, trust in clergy, women bishops, YouGov | 1 Comment

Winter 2013 Cpanel

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The results of two modules from the winter 2013 Cpanel of churchgoers have been released by their sponsors this Eastertide, doubtless in a bid to grab the public’s attention at a time of year when religion has traditionally taken centre stage.

Premier Christian Radio module – image of the Church

Two-thirds of practising UK Christians believe that the Christian Church in the UK needs a new image, with only 14% saying that its current image is fine. This is according to a module from the winter Cpanel study by ComRes for Premier Christian Radio, which was published on 29 March 2013, and for which 535 churchgoers aged 18 and over were interviewed online between 18 January and 4 February 2013. Data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_Cpanel_Results_Church_Image_Feb_2013.pdf

Although just 22% of practising Christians consider that the Church should spend money on advertising in a bid to improve its image, with 67% opposed, follow-on questions were still asked about an advertising campaign for the Church. Television (29%) and social media sites (17%) are viewed as being potentially the most effective places to carry the Christian message. Almost half (45%) accept that such a campaign would benefit from the involvement of a celebrity, but 34% disagree. A similar number (42%, including 61% of Anglicans) think that the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, might help improve the Church’s image.

These practising Christians tend to cast the media as the villains of the piece. The overwhelming majority (83%) consider that the UK media unfairly represent the Christian Church, while 85% assert that the media portray the Church in a negative light. By contrast, hardly anybody seems to fault local places of worship; indeed, only 10% concede that they are unwelcoming, with 88% saying the opposite.

Coalition for Marriage module – same-sex marriage

The same sense of churchgoers feeling somewhat embattled is carried over into a second module from the same Cpanel study, this time sponsored by the Coalition for Marriage (C4M), which was published on 30 March 2013. The data tables for this can be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/C4M_Cpanel_Results_Feb_2013.pdf

There are a few general questions about the challenges perceived to be facing Christianity in the UK. A large majority (76%) of these practising Christians is critical of the Government for failing to give sufficient protection to the rights of Christians to exercise their freedom of religious expression, while 67% contend that they sometimes or often feel a member of ‘a persecuted minority’ because of constraints on religious expression (albeit 29% disagree). A similar proportion (71%) says that they will vote for a party or candidate promising to give more protection to the rights of Christians to practice their faith more openly.

However, the main purpose of the C4M module was to test the attitudes of churchgoers to same-sex marriage, on the eve of the Second Reading in the House of Commons of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales. This took place on 5 February, with the Cpanel fieldwork finishing the day before, so these data do not tell us whether churchgoing opinion has changed at all in the light of the very substantial majority for the Bill at Second Reading.

The newly-reported findings are broadly in line with those obtained in previous Cpanel enquiries on the subject, in June-July 2012 and October 2011, thereby suggesting that churchgoers are overwhelmingly against the legalization of same-sex marriage, although (strangely) an overt question along these lines was not actually asked. Some key results include:

92% disagree that people who oppose same-sex marriage are bigots
85% agree that marriage should continue to be defined as an exclusive commitment between a man and a woman
83% disagree that keeping civil partnership and marriage separate worsens public attitudes towards gay people
77% agree that legalization of same-sex marriage might lead to more cases of dismissal or demotion of employees who hold traditional views about marriage
76% agree that many people who would oppose same-sex marriage are reluctant to say so for fear of being called a bigot
73% disagree that once same-sex marriage is legalized most opponents will change their minds
53% want a national referendum to decide the issue

Attitudes of churchgoers towards Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Party (for which 38% recalled they had voted at the 2010 general election) seem generally negative on account of the move to legalize same-sex marriage:

77% disagree that Cameron has been in listening mode on the issue
69% disagree that same-sex marriage will help the Conservative Party win at the next general election
67% think that Cameron’s plan to legalize same-sex marriage has more to do with making the Conservative Party look modern than stemming from his personal convictions
46% agree that they would have considered voting Conservative at the next election but will definitely not do so if same-sex marriage is legalized

Some may feel these implied ‘threats’ to wreak electoral ‘revenge’ on the Conservative Party at the next general election are rather disagreeable tactics for practising Christians to be identified with. Be that as it may, the ‘threats’ may well prove to be empty ones, for much psephological opinion seems to suggest that, whatever people may say between elections, few actually cast their vote at an election on the basis of a single issue.

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged advertising, Archbishop of Canterbury, C4M, churchgoers, Coalition for Marriage, ComRes, Conservative Party, Cpanel, David Cameron, freedom of religious expression, government, homosexuality, image of the Church, Justin Welby, local places of worship, media, Premier Christian Radio, rights of Christians, same-sex marriage, voting | Leave a comment

Two YouGov Pre-Easter Polls

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Our focus today is on the headlines from two newly-released YouGov polls, one Easter-related and one not (being the latest instalment of data from the Westminster Faith Debates survey).

Easter observance

Around 6,000,000 British adults should be in church congregations in a few days’ time, on Easter Sunday, if they act upon the intentions announced in the latest YouGov EuroTrack survey, conducted online between 21 and 27 March 2013 among representative samples in Great Britain (n = 2,047) and six other western European nations, and published on 28 March. For 12% of Britons said that they planned to go to church on Easter Day, including – somewhat implausibly – 20% of non-Christians and 3% of those professing no religion.

The press release for the poll can be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ksrmk6dw12/EuroTrackEaster.pdf

and the full data tables at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/eh65gpse1v/YG-Archive_Eurotrack-March-Cyprus-EU-representatives-Easter.pdf

The real number of Easter Day worshippers is likely to be an absolute maximum of half that six million. Unfortunately, the Church of England is the only major denomination routinely to report its Easter Day attendances, which were 1,395,000 in 2010 (the latest year available). However, this total will have included children and young people under 16, so the number of adults worshipping in Anglican churches on Easter Day was perhaps no more than 1,100,000. Even if we factor in other Protestants and Catholics, it seems hard to imagine that more than 3,000,000 British adults worship on Easter Day in a ‘good’ year (when the weather is favourable, which it certainly will not be in 2013), and perhaps considerably less.

As often happens with surveys on religion, therefore, YouGov’s respondents probably gave somewhat aspirational answers, reflecting what they felt they ought to be doing to celebrate this high point in the Christian calendar. Besides the 12%, a further 3% said that they would not go to church on Easter Day itself but would do so on another Sunday near Easter. The combined Easter churchgoing score of 15% reached 29% for Christians alone. The national figure was four points lower than in Germany (19%), equal to that in France, and higher than in Norway (13%), Denmark (11%), Sweden (10%), and Finland (10%).

Asked to identify the most important part of Easter for them, a plurality of Britons (47%) said spending time with friends and family, with still more (49%) for Christians alone. This was followed, a long way behind, by having time off work (19%) and, in third place, by the religious significance of the festival, the crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ (15%, albeit 30% for Christians). Even so, more chose the religious option in Britain than in any of the other six countries surveyed, France and Germany being closest on 13%, and falling to 5% in Denmark.

Remarkably few Britons (2%) selected exchanging Easter eggs as the most important part of Easter. Nevertheless, in a separate YouGov poll (undertaken on 26 and 27 March with a sample of 1,867), 60% of adults indicated that they expected to buy at least one large chocolate egg this Easter and 46% to eat at least one. A very keen 8% (which would certainly have included yours truly) thought that Easter eggs should be on sale throughout the entire year. These tabulations are online at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/8imm4jy58r/YG-Archive-Easter-results-130327.pdf

Family issues

The family-centric nature of Easter revealed in our first poll neatly aligns with the release, on 27 March, of the results from the family module of the YouGov survey commissioned by Linda Woodhead for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, in which 4,437 adult Britons were interviewed online between 25 and 30 January 2013. The data tables can be found at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/hai8zqy0i7/YG-Archive-University-of-Lancaster-300113-faith-matters-family-debate.pdf

and a press release at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/press_release_westminster_faith_debate_4_old_tory_men_have_the_narrowest_view_of_family

The first question listed 13 different models of human relationships and asked respondents whether they considered each to constitute a ‘family’ or not. A majority were found to have a fairly narrow view of the family as a biological unit, such as married or cohabiting couples with children, but sizeable proportions also took a broader view of the family, including definitions which did not involve marriage or the presence of children.

People professing a faith differed little in their replies from the population as a whole, even when it came to definitions based on household units comprising same-sex couples with or without children. The main exception was the sub-set of the religious whose authority in life derived from God or religious teachings, who tended to take a narrow view of the family, whereas those having no religion inclined to take a broader view.

The second question outlined eight changes affecting the family and asked whether they were perceived as good or bad for society. In each case, a majority or plurality of replies opted for the neutral (neither good nor bad) position. However, it was noticeable that, with one exception, people of faith who currently engaged in some form of public religious activity took a more conservative line than adults in general. The percentages saying that each scenario was bad for society were as follows:

	All adults	Religiously active
More women never having children	21	30
More unmarried couples raising children	22	37
More single women having children without a male partner	58	68
More gay and lesbian couples raising children	31	41
More people living together without getting married	18	35
More mothers of young children working outside the home	24	33
More people of different races marrying each other	9	8
More couples living ‘together apart’	38	48

This conservatism among the practising faithful is seen by the public particularly to play out in the relatively cool reception which most Christian churches in the UK are thought to give to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (LGBs). Whereas 80% of all adults consider the churches to welcome married couples with children, 76% married couples without children, and 74% single persons, only 21% feel they embrace LGBs, with 53% claiming that churches are unwelcoming to LGBs. Three-tenths also believe churches are unwelcoming to divorced people.

Those without faith are especially critical of the lack of welcome perceived to be given to LGBs by the churches (62%), but even many of the religious seem to admit that the criticism is well-founded. Thus, 43% of the practising religious accept that churches are mostly unwelcoming to LGBs, six points more than deny it. In particular, majorities of both professing Catholics (58%) and practising Catholics (55%) agree that churches do not welcome LGBs, which is doubtless (in part) a reflection of the vigorous line which the Catholic Church has recently been taking against same-sex marriage.

Posted in church attendance, Religion and Social Capital, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged church attendance, Denmark, Easter, Easter eggs, Eurotrack, family, Finland, France, Germany, homosexuality, lesbian gay and bisexual people, Linda Woodhead, Norway, religious festivals, Sweden, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | Leave a comment

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2011 Anglican Statistics and Other News

Assisted Dying and Other News

Profile of Anglicans and Other News

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Sunday Activities and Other News

Religious Slaughter and Male Circumcision

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Winter 2013 Cpanel

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