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Counting Religion in Britain, April 2016

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Clive D. Field

Counting Religion in Britain, No. 7, April 2016 features 23 new sources. It can be read in full below. Alternatively, you can download the PDF version: No 7 April 2016

OPINION POLLS

Muslim voices

Opinion polls conducted among British Muslims have a habit of sparking controversy. No sooner had the storm died down surrounding a telephone survey by Survation for The Sun, specifically regarding the latter’s presentation of the results, than another blew up around a poll by ICM Unlimited for Channel 4, for which 1,081 Muslims aged 18 and over were interviewed face-to-face (in the home) between 25 April and 31 May 2015. Respondents were drawn from Lower Super Output Areas where at least 20% of the population in the 2011 census was Muslim, using random location, quota-based sampling.

Some Muslim commentators (such as Miqdaad Versi in The Guardian and Maha Akeel in The Independent) subsequently criticized this sampling methodology as ‘skewed’ toward Muslims of a lower socio-economic status, but Martin Boon, ICM Director, robustly defended his company’s approach, arguing that this was ‘the most rigorous survey of Muslims that has been produced for many years’. ICM has further published a detailed account of its methodology at:

http://www.icmunlimited.com/data/media/pdf/Survey%20of%20Muslims_Sampling%20approach.pdf

As an additional cross-check, a significant sub-set of the 53 questions posed to Muslims was put to what ICM described as a ‘control group’ of 1,008 adult Britons interviewed by telephone on 5-7 June 2015. The 615 pages of data tables comprised breaks by demographics and attitudinal types both for the Muslim sample and the control group, together with a topline comparison of the two samples in respect of the questions which were common to both. The breaks for the control group included religious affiliation. These data tables will be found at:

http://www.icmunlimited.com/data/media/pdf/Mulims-full-suite-data-plus-topline.pdf

The poll was commissioned by Channel 4 in connection with its documentary What British Muslims Really Think, which was screened on 13 April 2016 and presented by Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. However, results were fed into the media a few days earlier, notably through two lengthy and hard-hitting articles by Phillips in Sunday Times Magazine (10 April) and Daily Mail (11 April). In them, Phillips suggested that Muslims had become ‘a nation within a nation, with its own geography, its own values, and its own very separate future’, requiring ‘a far more muscular approach to integration’, replacing the failed policy of multiculturalism, if they were to be successfully incorporated into the mainstream.

The overwhelming majority of British Muslims judged Britain to be a good place to live (88%) and had a sense of belonging to the country (86%). This is notwithstanding a perceived growing problem of Islamophobia, with 40% assessing there was more religious prejudice against Muslims than five years ago and 17% reporting a personal experience of harassment because of their religion in their local area over the past two years. The overall positivity toward Britain is almost certainly linked to the feeling of 94% of Muslims that they are able to practice their faith here.

At the same time, there is a wish of Muslims to retain a certain distance from the wider society; while 49% would like to integrate fully with non-Muslims in all aspects of life, 46% wanted some degree of separation in favour of an Islamic life. Moreover, as the table below demonstrates, there is a significant amount of rejection by Muslims of values which have become normative among most non-Muslims. Equality and diversity with regard to gender and sexual orientation are heavily compromised by social conservatism, there is a disproportionate adherence to anti-Semitic views, and subscription to freedom of speech is qualified when Islam is felt to be under attack or criticism.

% agreeing	Muslims	Control group
Gender equality
Girls and boys should be taught separately	33	10
Muslim girls should have the right to wear niqab in school	64	37
Acceptable for a British Muslim to keep more than one wife	31	9
Wives should always obey their husbands	39	5
Homosexuality
Acceptable for homosexual to be a schoolteacher	28	75
Homosexuality should be legal in Britain	18	73
Gay marriage should be legal in Britain	16	66
Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is a problem in Britain	26	46
Jewish people have too much power in Britain	35	9
Jewish people have too much power over the government	31	7
Jewish people have too much power over the media	39	10
Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country	42	24
Jews have too much power in the business world	44	18
Jews have too much power in international financial markets	40	16
Jews still talk too much about the Holocaust	34	18
Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind	34	11
Jews have too much control over global affairs	38	10
Jews think they are better than other people	30	11
Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars	26	6
People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave	27	11
Freedom of speech
Sympathize with groups who organize violence to protect their religion	24	7
Sympathize with people who use violence against those who mock the Prophet	18	NA
Any publication should have the right to publish pictures of the Prophet	4	67
Any publication should have the right to publish pictures making fun of the Prophet	1	47

Islamist threat to London

In the wake of the Islamist attacks on Paris and Brussels, the majority (61%) of 1,017 Londoners interviewed online by YouGov for the Evening Standard between 15 and 19 April 2016 remained anxious that Islamic State/ISIS may attempt a terrorist attack on the capital this year, concern running especially high with Conservative and UKIP voters. Overall anxiety had dropped by five points since the question was last put on 4-6 January, the fall occurring entirely among the ranks of the fairly worried, the very worried being unchanged at 25%. Asked which of the two leading candidates in the upcoming London mayoral election, Zac Goldsmith (Conservative) or Sadiq Khan (Labour and a Muslim), would be most likely to tackle Islamic extremism, 41% of the sample could offer no opinion, while 16% opted for Khan and 13% for Goldsmith, with 30% saying neither or both equally. Data tables can be accessed via a post about the general results of the survey (which revealed Khan well ahead of Goldsmith in terms of voting preferences) at:

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/04/21/sadiq-khan-leads-20-london-mayoral-race/

Anti-Semitism and the Labour Party

It was not just Muslim anti-Semitism which came under the spotlight during April 2016. At the end of the month, a long-simmering row about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party finally erupted, resulting in the Party suspending two of its prominent figures, one an MP and the other Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London who had risen to the MP’s defence. Livingstone has a track record of getting into anti-Semitic hot water, and 27% of 4,406 members of the British public interviewed online by YouGov on 29 April 2016 thought that he was very or fairly anti-Semitic, including 46% of Conservative voters and 39% of over-60s. Still more, 45% of the whole sample, considered the Labour Party had been right to suspend Livingstone, and this included 43% of Labour voters as well as 62% of Conservatives. Just over one-fifth (22%) of all Britons judged anti-Semitism to be a very or fairly big problem in the Labour Party, while 45% said it was only a small problem or none at all, with 33% undecided. Labour voters were less inclined (11%) to view it as a problem. A majority (60%) was clear that criticism of the Israeli government was not in itself anti-Semitic, merely 9% deeming it so. However, hating Israel and questioning its right to exist was regarded as anti-Semitic by 53%, against 21% who disagreed and 26% who could not make up their minds. The data are available in full via the link at:

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/04/30/drawing-line-anti-semitism/

British Social Attitudes Survey

Londoners are more religious than the rest of Britain, in terms of both belonging and behaving, according to fresh analysis by NatCen Social Research of data from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey. In 2014, the latest year available (the dataset and documentation for which is already held by the UK Data Archive as SN 7809), there was a 20 point difference in the proportion of respondents professing no religion between Londoners (32%) and the remainder of the country (52%), whereas in 1983, when BSA commenced, the gap had only been 5%. Of those with a religion, or brought up in a religion, twice as many Londoners (38%) claimed to attend religious services at least monthly in 2014 as people in the rest of Britain (19%). Immigration to the capital, by persons from both Christian and non-Christian backgrounds, largely explains these differences. In 2014, no fewer than 31% of Londoners subscribed to non-Christian faiths (a 9% increase on 2010), against just 4% elsewhere in the nation. In fact, there were almost as many non-Christians as Christians (37%) in London. A press release, with link to data tables, is available at:

http://www.natcen.ac.uk/news-media/press-releases/2016/march/londoners-are-more-religious-than-rest-of-britain/

Scottish Social Attitudes Survey

A majority (52%) of residents in Scotland says they belong to no religion, according to initial analysis by ScotCen Social Research of the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (SSAS) for 2015. This compares with 40% in the first SSAS in 1999. Although the proportion of Roman Catholics and other Christians in Scotland has held relatively steady over the years, there has been a big decline (from 35% in 1999 to 20% in 2015) in professed affiliation to the Church of Scotland. The non-Christian presence in Scotland is limited (2%). Among those with a religion, or brought up in a religion, attendance at religious services monthly or more has also fallen by 10% between 1999 (31%) and 2015 (21%), while 66% in 2015 admitted to never or practically never worshipping (49% in 1999). The latest SSAS interviewed a representative random probability sample of 1,288 adults in Scotland between July 2015 and January 2016. A press release, with link to data tables, is available at:

http://www.scotcen.org.uk/news-media/press-releases/2016/april/two-thirds-of-religious-scots-don’t-attend-services/

Church visits

An online poll by Populus for the Charities Aid Foundation on 19-21 February 2016 quizzed 2,054 UK adults about their engagement with charities, defined in the broadest sense, the principal finding being that almost every household has used at least one charitable service at some point. Churches or religious institutions of charitable status were one of the types of ‘charitable service’ asked about. The proportion of respondents claiming to have ever visited a church themselves (presumably, not necessarily for an act of worship) was 46% (half of them within the past year), which was two points less than those who had never done so. The number of ‘attenders’ was highest among Londoners (55%), public sector workers (56%), the top AB social group (57%), BMEs (57%), and members of households with a combined annual income of more than £55,000 (60%). Those least inclined to have set foot in a church came from the bottom social strata, characterized as being from the DE group (59%), members of households with a combined income of under £14,000 (59%), retired people living only on a state pension (61%), and council tenants (63%). Data tables can be found at:

http://www.populus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/OmValue-of-Charity-Shortv2.pdf

Referendum on European Union membership

One of the fascinating aspects of the campaign around Brexit, whether the UK should vote to leave the European Union (EU) in the forthcoming referendum on 23 June 2016, is the number of international leaders who have voiced their opinions that the UK should remain in the EU. These have included the Pope who has let it be known, through a senior Vatican diplomat, that he believes the UK would be better ‘in’ than ‘out’ and that it would also make for a stronger Europe. With President Barack Obama the latest world leader to wade into the debate, ITV News commissioned ComRes to conduct an online poll among 2,015 Britons on 20-21 April 2016. Respondents were asked how important to them were the views on the UK’s EU membership of eight leaders or institutions. As the table below indicates, the Pope’s opinion on this matter counted least of all with the electorate. Only 13% overall regarded what he thinks as important and no more than 20% among any demographic sub-group. Data tables are at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ITV-News_Obama-Poll_tabs.pdf

	Important	Unimportant
US President Barack Obama	30	60
HM The Queen	49	42
German Chancellor Angela Merkel	34	55
The Pope	13	77
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon	26	60
International Monetary Fund	48	37
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney	61	29
French President Francois Hollande	28	60

Religion and alcohol

Religion continues to exercise a marginal influence on alcohol consumption in the UK, according to recent research by Ipsos MORI on behalf of Drinkaware, for which 2,303 adults aged 18-75 were interviewed online between 16 November and 4 December 2015. Among the 10% of respondents who claimed that they never drank, 39% gave as a reason for abstinence that drinking alcohol was against their religious or spiritual beliefs, the remaining 61% saying that this was not an important factor for them. Of the 90% of drinkers, 9% reported that a change in their religious circumstances had occasioned a sustained decrease in their consumption of alcohol at some point and 1% an increase. However, for both groups the dominant influences on non-drinking behaviour were secular, such as health, finance, and being in personal control. A report about the research, Drinkaware Monitor, 2015, is available at:

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Publications/Drinkaware-Monitor-2015-%20Report.pdf

FAITH ORGANIZATION STUDIES

Faith-based charities

More than one-quarter (27%) of the 187,500 registered charities in Great Britain are faith-based, in the sense of embodying some form of religious belief – or cultural values arising from a religious belief – in their vision or mission, founding history, or project content. This is according to research by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), which has devised an improved methodology for identifying faith-based charities, employing a combination of existing classifications and automated text analysis of keywords. About two-thirds (65%) of these charities are categorized as Christian or deriving from a Christian tradition, 23% as generally faith-based, and 12% are associated with non-Christian faiths (mostly Islam or Judaism). Almost one-fifth have been formed since 2006. More information about NPC’s ongoing research into the effect of faith on the charitable sector, including a seven-page description of the methodology used to build the underlying dataset of charities, can be found at:

http://www.thinknpc.org/publications/understanding-faith-based-charities/

Faith in public service

A new report from the Oasis Foundation, the research and policy unit of the Oasis group of charities and social enterprises, calls for a rebranding and relaunch of the failed ‘Big Society’ initiative and especially upon the Christian Church in the UK to re-imagine its role and re-orientate itself more radically towards social action and the delivery of public services: Ian Sansbury, Ben Cowdrey, and Lea Kauffmann-de Vries, Faith in Public Service: The Role of the Church in Public Service Delivery. In building their case, the authors draw upon two online surveys conducted on 5-6 April 2016, one by YouGov among 1,710 members of the general public and the other by Oasis of 124 church leaders. The public was clearly ambivalent about the Church assuming a greater role in the delivery of public services. Some people recognized that the Church might be more likely to care than other providers, to add the personal touch, to be better connected to other community groups, and to be more motivated to do a good job. Others, however, worried that the Church might be insufficiently inclusive in its approach, attempting to make converts in the process or to shut out non-Christians or other minority groups. These concerns were held particularly by the 18-24 age group. For church leaders, capacity constraints were a major potential challenge, with only 28% confident that their church could run substantial public services such as education or healthcare. The report can be downloaded from:

http://oasis.foundation/sites/foundation.dd/files/Oasis%20Foundation%20Report%20FINAL%20RS.PDF

Data tables are at:

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ncm2584h0d/Oasis_Results160406_W.pdf

Christians and Brexit

One-half of practising Christians (including church leaders) believe that the UK should remain in the European Union (EU), according to an online survey conducted by Christian Research among members of its self-selecting Resonate panel during the first week of March 2016. Free movement of trade was cited as the main reason for their pro-EU stance, while many also considered the debate thus far had been too dominated by anti-immigration rhetoric. Just one-fifth intended to vote for Brexit in the forthcoming referendum on 23 June, mostly because they felt the EU to be too bureaucratic and wasteful or its laws threatened our sovereignty. The remaining 30% were undecided. Promoting peace was seen as the most important part of the EU’s mission by 61% of the sample, but its track-record for advancing religious freedom and tolerance was deemed ineffective by 56%. A press release about the survey (with a tiny amount of additional content available to logged-in Christian Research subscribers) can be found at:

http://www.christian-research.org/news-blog/brexit-and-mothering-sunday-survey/

Evangelical consumers

The March/April 2016 issue of Idea, the magazine of the Evangelical Alliance, contained some headline results from a 2015 survey of evangelical attitudes to ethics and consumerism, completed by 1,461 self-selecting members of the Alliance’s research panel. Four in five respondents (81%) concurred that greed for material possessions is one of the greatest sins of our time and 76% that consumerism is eroding family and community life. The advertising industry was widely blamed for this state of affairs, 67% wanting it more tightly regulated and 44% considering it was generally unethical. Although 92% of evangelicals accepted that the Bible teaches us to be content with what we have, 84% also thought there was nothing wrong in enjoying the material things God has provided for us. On Sunday trading, 59% said that Christians should avoid doing their shopping on Sundays, and just 5% backed longer opening hours for larger stores on Sundays. The magazine is available at:

http://www.eauk.org/idea/upload/idea_magazine_mar_april2016_webversion.pdf

Catholic prisoners

Self-professed Roman Catholics constitute a disproportionate number (18%) of the prison population of England and Wales. Insights into their religious background and engagement with the faith in prison are contained in a new 57-page report commissioned from Lemos & Crane by the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales: Gerard Lemos, Belief & Belonging: The Spiritual and Pastoral Role of Catholic Chaplains for Catholic Prisoners. All Catholic inmates at 17 prisons and young offender institutions in England were invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire, and 332 replied, of whom 86% were male. This was evidently a small minority of those approached, and the sample is not claimed by Lemos as statistically representative. It is possible that prisoners who were least well-disposed to the faith, or suspicious about the involvement of Catholic chaplains in the distribution of the survey, may have been less inclined to take part.

Respondents often had fairly close links with the Catholic Church in their pre-prison life, 82% stating they had attended Mass, 78% they had been baptised, 72% they had made their Communion, and 62% they had been confirmed. Within prison, 88% said they engaged in private prayer and 87% that they had a religious object (typically a rosary or picture) in their cell. Three-quarters wrote that they tried regularly to attend Mass in the prison chapel, albeit 24% had encountered practical or logistical problems in doing so. Favourable opinions were expressed of the Catholic chaplains, whom 94% trusted and 86% considered had helped them learn more about the faith or to practice it, with 58% having come to the chaplain with a specific problem or at a difficult time. The report can be downloaded from:

http://www.catholicnews.org.uk/belief-belonging-survey-040416

FutureFirst

The lead article in the April 2016 issue (No. 44) of FutureFirst, the bimonthly bulletin of Brierley Consultancy, was by Mark Griffiths on the subject of parental transmission of faith to children, based on his August 2015 online survey of members of the New Wine database, to which 1,500 parents responded. The remainder of the content was written by Peter Brierley, including articles on church growth, larger churches, churchgoing in London, Church of England mission statistics, and religion and wellbeing. A special four-page insert, also by Brierley, examined trends in UK church membership and attendance since 2000, with forecasts through to 2030. The current year of FutureFirst is only available on subscription, but a complete backfile from 2009 to 2015 is freely available at:

http://www.brierleyconsultancy.com/future-first/

Invisible Church

Steve Aisthorpe illuminates the persistence of Christianity beyond the confines of formal church membership and attendance in his The Invisible Church: Learning from the Experiences of Churchless Christians (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2016, x + 214pp, ISBN 978-0-86153-916-1, £14.99, paperback). The book is based on his original research in Scotland, initially qualitative (in 2013) and then quantitative among two random samples interviewed by telephone, 2,698 members of the general public in the Highlands and Islands in 2014 (of whom 430 non-attending Christians went on to complete a detailed survey) and 815 non-churchgoing Christians in 2015 across five regions. It is written in an accessible style, with cartoons, plenty of Bible references, individual stories, and remarkably few statistics (certainly there are no tables nor figures). The work seems primarily aimed at an ecclesiastical rather than academic readership, both church leaders and church attenders, with questions and activities for further reflection included. Much time is spent by Aisthorpe exposing what he regards as the myths, stereotypes, and prejudices surrounding non-churchgoers. The pervasive message of the volume is that, for many post-congregational and non-congregational Christians, faith continues to play a central role in their lives, even to the extent of a willingness to engage in a different formulation of ‘church’, to display a hunger for informal fellowship, to recognize the importance of ‘mission’, and to become conscious or unwitting pioneers of alternative Christian communities. In this way, ‘what the evidence points to is a reshaping, rebalancing or reconfiguration of the Church.’ Those who subscribe to the thesis that religion is changing rather than declining will derive hope from this book, but it will utterly fail to convince scholars who, arguing from a wider and more balanced portfolio of data, continue to feel that, overall, Britain remains on a secularization trajectory. Further details of the book can be found on the publisher’s website at:

https://standrewpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780861539161/the-invisible-church

Other outputs from Aisthorpe’s research are available at:

https://www.resourcingmission.org.uk/resources/mission-research#

OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Marriages in England and Wales

There were 9% fewer marriages in England and Wales in 2013 than in 2012, according to a newly-released Statistical Bulletin from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was the first decrease in marriages since 2009 and is explained by ONS thus: ‘The fall could indicate the continuation of the long-term decline in marriages since 1972 or could be due to couples choosing to postpone their marriage to avoid the number 13 which is perceived as unlucky by many cultures.’ Moreover, the reduction in weddings conducted with religious rites was more than double the level of those performed in civil ceremonies, 14% compared with 6%. The proportion of religious marriages in 2013 was, at 28%, the lowest figure ever recorded and 20 points below 1994, the last full year before the legalization of marriages in approved premises, where over three-fifths of weddings now take place (the final tenth occurring in registry offices). The overwhelming majority (73%) of religious marriages were celebrated by the Church of England or Church in Wales, with Roman Catholics accounting for 11%, other Christian denominations for 12%, and non-Christian faiths for 4%. Unlike Scotland, humanist marriage ceremonies are still not legal in England and Wales. The ONS Statistical Bulletin, with embedded links to a range of detailed data, is at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/bulletins/marriagesinenglandandwales/2013

ACADEMIC STUDIES

Secularization and crises

The proposition that social crises cause religious revivals has been evaluated by Steve Bruce and David Voas with reference to the effect of three twentieth-century crises (the First and Second World Wars and the inter-war Great Depression) on several statistical measures of British and UK church adherence. They conclude there is little or no evidence that these crises produced any religious resurgence. Rather, they found the trajectory of decline in institutional Christianity during the course of the century to be remarkably smooth, thereby supporting (they contend) the notion that secularization has been a long-run process with amorphous and deep causes. ‘Do Social Crises Cause Religious Revivals? What British Church Adherence Rates Show’ is published in Journal of Religion in Europe, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2016, pp. 26-43. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-00901001

Cathedral friends

Judith Muskett has reported further findings from her 2011 survey of 1,131 members of the friends’ associations of six English cathedrals in her ‘Associational Social Capital and Psychological Type: An Empirical Enquiry among Cathedral Friends in England’, Journal of Beliefs & Values, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2016, pp. 1-15. She demonstrated that higher levels of religious social capital were exhibited by extraverts compared with introverts, posing a potential challenge for the cathedrals among whose friends introverts outnumbered extraverts by almost two to one. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13617672.2015.1103550

Theology of religions index

Jeff Astley and Leslie Francis have devised a new multi-choice research instrument to measure ‘theology of religions’, which is concerned with the interpretation and evaluation of the divergent truth-claims and views of salvation asserted or implied by different religious traditions. The methodology is explained in their ‘Introducing the Astley-Francis Theology of Religions Index: Construct Validity among 13- to 15-Year-Old Students’, Journal of Beliefs & Values, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2016, pp. 29-39. The construct validity of the measure was supported in research among a sample of 10,754 adolescents from London and the four UK home nations surveyed for the Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity Project in 2011-12. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13617672.2016.1141527

Intercessory prayer

Using a special analytic framework for intercessory prayer which she devised, Tania ap Siôn has examined 577 prayer requests posted on the Church of England’s Pray One for Me website over a six-month period in 2012 and compared the results with recent studies of posts to physical intercessory prayer boards in three Anglican cathedrals (Bangor, Lichfield, and Southwark). She highlights important differences between the functioning of requests made in the online and offline environments. Access options to the article (‘The Church of England’s Pray One for Me Intercessory Prayer Site: A Virtual Cathedral?’, Journal of Beliefs & Values, Vol. 37, No. 1, 2016, pp. 78-92) are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13617672.2016.1141531

People and places

Danny Dorling and Bethan Thomas have compiled the third in a series of census-based atlases of the UK, deriving from the 2011 census but also incorporating some more recent data: People and Places: A 21st-Century Atlas of the UK (Bristol: Policy Press, 2016, 284pp., ISBN 978-1-44731-137-9, £22.99, paperback). Through maps, tables, and figures with associated commentary, a succession of topics are explored, including a chapter on religion and ethnicity (pp. 47-80). The book’s webpage is at:

http://policypress.co.uk/people-and-places

NEW DATASETS AT UK DATA SERVICE

SN 7927: Wellcome Trust Monitor, 3, 2015

The Wellcome Trust Monitor is a triennial survey of public attitudes to and knowledge of science and biomedical research (including alternative and complementary medicine) in the UK. It was initiated in 2009. Fieldwork for the third wave was conducted by Ipsos MORI between 2 June and 1 November 2015 among a sample of 1,524 adults aged 18 and over, interviewed face-to-face. Four religious topics were included as background characteristics, which can be used as variables to analyse responses to the more purely scientific and biomedical questions. They covered: religious affiliation (using a ‘belonging’ form of wording); attendance at religious services; frequency of prayer; and beliefs about the origin of life on earth. The catalogue entry for the dataset is at:

https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7927&type=Data%20catalogue

A variety of research outputs from the survey can be accessed on the Wellcome Trust’s website. They include a report (with a section on the origin of life on earth at pp. 74-5, 53% of the sample being unqualified evolutionists, allowing no role for God) and full data tables for all questions, with breaks by demographics. They can be found at:

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Publications/Reports/Public-engagement/WTX058859.htm

SN 7933: Youth Research Council Survey of Young People’s Religion and Lifestyles, 1957

The Young Christian Workers’ path-breaking survey of the lifestyles and religiosity of adults aged 15-24 living in urban England in 1957 has hitherto been known mainly from preliminary accounts and analyses published in New Life, Vol. 14, 1958, pp. 1-59 and The Tablet, 12 and 19 April 1958. However, the paper questionnaires completed during the course of the face-to-face interviews have mostly been preserved by the Pastoral Research Centre Trust (PRCT), successor to the Newman Demographic Survey, which was one of the partners involved in the original study. Now, with the cooperation of PRCT’s Tony Spencer and funding from the Nuffield Foundation and Marston Family Trust, Siobhan McAndrew has been able to arrange for the scanning of the majority (5,834) of the questionnaires and their transformation into a dataset. This should support significant secondary analysis in the years ahead which, in turn, will inform the growing scholarly debate about changes in the British religious landscape during the long 1950s. The catalogue entry for the dataset, incorporating a link to a very full and brand new user guide compiled by McAndrew, can be found at:

https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7933&type=Data%20catalogue

McAndrew has also blogged about the dataset on the British Religion in Numbers website at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/2016/the-1957-youth-research-council-survey-of-young-peoples-religion-and-lifestyles/

http://www.brin.ac.uk/2016/religion-in-the-1957-youth-research-council-survey/

Please note: Counting Religion in Britain is © Clive D. Field, 2016

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Counting Religion in Britain, October 2015

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Clive D. Field

We are pleased to announce that the migration of the British Religion in Numbers (BRIN) website to its new platform has now taken place, and we are in a position to recommence posting of content to the site. We wish to thank our users for their patience.

The news pages of the site will continue to feature extended research notes on particular resources of topical or historical interest. The most recent of these, which has literally just been published, is by Ben Clements, offering further analysis of the British Election Study 2015 data. This post can be found at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/2016/religion-and-party-choice-evidence-from-the-bes-2015-face-to-face-post-election-survey/

Our regular round-ups of new statistical sources are now being consolidated into a monthly bulletin, Counting Religion in Britain. The present post provides an overview of sources which came to BRIN’s notice during October 2015. Posts for subsequent months will follow in relatively quick succession.

The content of Counting Religion in Britain, No. 1, October 2015, can be read in full below. Alternatively, you can download the PDF version: No 1 October 2015

Counting Religion in Britain

A Monthly Round-Up of New Statistical Sources

Number 1 – October 2015

OPINION POLLS

Human rights

An online poll by ComRes for Amnesty International, undertaken among 2,051 adults in Britain on 2-4 October 2015, probed attitudes to the proposed British Bill of Rights, which the Government intends as a replacement for the current Human Rights Act. Specifically, respondents were asked whether they considered that rights which are presently protected by the Act, among them the right to freedom of religion and thought, should not be included in the Bill. Data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Amnesty-International_Data-Tables-Human-Rights-Act_October-2015.pdf

Religious pluralism

A ComRes poll for the BBC explored perceptions of: (1) contemporary children’s understanding of religion and faith, and different faith communities; and (2) the effects of the changing religious make-up of Britain on moral standards, shared values, acceptance of people from different backgrounds, and understanding of different cultures. Fieldwork was conducted by telephone on 18-28 September 2015 among a sample of 2,016 adults aged 18 and over. Data tables are at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/BBC_Public-Opinion-Poll_Sept-15_TABLES.pdf

Religious discrimination

In 2006, 2009, and 2012 the European Commission included a module on discrimination in its regular series of Eurobarometers of public opinion in all member states of the European Union. It has now published a report on a fourth and extended study of the same subject: Special Eurobarometer 437: Discrimination in the EU in 2015. United Kingdom fieldwork was conducted by TNS UK by means of face-to-face interviews with 1,306 adults aged 15 and over. Questions covered attitudes to and experience of discrimination on several grounds, including on the basis of religion or beliefs; and reactions to efforts to promote diversity on the same grounds in the workplace, schools, and media. Respondents were also asked about their attitudes to a range of people (among them atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Muslims) as prospective work colleagues or as partners in a love relationship with their children. The report is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/COMMFrontOffice/PublicOpinion/index.cfm/Survey/index#p=1&instruments=SPECIAL

Data are available at:

http://open-data.europa.eu/en/data/dataset/S2077_83_4_437_ENG

Regulating supplementary religious schools

Prime Minister David Cameron’s commitment, made in his speech to the Conservative Party’s autumn conference, to regulate supplementary religious schools (such as Islamic madrassas) in England was well received by the electorate, securing 62% endorsement. This was according to a Survation poll for the Huffington Post UK, for which 1,031 adult Britons were interviewed online on 7 October 2015. Data tables are at:

http://survation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Cameron-Speech-Poll-Tables.pdf

Islamic State (1)

A trio of online polls of adult Britons by YouGov on behalf of YouGov@Cambridge, and published on 2 October 2015, explored public attitudes to British involvement in military action (by air, sea, and ground) against Islamic State (IS) in three Middle Eastern countries. Fieldwork was conducted on 4-5 August in the case of intervention in Iraq (n = 1,707), 5-6 August about Libya (n = 1,972), and 24-25 September about Syria (n = 1,646). The full data tables are available under ‘Latest Documents’ on the YouGov@Cambridge website at:

https://yougov.co.uk/cambridge/

Islamic State (2)

Notwithstanding serious tensions between Russia and the West elsewhere in the world, the majority of Britons approved of Anglo-American co-operation with Russian military forces in the fight against Islamic State (IS). This was according to a YouGov poll published on 1 October 2015, for which 2,064 adults were interviewed online on 29-30 September, presumably mostly before news broke of the start of Russian air strikes against IS in Syria. Other questions covered attitudes to British military involvement against IS in Iraq and Syria. YouGov’s analysis of the survey, with a link to the data tables, is at:

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/10/01/cooperation-russia-syria/

FAITH ORGANIZATION STUDIES

Millennial Christians

The Evangelical Alliance has reported on the religious beliefs, practices, opinions, and experiencers of millennial Christians: Lucy Olofinjana, Building Tomorrow’s Church Today: The Views and Experiences of Young Adults in the UK Church. It is based upon an online survey completed by a self-selecting (and thus potentially unrepresentative) sample of 1,703 churchgoing, evangelical Christians aged 18-37 in the UK in October-November 2014 and March 2015. The report, which especially highlighted gender and ethnic differences, is available at:

https://www.eauk.org/church/one-people-commission/upload/Building-tomorrow-s-Church-today-PDF.pdf

Church of England buildings

The first attempt in many years to audit the Church of England’s stewardship of its 15,700 church buildings was published on 12 October 2015: Report of the Church Buildings Review Group, chaired by the Bishop of Worcester and established by the Archbishops’ Council and Church Commissioners. It surveyed the statistical and theological context before setting out general principles and specific recommendations for the management of the Church’s places of worship. Future closure of some churches is envisaged and the downgrading of others to ‘festival church’ status, involving the cessation of regular worship in favour of occasional offices and major seasonal services only. The report, which includes data disaggregated to diocesan level, is available at:

https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2383717/church_buildings_review_report_2015.pdf

Cumbrian churches

One day after the Church of England national buildings report was published, the Churches Trust for Cumbria, an independent charity established in 2008, very belatedly released the results of its own interdenominational church buildings survey, the fieldwork for which was conducted as far back as 2012-13. The research covered two-thirds of the 600 Anglican, Methodist, and United Reformed churches in the county, highlighting the immense challenges which they face in terms of financial viability and ageing congregations. The report, which is somewhat lacking in terms of data and confusing in its presentation, can be viewed at:

http://www.carlislediocese.org.uk/uploads/1356/Churches_Trust_for_Cumbria_Report_2015-pdf.html

Pastoral Research Centre publications

The Pastoral Research Centre Trust, which undertakes socio-religious research into Roman Catholicism in England and Wales with particular reference to statistical sources, has posted on its website an up-to-date list of its own reports and those of its predecessor, the Newman Demographic Survey (1953-64), the latter documents only declassified by the Catholic Church in recent years. These publications provide a much sounder basis for the quantification of the Catholic community during the past half-century than the data to be found in successive editions of the Catholic Directory. The list can be found on the Trust’s homepage at:

http://www.prct.org.uk/

Strictly Orthodox Jewry

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) has published a major report on Orthodox Jewry: Daniel Staetsky and Jonathan Boyd, Strictly Orthodox Rising: What the Demography of British Jews Tells us about the Future of the Community. It explores the implications of the ‘extraordinary demographic growth of the strictly Orthodox sub-population’ in British Jewry, which is attributed to its high birth rate and low mortality. Making particular use of population pyramids, the authors assess the current and possible future numerical relationships between, and respective characteristics of, the strictly Orthodox and non-strictly Orthodox Jewish communities.

The evidence base mostly comprises estimates derived from the 2011 census of England and Wales, including what is claimed to be the first presentation in the public domain of estimates of British Jewish fertility. The latter show that the strictly Orthodox possess the highest fertility of any religious group in the country and, all other things remaining unchanged, it is set to become the majority of British Jews during the second half of this century. The picture which emerges, through the growth of the strictly Orthodox, is thus one of reversal of the long-standing contraction of British Jewry and of its increasing religiosity.

According to the Jewish Chronicle (16 October 2015, p. 14), aspects of the tone and content of the research have come under fire from the Interlink Foundation (an Orthodox charity). This is especially true of JPR’s estimate of the current maximum size of the Orthodox sub-population (43,500) and of the point at which it will account for half of Jewish births (2031). Interlink calculates that there are actually 58,500 Orthodox Jews and that they will provide the majority of births much sooner than 2031. JPR’s report can be downloaded from:

http://www.jpr.org.uk/publication?id=4222#.Vh_ayMtdHX6

OFFICIAL STATISTICS

Religious hate crimes

Home Office Statistical Bulletin 05/15 is on Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2014/15 by Hannah Corcoran, Deborah Lader, and Kevin Smith. Of the 52,528 hate crimes recorded by the police in that year, 3,254 (6%) were religion- or belief-related, a rise of 43% on 2013/14. The increase is mainly thought to reflect improved police recording but there was almost certainly some genuine growth in religion hate crimes, linked to trigger events leading to Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. However, even these figures still represent a significant under-count, due to under-reporting, the Crime Survey for England and Wales suggesting that the true number of incidents of religiously-motivated hate crime each year may be as high as 38,000, fairly evenly split between household and personal crimes. The Statistical Bulletin and associated tables can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2014-to-2015

Scottish Gaelic and religion

The Scottish Government has published a report and data tables relating to the results of the Scottish Gaelic questions in the 2011 Scottish census. Five data tables give breaks by religion for Scottish Gaelic for the population aged 3 and over. They are:

AT 250 2011 – Gaelic language skills by religion (council areas)
AT 251 2011 – Gaelic language skills by religion (civil parish bands)
AT 275 2011 – Use of Gaelic language at home by religion (council areas)
AT 276 2011 – Use of Gaelic language at home by religion (civil parish bands)
AT 277 2011 – Gaelic language skills by religion by age (Scotland)

These tables can be accessed, in Excel format, under the ‘language’ heading of the 2011 Scottish Census Data Warehouse at:

http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-web/data-warehouse.html#additionaltab

ACADEMIC STUDIES

Christian beliefs and religious debates

In his second book, Ben Clements quantitatively illuminates several key aspects of religion in post-war Britain, especially since the 1980s, on the basis of four recurrent historical sample survey sources (Gallup Polls, British Social Attitudes Surveys, European Values Studies, and Eurobarometers) and multivariate analysis of several contemporary non-recurrent polls. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the correlates of theistic and other traditional beliefs (God, atheism, life after death, hell, heaven, sin, the Devil, and the Bible), while chapter 4 reviews the attitudinal evidence for three areas of religious-secular debate (religion and science, faith schools, and disestablishment). There are 38 tables in all. Surveying Christian Beliefs and Religious Debates in Post-War Britain is published by Palgrave Macmillan at £45 (x + 144pp., ISBN 978-1-137-50655-9, hardback, also available in EPUB and PDF formats), and the book’s webpage is at:

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/Surveying-Christian-Beliefs-and-Religious-Debates-in-PostWar-Britain/?K=9781137506559

Anglican cathedrals

Social scientific interest in the ministry and witness of cathedrals, especially in the contemporary Church of England, is continuing to grow. The latest offering is a series of ten research-focused (often quantitative and survey-based) studies of cathedrals in England and Wales by members of the research group around Leslie Francis, together with introductory and concluding chapters by Francis and Judith Muskett. Topics covered range over both the spiritual and touristic dimensions of cathedral life, and the perspectives are those of empirical theology, sociology of religion, and psychology of religion. Some authors report on individual cathedrals (including three in Wales – Bangor, Llandaff, and St Davids), while others range more widely. All show familiarity with relevant secondary literature, which is usefully listed in the bibliography. Anglican Cathedrals in Modern Life: The Science of Cathedral Studies is edited by Francis and published by Palgrave Macmillan at £57.50 hardback (xiv + 267pp., ISBN 978-1-137-55301-0, also available in PDF format). The book’s webpage is at:

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/anglican-cathedrals-in-modern-life-leslie-j–francis/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781137553010

Education and secularization

David Voas has replied to an article by James Lewis in Journal of Contemporary Religion in which, utilizing census data from Anglophone countries, Lewis reasserted the thesis that higher education appears to have a secularizing effect. In his response Voas reiterated his own previous argument, that religious ‘nones’ are becoming normalized in their characteristics. He suggests that the approach adopted by Lewis, a cross-sectional snapshot of the whole population undifferentiated by age together with an over-dependence on write-in replies which are the census exception rather than the rule, misses the generational dynamics of religious change. His own analysis of the 2011 census for England and Wales, one of the sources drawn upon by Lewis, demonstrated that, whereas older ‘nones’ are more educated than Christians of the same age, younger ‘nones’ have fewer qualifications than their Christian counterparts. ‘The Normalization of Non-Religion: A Reply to James Lewis’ was published in Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2015, pp. 505-8, and access options are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2015.1081354

Congregational bonding social capital

A seven-item measure of congregational expressions of Robert Putnam’s theory of bonding social capital was proposed and empirically tested (on 23,884 adult churchgoers in the Church of England Diocese of Southwark) in Leslie Francis and David Lankshear, ‘Introducing the Congregational Bonding Social Capital Scale: A Study among Anglican Churchgoers in South London’, Journal of Beliefs & Values, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2015, pp. 224-30. The research data supported the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the scale. No significant differences in congregational bonding social capital were found between the sexes, but levels did increase with age and frequency of church attendance. Previous attempts to develop measures of congregational bonding social capital were also briefly reviewed. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13617672.2015.1041786

New Churches in the North East

The final report on the New Churches in the North East project has been published, written by David Goodhew and Rob Barward-Symmons of the Centre for Church Growth Research, Durham University. It lists and profiles 125 new churches founded in the region between 1980 and 2015, and with a combined usual Sunday attendance of around 12,000. The majority of these places of worship were started by non-mainline Churches or as independent congregations, and they are disproportionately BME in composition and evangelical-charismatic in churchmanship. The report is available at:

http://community.dur.ac.uk/churchgrowth.research/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/NCNEreportFINAL.pdf

Holocaust education

University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education has published a major (273-page) report about young people’s engagement with the Holocaust: Stuart Foster, Alice Pettigrew, Andy Pearce, Rebecca Hale, Adrian Burgess, Paul Salmons, and Ruth-Anne Lenga, What Do Students Know and Understand about the Holocaust? Evidence from English Secondary Schools. Deriving from survey responses of 7,952 students aged 11-18 in 74 schools between November 2013 and October 2014, and 49 focus groups involving 244 students, it claims to be the largest single-nation study in the field. It finds that ‘despite the Holocaust being a staple in the curriculum for almost 25 years, student knowledge and conceptual understanding is often limited and based on inaccuracies and misconceptions’. The report is available at:

http://www.holocausteducation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/What-do-students-know-and-understand-about-the-Holocaust1.pdf

Muslims in the labour market

British Muslims are proportionately less well represented in top managerial and professional jobs than any other religious group. They are also disproportionately likely to be unemployed and economically inactive, and to have the lowest female employment participation rate of all religious groups. So claim Louis Reynolds and Jonathan Birdwell in their Rising to the Top, a new research report from think-tank Demos, based upon a review of the academic literature and secondary analysis of data from the census, Labour Force Survey, Higher Education Statistics Agency, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, and other sources. Demographic, cultural, and other factors contributing to Muslim under-representation are explored, and a series of recommendations made to help redress it. The report is available at:

http://www.demos.co.uk/project/rising-to-the-top/

NEW DATASETS AT UK DATA SERVICE

SN 7786: 21st Century Evangelicals

Since 2010 the Evangelical Alliance, in association with research partners, has conducted a series of online surveys among self-selecting (and thus potentially unrepresentative) samples of self-identifying evangelical Christians in the UK. Surveys have mostly been carried out quarterly, with each devoted to a particular theme. An overview of the findings of the research programme, which is still ongoing, can be found in 21st Century Evangelicals: Reflections on Research by the Evangelical Alliance, edited by Greg Smith (Watford: Instant Apostle, 2015). The individual datasets for the surveys to 2015 have now been made available on a Special Licence access basis, together with reports, questionnaires, and other documentation. The dataset description is available at:

https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7786&type=Data%20catalogue

SN 7799: National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, 2010-2012 (NATSAL III)

NATSAL III was conducted, through a combination of face-to-face interview and self-completion questionnaire, by NatCen Social Research between September 2010 and August 2012 among a sample of 15,162 adults aged 16-74 in Britain (including two booster samples of younger cohorts). The response rate was 58%. Three background questions on religion enable religious attitudes to a wide range of sexual issues to be explored, especially contraception, homosexuality, and sexual experiences. These questions enquired into: the personal importance of religion and religious beliefs; religious affiliation (using a ‘belonging’ form of wording); and frequency of attendance at religious services. The dataset description is available at:

http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7799&type=Data%20catalogue

SN 7809: British Social Attitudes Survey, 2014

The British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey commenced in 1983 and has been undertaken annually ever since, apart from in two years. The latest BSA was conducted by NatCen by means of face-to-face interview and self-completion questionnaire between August and November 2014, among a sample of 2,878 adults aged 18 and over in Britain. The standard questions on religious affiliation and attendance were asked of the whole sample; these have both an intrinsic interest but can also be used as variables for analysing replies to other topics. A few other religion questions (for example, about attitudes to religious extremists) were put to sub-samples. The dataset description is available at:

https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7809&type=Data%20catalogue

Please note: Counting Religion in Britain is © Clive D. Field, 2015

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A Fortnight in Religious Statistics

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Clive D. Field

Here are ten religious statistical news stories which have come to BRIN’s attention during the past fortnight.

Religious affiliation: population census (1)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just launched a public consultation around its initial view of the content of the 2021 population census for England and Wales. Responses, which can be either from organizations or individuals, need to be submitted by 27 August 2015. They may cover the full range of consultation topics or just the one(s) of particular concern. With regard to religious affiliation, the intention of ONS is to include a question on a voluntary basis, as in 2001 and 2011. In the interests of comparability, it is reluctant to change the actual wording. The consultation document asks respondents how they currently use the census religion data and what the impact on their work would be if such data were no longer collected. It is hoped that BRIN users would wish to support, by responding to ONS, the continued inclusion of a religion question in the census. More details are available by clicking the ‘complete the survey’ link on the consultation website at:

https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/census/2021-census-topics-consultation

Religious affiliation: population census (2)

Higher education has often been assumed to have a secularizing effect, and the hypothesis is reasserted by James Lewis, ‘Education, Irreligion, and Non-Religion: Evidence from Select Anglophone Census Data’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2015, pp. 265-72. Utilizing religious affiliation data from the censuses of Australia in 2006, Canada in 2011, and England and Wales in 2011, he shows that college graduates have an above-average representation among people professing no religion and particularly among atheists, humanists, or agnostics. In England and Wales, for example, 18% of all adults were found to have a bachelor’s or higher degree, but the proportion was 24% for religious ‘nones’, rising to 40% for agnostics, 43% for humanists, and 44% for atheists (the last three categories being write-in replies). For Christians the figure was only 15%. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2015.1025556#.VXnlYOlRHX4

Religious affiliation: British Social Attitudes

As reported by Dr Ben Clements in his BRIN research note of 3 June 2015, NatCen Social Research has recently updated its religious affiliation trend data from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) Surveys. Statistics are now available for every year between 1983, when BSA commenced, and 2014, except for 1988 and 1992. NatCen concludes that the Church of England’s market share has declined throughout this period and appears to have accelerated during the past decade, both relatively and absolutely. It now claims the allegiance of only 17% of British adults compared with 40% in 1983. Whereas there were 16.5 million adult Anglicans in 1983, there were just 8.6 million in 2014. Roman Catholic allegiance has been much steadier, at around one in ten of the population (or 4 million adults), while the number of non-Christians has quintupled. Those professing no religion have risen from one-third to one-half as a proportion, and, in figures, from 12.8 million in 1983 to 24.7 million in 2014. NatCen’s press release is at:

http://www.natcen.ac.uk/news-media/press-releases/2015/may/british-social-attitudes-church-of-england-decline-has-accelerated-in-past-decade/

Church growth

Towards a Theology of Church Growth, edited by David Goodhew (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015, ISBN 9781472414007, £19.99, paperback) comprises 12 chapters together with a foreword (by the Archbishop of Canterbury) and a conclusion (by the editor). Although numerical growth of the Church (especially of local congregations) is a constant presence in the book, and continues to be regarded as important, the volume is less concerned with statistics (which are remarkably thin on the ground) than with exploring a theology of church growth from the perspectives of the Bible, Christian doctrine, and church history. The historical section contains five essays, ranging from the early Church to Britain from 1750 to 1970, the author of the last (Dominic Erdozain) conceding the reality of church decline while simultaneously proposing ‘a more optimistic account of the Christian ecology of modern Britain’. Further information can be found at:

https://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&title_id=19791&edition_id=1209349895&calcTitle=1

Religion and physician-assisted suicide

Thanks are due to Dr Ben Clements for drawing BRIN’s attention to some new research into religion and physician-assisted suicide: Andriy Danyliv and Ciaran O’Neill, ‘Attitudes towards Legalising Physician Provided Euthanasia in Britain: The Role of Religion over Time’, Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 128, March 2015, pp. 52-6. Utilizing evidence from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) Surveys for six data-points between 1983 and 2012, the authors demonstrate statistically significant increased support for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (for patients suffering a painful and incurable disease) running parallel with growth in indicators of secularization. Multivariate analysis showed that religious affiliation and, more especially, frequency of attendance at religious services were the principal predictors of attitudes to physician-assisted suicide, with support for legalization being greatest among those with least religious commitment. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614008387

Attitudes to religious groups

A plurality of Britons (40%) has a negative impression of Muslims, almost double the number regarding them positively (22%), with 37% neutral. This is according to a YouGov/Eurotrack seven-nation survey conducted between 20 and 27 May 2015, for which 1,667 Britons were interviewed online. The number viewing Muslims negatively was higher in Britain than in Germany, Norway, and Sweden, the same as in France, but lower than in Denmark and Finland (45%).

Jews, by contrast, were regarded much more favourably, with 41% in Britain having a positive impression (a figure bettered only in Sweden), 50% being neutral and just 7% negative (the smallest number of any of the nations, Sweden excepted). In fact, Christians in Britain had a greater negative rating (11%) than Jews, albeit their positive score was also higher (45%), with 42% neutral to Christians. Danes (47%) held the most positive attitudes to Christians and Norwegians (38%) the least.

A summary of the British data is tabulated below. Results for all seven nations, also covering opinions of five other groups (gypsies, gay people, black people, young people, and the elderly) can be found at:

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/g96awulgzv/Eurotrack_Minorities_W.pdf

Attitudes to … (% down)	Muslims	Jews	Christians
Very positive	6	15	17
Fairly positive	16	26	28
Positive	22	41	45
Neither positive nor negative	37	50	42
Fairly negative	24	6	9
Very negative	16	1	2
Negative	40	7	11
Don’t know	2	2	2

Religious diversity

Somewhat contrary to authorial expectations, practising (churchgoing) Christians are more interested in and more tolerant of other religious groups than nominal Christians or the religiously unaffiliated, according to new analysis of data from the ‘Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity’ project at Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit: Leslie Francis, Alice Pyke, and Gemma Penny, ‘Christian Affiliation, Christian Practice, and Attitudes to Religious Diversity: A Quantitative Analysis among 13- to 15-Year-Old Female Students in the UK’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2015, pp. 249-63. The authors interpret their findings to mean that Church teaching and Christian practice are nurturing the development of the UK as a multi-cultural and multi-faith society. Access options to the article are outlined at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2015.1026116#.VXntlulRHX4

Evangelicals and poverty

Good News for the Poor? is the latest report from the Evangelical Alliance’s 21st Century Evangelicals series, which commenced in 2011. It is based upon replies by 1,607 self-identifying evangelical Christians to an online survey in November 2014. They were either members of the Alliance’s self-selecting research panel or recruited via open invitation on the Alliance’s website or social media networks; thus, they may not be representative of all evangelicals in the UK. The overwhelming majority of respondents (93%) was found to be in a financially comfortable position themselves (being either wealthy, having no financial worries, or getting by) and, relative to the general public, they tended to have higher than average expectations about ownership of material possessions (except when it came to television). Through their attitudes and actions (charitable giving and volunteering) they mostly recognized the importance of tackling poverty issues and expressed concern about the fall-out from Government welfare reforms. Nevertheless, 71% agreed that spiritual poverty is a bigger problem than material poverty, with 77% saying that, compared with some overseas countries, the UK is spiritually destitute and 66% that Churches in the UK are not very good at evangelizing and discipling the poorest sections of society. The report can be downloaded from:

http://www.eauk.org/church/resources/snapshot/upload/Good-news-for-the-poor-report-pdf.pdf

Sikhs and the general election

In our post of 25 May 2015, we reported on the results of the Survation/British Future poll of the voting of ethnic minorities at the 2015 general election, including breaks by religious groups. The reliability of this survey has subsequently been questioned in various quarters, not least by the Sikh Federation (UK) which has argued that Sikhs were seriously underrepresented in the sample and that the figures given by Survation for Sikh voting (49% Conservative, 41% Labour) were misleading. In an attempt to convey the ‘correct’ picture, the Federation has published the findings of its own post-election survey of the voting of 1,000 Sikh electors in 190 constituencies. This revealed that 50% voted Labour, 36% Conservative (up from 15% in 2010), and 15% for other parties. The Federation’s two press releases on the subject can be found at:

http://dailysikhupdates.com/british-future-survey-challenged-on-how-sikhs-voted-in-uk-elections/

British National Bibliography religion and theology data

Thanks are due to Dr Peter Webster for alerting BRIN to the recent release, by The British Library, of a subset of metadata from the British National Bibliography (BNB) for religion and theology (Dewey Decimal Classification 200-299). The dataset, covering 119,000 monographs and 4,200 serials published in Britain from 1950 to the present, is available for download and reuse on a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication basis. It will permit analysis of trends in religious publishing since the Second World War and can be downloaded from:

http://www.bl.uk/bibliographic/download.html

Posted in Historical studies, Official data, Religion and Politics, Religion and Social Capital, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged Alice Pyke, Andriy Danyliv, Anti-Semitism, British Library, British National Bibliography, British Social Attitudes Survey, census of population, Christianophobia, Christians, church growth, Ciaran O'Neill, David Goodhew, Eurotrack, euthanasia, Evangelical Alliance, evangelicals, Gemma Penny, general election, higher education, Irreligion, Islamophobia, James Lewis, Jews, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Leslie Francis, Muslims, NatCen Social Research, Office for National Statistics, physician-assisted suicide, poverty, Religious Affiliation, Religious diversity, Sikh Federation UK, Sikhs, Social Science and Medicine, theology, voting, YouGov | Leave a comment

Religiosity and Other News

Posted on April 18, 2015 by Clive D. Field

Self-assessed religiosity

In our post of 11 January 2015, we reported on the British results from the WIN/Gallup International End of Year 2014 poll, focusing on a question about trust in religious professionals, but also noting findings on two other religion-related topics, one of them self-assessed religiosity. On 13 April 2015 WIN/Gallup International and ORB International, which undertook the British fieldwork, posted online the full religiosity data and an associated religiosity index for the 64,000 respondents from 65 countries participating in the global poll. These can be downloaded from:

http://www.opinion.co.uk/article.php?s=are-you-a-religious-person-poll-results-from-65-countries

Britain came 59th out of 65 nations in terms of the proportion of the population self-rating as a religious person, with just 30%, under half the global mean (63%) and well behind Thailand at the head of the index (94%). The six countries less religious than Britain were Hong Kong, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Sweden, Japan, and China. Two-thirds of Britons either described themselves as not a religious person (53%) or a convinced atheist (13%), with 4% undecided. The results for selected countries, arranged by region, are shown below.

% across	Religious person	Not religious person	Convinced atheist
Global mean	63	22	11
Europe
Austria	39	44	10
Belgium	44	30	18
Czech Republic	23	45	30
Denmark	42	40	12
Finland	56	32	10
France	40	35	18
Germany	34	42	17
Great Britain	30	53	13
Greece	71	15	6
Ireland	45	41	10
Italy	74	18	6
Netherlands	26	51	15
Poland	86	10	2
Portugal	60	28	9
Russia	70	18	5
Spain	37	35	20
Sweden	19	59	17
Switzerland	38	46	12
North America
Canada	40	41	12
USA	56	33	6
Asia
China	7	29	61
India	76	21	2
Japan	13	31	31
Korea	44	49	6
Pakistan	88	10	1

The number of Britons self-rating as religious seems first to have been measured (by Opinion Research Centre) in January-February 1968, when it stood at 58%. It was 36% when recorded by YouGov earlier this month. The question has been asked many times in between, albeit with variant wording, leading to some volatility in results. However, there has been a clear pattern of decline in religiosity since the 1990s, with, during the first half of the present decade, between 55% and 75% viewing themselves as irreligious. This is a much higher proportion of adults than professed no religion in the 2011 census of Britain (25%) or in the 2012 Integrated Household Survey (30%) or who doubted or denied the existence of God or a higher power in two YouGov polls of 2013 (35%).

Personal well-being

Christians tend to experience the highest levels of personal well-being in the UK and Muslims and religious ‘nones’ the lowest. This is suggested by an analysis of aggregated data for adults aged 16 and over from the Annual Population Survey for April 2011-March 2014 which was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 27 March 2015 as How Does Personal Well-Being Vary by Sex, Disability, Ethnicity, and Religion? Respondents were asked to assess, on a scale running from 0 to 10, overall ‘how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?’; ‘to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile?’; ‘how happy did you feel yesterday?’; and ‘how anxious did you feel yesterday?’ Means for each of these four measures are tabulated below, while the report, with links to data tables, can be read at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_400162.pdf

Mean scores out of 10	Life satisfaction	Life worthwhile	Happiness yesterday	Anxiety yesterday
All adults	7.46	7.70	7.33	3.03
No religion	7.34	7.51	7.15	2.98
Christian	7.54	7.81	7.43	3.01
Buddhist	7.31	7.57	7.39	3.23
Hindu	7.48	7.66	7.46	3.26
Jewish	7.44	7.81	7.31	3.29
Muslim	7.27	7.52	7.20	3.28
Sikh	7.39	7.67	7.32	3.23
Other	7.25	7.62	7.25	3.27

ONS does not attempt to explore the root cause of these religious differences in any detail, except to note that variations between and within equality groups generally can be attributed to various factors, including socio-economic characteristics and self-reported state of health. The relatively older age profile of Christians and younger profile of Muslims and ‘nones’ is likely to account for some of the difference, as is the relative deprivation of Muslims.

Muslims and non-Muslims

In our last post, on 12 April 2015, we reported on a telephone survey of Muslim opinion conducted by Survation for Sky News, noting that a parallel online poll of 1,001 non-Muslim Britons aged 18 and over had also been conducted for comparative purposes, the data tables for which were not then available. The tables for the latter study have now been released and can be found, together with the Muslim data, via links in a blog at:

http://survation.com/british-muslims-is-the-divide-increasing/

A comparison of Muslim and non-Muslim views is shown below, revealing a gulf on all issues, and very wide on some. This exemplified that 44% of non-Muslims admitted to being more suspicious of Muslims than they had been a few years back, rising to 49% of men and over-55s.

% down	Muslims	Non-Muslims
Values of Islam
Compatible with British values	71	22
Incompatible with British values	16	52
British Muslims doing enough to integrate
Agree	64	18
Disagree	21	57
Muslims should condemn terrorism carried out in name of Islam
Agree	51	67
Disagree	40	17
Sympathy with UK Muslims fighting in Syria
A lot/some	28	14
None	61	77
Police/MI5 contributing to radicalization of young Muslims
Agree	39	16
Disagree	29	50

Further recent exploration of anti-Muslim sentiment is contained in Ingrid Storm’s post on the Democratic Audit UK blog on 17 April 2015. Using data from the 2013 British Social Attitudes Survey, she shows that Muslims continue to be less accepted than other religious or ethnic minorities in Britain. She suggests that ‘negative media portrayals of Muslims and associations with Islamist terrorism amplify prejudice against this group among all parts of the population.’ See:

http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=12510

Anglican church growth

Revd Dr Mark Hart, Rector of Plemstall and Guilden Sutton in the Diocese of Chester, has just (13 April 2015) published ‘From Delusion to Reality: An Evaluation of From Anecdote to Evidence’, the Church of England’s influential report (January 2014) on its church growth research programme (2011-13) which is now being used to drive ‘Reform and Renewal’ in the Church. A mathematician and engineer by background, Hart carefully reviews From Anecdote to Evidence in the light of the original research by Professor David Voas and Laura Watts of the University of Essex. Hart concludes that ‘From Anecdote to Evidence systematically misrepresents or misinterprets the underlying report by David Voas and Laura Watts, thereby exaggerating the usefulness of the findings for numerical growth’.

More specifically, Hart highlights eight major weaknesses in From Anecdote to Evidence, the first being its over-dependence upon self-reported assessments of growth, which are inflated and biased, rather than using statistical data from parish returns. On the basis of his critique, he calls into question both the From Evidence to Action initiative designed to encourage parishes to implement the findings presented in From Anecdote to Evidence, as well as the decision to borrow at least £100 million from the future, using Church Commissioners’ funds, in order to advance the ‘Reform and Renewal’ agenda for the Church, doubting that this will give an adequate return on investment either in terms of finance or church growth. Hart’s 18-page paper is extensively covered in the Church Times for 17 April 2015 (main report on p. 5, leader comment on p. 12) and can be downloaded in full from:

http://revmarkhart.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/from-delusion-to-reality.html

Upcoming events

The Church of England’s annual ‘Faith in Research’ conference is to be held at Novotel, Birmingham on 14 May 2015. The theme this year is ‘Everyone Counts’, the title of a congregational survey carried out in a sample of Anglican parishes in 2014, and about whose results Sarah Barter-Godfrey will be talking. Other plenary speakers include Professor Leslie Francis on psychological type and the Church of England, and Tom Sefton and Bethany Eckley on church-based social action. There are also parallel sessions on ministry, mission, occasional offices, and church growth. More details at:

https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/facts-stats/research-statistics/faith-in-research-conferences.aspx

‘Rethinking Modern British Studies’ is an international conference hosted by the University of Birmingham on 1-3 July 2015. Its extensive programme includes several panel sessions on religious themes, including one on the last day on ‘Public Opinion, Polling and Cultural and Religious Change in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Britain’, with papers by Marcus Collins (on measuring permissiveness), Clive Field (on indicators of religiosity), and Ben Clements (on the religious beliefs and social attitudes of Catholics). More details at:

https://mbsbham.wordpress.com/programme-rethinking-modern-british-studies/

Professor Linda Woodhead is running a residential course on ‘Britain’s Religious Crisis’ at Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden on 3-5 July 2015. Drawing on her own empirical research, she intends to: highlight the growing values gap between religion and society; chart the rapid rise of religious ‘nones’ and the ‘seculigious’; review the battles for the soul of traditional religion and the role of politics and the media; and suggest how to resolve the crisis and move forward. More details at:

https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/events/events-courses-list/britains-religious-crisis

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religion and Social Capital, Survey news | Tagged Annual Population Survey, atheists, British Social Attitudes Survey, church growth, Church of England, Democratic Audit, Faith in Research, Ingrid Storm, Islam, life satisfaction, Linda Woodhead, Mark Hart, Muslims, non-Muslims, Office for National Statistics, ORB International, Religiosity, religious person, Sky News, Survation, well-being, WIN/Gallup International | Leave a comment

Clergy Voices and Other News

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Clive D. Field

Clergy voices

A majority (54%) of Anglican clergy thinks the Church of England should retain its current established status, seemingly without modification, according to the first results from a YouGov survey commissioned by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University and Westminster Faith Debates for the new series of debates on ‘The Future of the Church of England’, which commenced in Oxford last week.

Respondents comprised 1,509 clergy under the age of 70 from the Anglican Churches in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland who answered 29 questions online between 14 August and 8 September 2014. They had been selected on a random basis (every third name) from Crockford’s Clerical Directory, and questionnaires sent to the 5,000 of the resulting sample of 6,000 for whom email addresses were available. The response rate thus appears to be around 30%. The full findings will not be published until 23 October, the day of the second debate, but data tables for three questions (with breaks by gender, age, church, and ministerial role) are already available at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/qouw89178p/Results-for-LancasterUni-WestministerFaith-08092014.pdf

Only 14% of clergy backed the total disestablishment of the Church, with a further 27% favouring some loosening of Church-State ties. Nevertheless, 81% supported the preservation of the principle of an Established Church with some or all of its present privileges. There was also overwhelming acceptance (by 83%) of the importance of maintaining the (creaking) parish system, against 12% saying it was unimportant. Views were more divided about future options for housing the clergy, 49% wanting the Church to continue to provide accommodation, with 18% electing for a higher stipend so that incumbents could arrange their own housing, and 24% wishing both options to be on the table to enable freedom of choice.

An article about the survey appears in the current issue of the Church Times (10 October 2014, p. 4). This contains the toplines for one further question, about the constituency which the Church of England should prioritize. Two-thirds of the clergy replied England as a whole, 18% said Anglicans who do not go to church regularly, 5% regular churchgoers, 7% some other group, with 4% undecided. The article can be read online at:

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/10-october/news/uk/survey-finds-c-of-e-clergy-wedded-to-the-parish-system

Islamic State

Here is a round-up of the latest online polling on the subject of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. Topline results only are given; for breaks by demographics, follow the links to data tables.

Britain: 7-8 October 2014

Nine in ten adults rated air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria as a very important (62%) or fairly important (28%) international news story, according to this YouGov poll. The proportion saying the same about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was similar (88%). Data tables are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ouohbc27zh/InternalResults_141008_news_stories_Ebola_W.pdf

Britain, 8-9 October

The Ebola outbreak (37%) displaced IS (28%) as the most noticed news story of last week, according to Populus interviews with 2,055 persons.

Britain, 9-10 October 2014

The latest YouGov survey for The Sunday Times, for which 2,167 were interviewed, revealed marginally increased majorities in favour of the RAF bombing IS in Iraq (59%) and Syria (54%). However, 60% doubted whether the combination of Western air strikes and Iraqi and Kurdish forces would be sufficient to defeat IS and considered that other ground troops would be needed, even though only 32% approved of the commitment of British and US troops in Iraq (with 47% disapproving). Two-thirds remained opposed to paying ransoms to free British hostages held by IS, with only 9% in favour, but 27% supported the negotiation of other deals with IS (such as prisoner-hostage swaps), with 49% opposed. Three people in ten did not consider that the British media should report the holding and murder of hostages by IS. Data tables are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/dra8m44o22/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-101014.pdf

London: 24-26 September 2014

A YouGov poll of 1,086 London residents, undertaken for the Evening Standard and published on 8 October, revealed overwhelming opposition (by 74%) to the readmission to the country of British nationals found to have been fighting with extremist groups in Iraq or Syria, such as IS. Just 13% were in favour of letting them back in. Support for Britain and the USA sending in ground troops to Iraq to combat IS was, at 36%, higher than in some national polls, and only 7% behind the disapproval score. Data tables are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/wb3z4vzce8/EveningStandard_141002_ISIS_Website.pdf

Human rights

Four-fifths (79%) of the British public think that the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion should be protected as a human right, according to a YouGov poll released on 8 October 2014 for which 2,155 adults were interviewed online on 6-7 October. Most of the other nine potential human rights enquired about also scored around the four-fifths mark, the extremes being the right not to be put into slavery and forced labour (92%) and the right not to be unlawfully arrested or detained without good reason and the right to marry and establish a family (70% each). Freedom of thought, conscience and religion was especially prized by Scots (88%), Labour and Liberal Democrat voters (86%), and the over-60s (84%). Data tables are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/qlmo7myu52/InternalResults_141007_human_rights_W.pdf

Methodists and drink

The latest issue of the Methodist Recorder (10 October 2014, p. 3) reports that University of Exeter doctoral student Jon Curtis has just launched a survey to determine the beliefs and practices regarding alcohol of current or former Methodists aged 18 and over living in England, Wales or Scotland. It forms part of the Coup D’Tea project on the history and future of alcohol in the Methodist Church in Britain. Curtis claims (although this could be disputed) that this is the first study of Methodist attitudes to drink for over 40 years. The questionnaire is intended for an entirely self-selecting sample, so, although it will doubtless generate some interesting illustrative material, it is unlikely to yield statistically representative data. It can be completed online at:

http://coupdtea.tumblr.com/

Abstinence is stereotypically associated with Methodism, yet, as Clive Field showed some years ago, its extent has often been exaggerated, especially among the Methodist laity: ‘“The Devil in Solution”: How Temperate were the Methodists?’, Epworth Review, Vol. 27, No. 3, July 2000, pp. 78-93. On the basis of a fairly systematic trawl of the available statistical evidence, he estimated that total abstinence among Methodists peaked around 1910, when it was practised by approximately 95% of ministers and 50% of members. By 1990 the proportion had sunk to one-fifth in both groups, and it has almost certainly declined further since. Just how far is hard to determine since, although sample surveys of the nation’s drinking habits are not uncommon, it is rare for them to control for religion and, even if they do, it is even rarer for them to identify Methodists. As the latest triennial statistics of mission confirm, Methodism has become such a minority denomination that it no longer shows up accurately in national surveys. Methodists tend to be bundled into an undifferentiated Christian category or classified as other Christians (apart from Anglicans and Catholics).

By way of example of the sort of analysis which is possible, we may cite one question from the 2011 British Social Attitudes Survey: ‘How often do you drink 4 or more alcoholic drinks on the same day?’ Results (weighted) are tabulated below:

	Anglican	Roman Catholic	Other Christian	Non-Christian	No religion
Never	49.9%	46.5%	46.8%	68.4%	34.3%
Once a month or less often	32.1%	29.7%	28.6%	20.0%	31.6%
Several times a month	10.2%	20.2%	18.1%	8.2%	23.8%
Several times a week	5.6%	3.0%	5.2%	1.7%	9.4%
Daily	2.2%	0.6%	1.3%	1.6%	0.9%

Posted in Historical studies, News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged abstinence, alcohol, British Social Attitudes Survey, Church of England, Church Times, clergy, Clive Field, Coup D’Tea, disestablishment, Epworth Review, Evening Standard, freedom of religion, human rights, Iraq, Islamic State, Jon Curtis, Linda Woodhead, London, Methodists, parish system, Populus, Sunday Times, Syria, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | Leave a comment

Religion and Attitudes Towards Faith Schools

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Ben Clements

The expansion of faith schools in recent years, as part of a broader parental choice and diversity of provision agenda in state-sector education, has been a prominent and divisive issue, both within religious traditions and between religious and secular lobbies. Of course, education has historically been an important battleground for religious groups’ identities and interests, whether the established Church of England, Roman Catholicism, the Nonconformist churches or, more recently, non-Christian faiths. Moreover, the historical and contemporary debate over faith-based schooling has varied in myriad ways across the constituent parts of Britain (and, indeed, in Northern Ireland), reflecting their differing religious compositions and deep-rooted tensions between religious traditions.

The renewed prominence of the faith schools debate as a result of recent government policy has been reflected in various opinion polls conducted to elicit whether faith schools have public backing, and to see whether public perceptions match the claims made by those campaigning on either side of the debate regarding, for example, the (supposed) unfair or biased admissions procedures and policies of faith schools, and their better or worse social and educational outcomes relative to non-faith schools.

Of course, many of the opinion polls on this issue have been covered in previous BRIN posts. This BRIN post reviews the available social survey evidence on religious groups’ attitudes towards faith schools in Britain. It analyses data from the British Social Attitudes surveys (BSA). The main focus is on data from more recent BSA surveys but the discussion starts with a question asked in the BSA 1989 survey:

If you were deciding where to send your children to school, would you prefer a school with children of only your own religion, or a mixed-religion school?

Table 1 shows the full distribution of responses to this question based on religious affiliation (Anglican, Catholic, other Christian or no religion). Catholics stand out for being the most likely to have preferred their children to go to a school of their own religious faith but, even so, this amounts to a just third of Catholic respondents (32.7%). Similar – and very small – proportions of Anglicans, other Christians (including those belonging to the traditional Nonconformist churches and those unaffiliated with a particular tradition) and those with no religious affiliation declared they would prefer to send their children to attend a same-faith school. Around two-thirds of Anglicans, other Christians and those with no affiliation preferred their children to attend a mixed religion school, compared to just under half of Catholics (48.9%). Similar proportions in each group had no preference for either a single faith school or a mixed religion school (nearly a fifth).

Table 1: Preferences for a single religion school or a mixed religion school, by affiliation

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	No religion (%)
Own religion only	13.7	32.7	15.7	10.2
Mixed religion	67.4	48.9	66.0	69.9
No preference	17.7	17.1	17.4	18.7
Don’t know	1.1	1.3	0.8	1.3

Source: BSA 1989 survey. Weighted data.

Do preferences on this question vary within religious groups based on their religious practice? Table 2 shows the distribution of opinion for Anglicans, Catholics and other Christians according to whether they are (i) frequent attenders or (ii) infrequent or non-attenders at church services.

Frequent attendance is defined as going once a month or more. It should be noted that, when religious groups are divided on the basis of attendance or other indicator of religiosity, some of the percentages cited will necessarily be based on small numbers in the samples, so the data should be treated with a suitable degree of caution.

The most notable feature of the table is the markedly greater variation in the views of Catholics based on regularity of religious practice compared to Anglicans and other Christians. Catholics who attend services on a frequent basis were much more likely to express a preference for schools belonging to their own faith (44.7%) compared to those who attended less often or not at all (21.8%). Well over half of the infrequent attenders preferred mixed religion schools compared to just under two-fifths of regular churchgoers.

Within the other Christian group, frequent church goers are also more supportive of single religion schools than mixed religion schools, being twice as likely to choose this preference as infrequent or non-attenders (respectively, 22.3% and 10.8%). However, around two-thirds of both of these groups expressed a preference for mixed religion schools. Amongst other Christians, those who attend church less often (or not at all) are much more likely to say they have no preference either way. Amongst Anglicans, there is much less variation based on religious practice. Those who attend services on a less frequent basis (or not at all) are somewhat more likely to express no preference either way.

Table 2: Preferences for a single religion school or a mixed religion school, attendance by affiliation

	Own religion only	Mixed religion	No preference	Don’t know
Anglican: Frequent attender	15.9	70.7	12.2	1.2
Anglican: Infrequent or non-attender	13.2	67.0	18.8	1.1
Catholic: Frequent attender	44.7	38.2	15.8	1.3
Catholic: Infrequent or non-attender	21.8	57.7	19.2	1.3
Other Christian: Frequent attender	22.3	65.2	10.7	1.8
Other Christian: Infrequent or non-attender	10.8	66.9	22.3	0

Source: BSA 1989 survey. Weighted data.

Note: Percentages sum across the rows.

Are these differences based on affiliation and when groups are divided by religious practice evident in more recent BSA surveys which have asked questions on faith schools? The BSA 2003 and 2007 surveys asked several identical questions on faith schools, which tap into different aspects of the wider societal debate – for example, whether they should be expanded to meet the demands of parents and families from non-Christian minority faiths, and the perceived better (or worse) social and educational outcomes of faith schools compared to other schools in the state sector.

How much do you agree or disagree that … the government should fund single religion schools if parents want them.

How much do you agree or disagree that … if the government funds separate Christian faith schools, it should also fund separate schools for other faiths.

How much do you agree or disagree that … single religion schools have a better quality of education than other schools.

How much do you agree or disagree that … single religion schools give children a better sense of right and wrong than other schools.

Another question, asked only in the 2007 survey, asked:

How much do you support or oppose having some schools that are linked to a particular religious denomination, such as Roman Catholic?

Responses to these questions are given in Table 3, based on religious affiliation (and this time also including those from non-Christian faiths). For each question, Table 3 reports the response option favourable towards faith schools: those who strongly agree or agree that the government should fund non-Christian faith schools; those who strongly agree or agree the government should fund single religion schools; those who strongly agree or agree that single religion schools have a better quality of education; those who strongly agree or agree that single religion schools give children a better sense of right and wrong; and those who strongly support or support schools that are linked to a particular religious denomination. Before looking in detail at any differences based on affiliation, it is worth noting that between 2003 and 2007, possibly as the issue became a more controversial and prominent aspect of the debate over education policy, views in support of faith schools tended to decline across the different groups.

Table 3: Attitudes towards faith schools, by affiliation

Question	Response option	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
Government should fund non-Christian faith schools	2003: Agree	38.3	56.1	43.1	66.8	41.3
Government should fund non-Christian faith schools	2007: Agree	32.9	49.0	35.2	65.9	35.8
Government should fund single religion schools	2003: Agree	28.2	51.1	32.4	46.1	16.0
Government should fund single religion schools	2007: Agree	24.8	38.7	21.8	36.3	13.8
Single religion schools have a better quality of education	2003: Agree	23.5	40.5	21.2	28.3	12.5
	2007: Agree	21.6	35.7	22.4	30.8	12.6
Single religion schools give children a better sense of right and wrong	2003: Agree	29.8	46.6	32.0	34.1	13.4
	2007: Agree	28.9	39.0	25.9	29.9	11.9
Support schools that are linked to a particular religious denomination	2007: Support	33.3	58.4	31.2	34.5	21.2

Source: BSA 2003 and 2007 surveys. Weighted data.

Looking first at the two questions on government funding of faith schools, it is clear that, in 2003 and 2007, Catholics and those belonging to non-Christian religions are more supportive than Anglicans, other Christians and those with no religion. For example, in 2003, majorities of Catholics and those within non-Christian traditions think that the government should fund faith schools for non-Christian religions; while a majority of the former and a plurality of the latter think the government should, in general, fund faith schools. In terms of the perceived social and educational outcomes of faith schooling, Catholics have the most positive assessments in 2003 and 2007, thinking that faith schools are more likely to provide a better quality of education and to instil a better sense of right and wrong in their pupils. In each case, those belonging to non-Christian religions show the next highest level of positive appraisal. There is a clear divergence in the views of those with and without a religious affiliation, with the latter group much less positive in its views of faith schools. In 2007, 12.6% of those with no affiliation think that such schools provide a better quality of education, while 11.9% think they provide pupils with a better sense of right and wrong. Positive evaluations are much higher across all religious groups, albeit they are usually not a majority.

The question asked only in the 2007 survey (and which, it should be noted, refers to the Roman Catholic faith by way of example), also sorts out the religious and the non-religious to some extent. Again, those with no religion are less supportive of schools linked to particular religious traditions (21.2%). Even so, support amounts to just a third amongst Anglicans, other Christians and non-Christian faiths, but is considerably higher amongst Catholics, at 58.4%, which may partly reflect the specific wording of the question.

As in Table 2, the religious groups in the 2003 and 2007 surveys were subdivided on the basis of their attendance at services, in order to look at attitudinal variation within traditions. Table 4 reports opinions for the same set of questions shown in Table 3. There is a general tendency for those who are frequent attenders – whether Anglican, Catholic or other Christian – to be more supportive of state funding of faith schools and to have more positive appraisals of what they offer to pupils. The highest levels of support – a majority in each case but one – are registered amongst Catholics who attend church on a frequent basis.

Table 4: Attitudes towards faith schools, attendance by affiliation

Question and response option

Anglican: Frequent attender (%)

Anglican: Infrequent or non-attender (%)

Catholic: Frequent attender (%)

Catholic: Infrequent or non-attender (%)

Other Christian: Frequent attender (%)

Other Christian: Infrequent or non-attender (%)

Government should fund non-Christian faith schools: Agree

2003: 50.0

2003: 35.1

2003:

67.9

2003:

44.9

2003:

45.6

2003:

41.5

2007: 37.1

2007: 32.0

2007:

59.8

2007:

41.0

2007:

37.2

2007:

34.0

Government should fund single religion schools: Agree

2003: 42.5

2003: 24.4

2003:

64.5

2003:

38.7

2003:

38.9

2003:

27.8

2007: 41.0

2007: 26.0

2007:

51.0

2007:

29.0

2007:

27.1

2007:

18.4

Single religion schools have a better quality of education: Agree

2003: 36.9

2003: 20.1

2003:

47.7

2003:

33.6

2003:

27.8

2003:

16.7

2007: 40.7

2007: 16.7

2007:

51.0

2007:

23.8

2007:

29.6

2007:

17.6

Single religion schools give children a better sense of right and wrong: Agree

2003: 49.4

2003: 24.6

2003:

56.4

2003:

37.8

2003:

47.0

2003:

21.5

2007: 53.8

2007: 22.6

2007:

53.4

2007:

28.2

2007:

35.4

2007:

19.7

Support schools that are linked to a particular religious denomination: Support

2007: 52.6

2007: 28.8

2007:

76.0

2007:

47.4

2007:

38.9

2007:

25.8

Source: BSA 2003 and 2007 surveys. Weighted data.

As well as attendance, another way of looking at attitudes within religious traditions is on the basis of self-defined religiosity – in this case, how religious individuals are, which was probed in the BSA 2007 survey. For each religious group, respondents have been subdivided into whether they feel (i) very or somewhat religious or (ii) not very or not at all religious. Data are shown in Table 5. Within religious groups, there is marked variation in attitudes towards faith schools on the basis of self-defined religiosity. The general pattern is for those who express a greater degree of religiousness to be more supportive of government funding of faith schools and to have more positive appraisals of what they offer pupils compared to other schools. Amongst Catholics, this is the case for each of the questions. Amongst Anglicans and other Christians, this is also the pattern except for the question on funding faith schools for non-Christian religions, where the differences are much less apparent on the basis of religiosity. The more religious within each group are also much more likely to support schools linked to a particular denomination (with the greatest divergence amongst Catholics and other Christians).

Table 5: Attitudes towards faith schools, religiosity by affiliation

Question and response option	Anglican: Very or somewhat religious (%)	Anglican: Not very or not at all religious (%)	Catholic: Very or somewhat religious (%)	Catholic: Not very or not at all religious (%)	Other Christian: Very or somewhat religious (%)	Other Christian: Not very or not at all religious (%)
Government should fund non-Christian faith schools: Agree	34.5	32.0	55.0	38.4	33.7	37.9
Government should fund single religion schools: Agree	32.1	18.4	42.7	31.2	26.7	14.2
Single religion schools have a better quality of education: Agree	27.3	16.6	46.3	16.5	29.3	11.5
Single religion schools give children a better sense of right and wrong: Agree	36.4	22.2	47.7	23.8	33.3	13.7
Support schools that are linked to a particular religious denomination: Support	38.5	29.2	70.5	37.5	41.5	15.6

Source: BSA 2007 survey. Weighted data.

A question in the 2008 BSA survey also asked about support for faith schools. The question was included in the BSA survey as part of the International Social Survey Programme specialist module on religion. The question was worded as follows:

Some schools are for children of a particular religion. Which of the statements on this card comes closest to your views about these schools.

Table 6 reports the full distribution of responses for this question, based on affiliation. Again, Catholics are most supportive of different religious traditions having faith schools (at 63.3%), with support at similar levels amongst Anglicans, other Christians and non-Christian faiths. Interestingly, over a third of those with no religion also support all religious groups being able to have faith schools. There are generally low levels of support for only some religious groups having their own schools (highest at 16.5% for Anglicans). Catholics are least likely to take the view that there should not be any faith schools (21.6%). This view is more common amongst the other religious groups – Anglicans: 36.3%; other Christians: 37.9%; non-Christian: 44.4% – and is held by nearly half of those with no affiliation (48.3%).

Table 6: Attitudes towards religious groups having their own schools, by affiliation

Response option	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
No religious group should have its own schools	36.3	21.6	37.9	44.4	48.3
Some religious groups but not others should have their own schools	16.5	13.9	14.1	5.7	12.8
Any religious group should be able to have its own schools	44.6	63.3	44.1	48.8	36.8
Don’t know	2.6	1.2	4.0	1.1	2.0

Source: BSA 2008 survey. Weighted data.

Finally, Table 7 shows responses to this question based on attendance within each Christian religious group. For each group, those who are less likely to attend services are more favourable to the view that there should not be any faith schools, highest at over two-fifths for other Christians who go to church (or chapel) infrequently or not at all. Amongst Catholics, support for all groups having their own faith schools varies only a little on the basis of attendance (and is around two-thirds of both groups); whereas, amongst Anglicans and other Christians, frequent attenders are much more likely to express this view. Across each group, the most prevalent opinion is that of allowing all groups to have faith schools with the exception of infrequent or non-attending other Christians, where support for no faith schools is the plurality viewpoint.

Table 7: Attitudes towards religious groups having their own schools, attendance by affiliation

Response option	Anglican: Frequent attender (%)	Anglican: Infrequent or non-attender (%)	Catholic: Frequent attender (%)	Catholic: Infrequent or non-attender (%)	Other Christian: Frequent attender (%)	Other Christian: Infrequent or non-attender (%)
No religious group should have its own schools	24.2	38.9	14.9	25.2	22.3	45.3
Some religious groups but not others should have their own schools	14.3	17.0	18.9	11.5	12.4	14.8
Any religious group should be able to have its own schools	59.3	41.4	66.2	61.8	60.3	36.3
Don’t know	2.2	2.8	0.0	1.5	5.0	3.5

Source: BSA 2008 survey. Weighted data.

Summary

This review of religious groups’ attitudes towards faith schools – across various questions and using different measures of religiosity – points up two noteworthy findings. Firstly, when looking at attitudes on the basis of affiliation, Catholics have tended to hold the most supportive views of faith schools, whether that is for public funding in general or for non-Christian traditions, or in terms of what they offer their pupils compared to other schools. Not surprisingly, those who declare they have no religious affiliation tend to be least favourable towards the claims of faith-based schooling. Secondly, when looking at views within religious groups, it is apparent that the more religious – as manifested in regular attendance and a greater sense of religiousness – have more favourable views of faith schools. Accordingly, the most favourable views are held by more religiously-involved or committed Catholics. There is, then, considerable attitudinal variation within religious groups in terms of support or opposition towards faith schools, and therefore – at the level of ordinary adherents – views do not align with simplistic notions of an overarching religious-secular divide over the appropriate role of religion in the public sphere.

Further reading:

Clements, B. (2010), ‘Understanding public attitudes in Britain towards faith schools’, British Educational Research Journal, 36(6): 953–973.

Patrikios, S. and Curtice, J. (2014), ‘Attitudes Towards School Choice and Faith Schools in the UK: A Question of Individual Preference or Collective Interest?’, Journal of Social Policy, 43(3): 517-534.

Posted in Attitudes towards Religion, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Research note, Survey news, Uncategorized | Tagged British Social Attitudes Survey, education, Faith schools, Religion, Religion and Politics, religious attendance, religious belonging, self-assessed religiosity, Survey Data | Leave a comment

Religious Attitudes Towards Gay Rights in 2013

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Ben Clements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table 1: Attitudes towards lesbian women and gay men

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
*Lesbian women*
Negative	15.1	24.7	18.1	27.4	9.8
Neither	58.9	47.8	61.5	44.2	54.2
NEGATIVE OR NEITHER	74.0	72.5	79.6	71.6	64.0
Positive	22.3	25.7	17.4	16.1	33.0
Can’t choose	3.6	1.8	3.0	12.3	3.1
*Gay men*
Negative	23.9	14.9	24.6	56.2	17.1
Neither	47.6	61.3	44.7	12.6	45.9
NEGATIVE OR NEITHER	71.5	76.2	69.3	68.8	63.0
Positive	25.7	20.3	27.9	20.4	35.5
Can’t choose	2.9	3.5	2.8	10.8	1.5

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

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

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

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

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

Table 2: Attitudes towards parenting

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
Agree	43.0	57.5	39.5	19.1	65.1
Neither	21.5	13.2	22.7	11.4	15.8
Disagree	35.5	29.3	37.8	69.6	19.1

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

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

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

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

Table 3: Attitudes towards equal opportunities

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
Gone too far	47.5	30.0	41.2	55.3	23.1
About right	40.2	46.7	45.3	18.3	44.6
Not gone far enough	8.5	18.4	10.5	11.3	27.5
Don’t know	3.8	4.9	3.1	15.1	4.8

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

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

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

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

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

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

Table 4: Attitudes towards social interaction

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
*Socialising with someone (sports club or leisure activity)*
Comfortable	81.4	76.1	73.8	66.1	87.2
Neither	11.2	18.5	13.0	8.4	8.0
Uncomfortable	7.1	4.5	12.7	17.4	4.2
Don’t know	0.3	0.9	0.6	8.2	0.6
*Talking to someone in a formal setting (workplace or shop)*
Comfortable	83.8	82.9	78.3	65.0	87.7
Neither	11.1	13.0	10.2	10.0	8.4
Uncomfortable	4.7	4.1	11.0	16.9	3.0
Don’t know	0.3	0.0	0.6	8.2	0.9

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Other religion (%)	No religion (%)
*Sexual relations*
1983: Rarely or never wrong	19.5	16.8	15.0	–	29.2
2013: Rarely or never wrong	52.1	65.1	52.7	26.7	81.2
*Right to marry*
2007: Agree	32.0	57.4	40.0	32.0	59.7
2013: Agree	45.6	56.4	43.9	22.5	69.3

Source: Compiled by the author from BritSocAt.

Summary

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

Posted in Research note, Survey news | Tagged Anglicans, Belonging, British Social Attitudes Survey, Christians, gay rights, homosexuality, no religion, Other Religions, Religious Affiliation, Roman Catholics, same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, Social Surveys, Survey Data, tolerance | Leave a comment

British Social Attitudes, 2013

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Clive D. Field

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

http://www.britsocat.com/

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

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

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

Religious affiliation

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

% down	1983	1993	2003	2013
No religion	31.4	36.8	43.4	50.6
Christian – no denomination	3.2	4.6	6.6	11.8
Christian – Church of England	39.9	32.6	26.8	16.3
Christian – Roman Catholic	9.6	10.8	8.9	8.8
Christian – other	14.0	11.8	8.2	4.8
Non-Christian	2.0	3.5	6.0	7.7

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

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

% down	2013	2013	2013
	Upbringing	Current	Change
No religion	19.0	50.6	+31.6
Christian – no denomination	16.7	11.8	-4.9
Christian – Church of England	31.3	16.3	-15.0
Christian – Roman Catholic	14.5	8.8	-5.7
Christian – other	10.4	4.8	-5.6
Non-Christian	8.0	7.7	-0.3

Religious attendance

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

% down	1993	2003	2013
Once a week or more	18.9	13.9	13.1
At least once in two weeks	3.2	2.4	2.5
At least once a month	9.0	5.8	6.4
At least twice a year	16.6	10.1	8.4
At least once a year	8.5	5.8	4.2
Less often	6.1	4.3	5.5
Never	36.7	56.7	58.4
Varies	1.0	1.1	1.4

Christianity and Britishness

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

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

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

% down	1995	2003	2008	2013
Very important	18.5	15.1	6.2	12.5
Fairly important	13.5	15.6	17.4	12.0
Not very important	27.3	23.7	37.3	26.2
Not at all important	35.1	39.0	37.7	45.0
Can/t choose/not answered	5.7	6.6	1.4	4.4

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

Attitudes to Muslims

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

% down	2003	2013
Agree strongly	17.1	35.3
Agree	31.0	26.8
Neither agree nor disagree	17.0	15.0
Disagree	26.1	16.7
Disagree strongly	4.1	5.2
Don’t know/not answered	4.6	0.9

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

% down	2013	2013
	White people	Own reaction
Mind a lot	34.0	23.4
Mind a little	36.3	21.0
Not mind	22.7	51.5
Other/DK/refused	7.0	4.0

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

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

Posted in church attendance, Historical studies, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged British Social Attitudes Survey, Britishness, Christian, church attendance, Immigration, inter-faith marriage, Islamophobia, Muslims, NatCen Social Research, religion of upbringing, Religious Affiliation, truly British | 1 Comment

Christian affiliation in Britain

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Ben Clements

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

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

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

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

Figure 1: Per cent reporting a Christian affiliation

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

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

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

Posted in Measuring religion, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged British Election Study, British Social Attitudes Survey, European Social Survey, European Values Study, opinion polls, Religious Affiliation, Religious Statistics, YouGov | 1 Comment

Religion and social-morality issues in 2012

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Ben Clements

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

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

Abortion
Euthanasia
Homosexuality
Gender roles

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

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

Throughout, the results presented are based on weighted data.

Abortion

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

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

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

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

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

The couple cannot afford any more children.

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

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

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

The woman became pregnant as a result of rape.

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

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

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

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

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

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

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Non-Christian (%)	No religion (%)
Woman decides on her own	41.2	56.8	48.6	52.2	24.5
Woman is not married	42.6	66.1	51.5	36.6	33.0
When the couple agree	29.1	40.0	33.5	32.7	15.3
Couple cannot afford any more children	37.4	55.0	40.5	40.8	24.7
Strong chance of a defect in the baby	14.8	26.7	18.9	30.5	10.6
Woman’s health is seriously endangered	4.2	10.8	7.7	9.0	2.9
Woman becomes pregnant due to rape	3.7	14.4	10.1	19.1	4.3

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

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

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

	Frequently-attends (%)	Infrequently attends (%)	Never attends (%)
Woman decides on her own	58.6	42.7	26.3
Woman is not married	58.6	38.2	34.3
When the couple agree	44.1	25.9	17.6
Couple cannot afford any more children	54.2	30.6	26.4
Strong chance of a defect in the baby	27.6	14.1	11.6
Woman’s health is seriously endangered	13.2	2.4	3.3
Woman becomes pregnant due to rape	20.0	2.9	4.3

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

Assisted dying

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

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

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

Table 3 Attitudes towards assisted dying by religious affiliation

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Non-Christian (%)	No religion (%)
Yes	81.6	68.6	75.0	51.4	88.1
No	13.1	28.1	22.6	48.6	8.8
Not answered	5.3	3.4	2.4	0.0	3.0

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

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

Table 4 Attitudes towards assisted dying by religious attendance

	Frequently-attends (%)	Infrequently attends (%)	Never attends (%)
Yes	53.1	81.2	88.1
No	44.4	16.9	8.2
Not answered	2.5	1.9	3.8

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

Homosexuality

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table 5 Attitudes toward same-sex relations by religious affiliation

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Non-Christian (%)	No religion (%)
Sexual relations between two adults of the same sex: Always / mostly wrong	40.1	35.1	35.4	61.2	15.5
Same-sex marriage: Disagree / strongly disagree	32.5	25.5	31.8	44.0	14.0
Same-sex female couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree	44.7	44.9	42.0	45.2	25.3
Same-sex male couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree	51.2	48.7	45.0	52.4	28.4
Allowed to adopt under same conditions as other couples: No	59.5	49.4	55.6	44.9	33.2

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

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

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

Table 6 Attitudes toward same-sex relations by religious attendance

	Frequently-attends (%)	Infrequently attends (%)	Never attends (%)
Same-sex relations: Always / mostly wrong	52.2	35.0	20.0
Same-sex marriage: Disagree / strongly disagree	46.8	25.4	16.0
Same-sex female couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree	54.9	32.4	30.6
Same-sex male couple bringing up children: Disagree / strongly disagree	59.7	41.7	33.3
Allowed to adopt under same conditions as other couples: No	60.3	50.0	39.0

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

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

Is it acceptable for a homosexual person …

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

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

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Non-Christian (%)	No religion (%)
To hold a responsible position in public life	7.2	5.5	11.2	36.8	2.7
To be a teacher in a college or university	15.3	11.8	13.3	38.1	5.4
To be a teacher in a school	19.2	14.4	15.7	47.2	7.5

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

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

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

	Frequently-attends (%)	Infrequently attends (%)	Never attends (%)
To hold a responsible position in public life	18.3	6.5	4.8
To be a teacher in a college or university	19.4	13.6	8.9
To be a teacher in a school	23.8	17.5	11.0

Source: BSA 2012 survey. Weighted data.

Gender roles

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

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

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

Table 9 Attitudes towards gender roles by religious affiliation

	Anglican (%)	Catholic (%)	Other Christian (%)	Non-Christian (%)	No religion (%)
Strongly agree or agree	16.8	17.3	15.2	28.6	7.8
Neither	22.8	18.7	21.2	31.0	19.5
Disagree or strongly disagree	58.9	64.0	63.6	40.5	72.3
Can’t choose	1.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.4

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

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

Table 10 Attitudes towards gender roles by religious attendance

	Frequently-attends (%)	Infrequently attends (%)	Never attends (%)
Strongly agree or agree	20.8	12.9	10.9
Neither	22.9	23.3	19.8
Disagree or strongly disagree	55.6	63.8	68.8
Can’t choose	0.7	0.0	0.5

Source: BSA 2012. Weighted data.

Summary

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Research note, Survey news | Tagged abortion, assisted dying, British Social Attitudes Survey, gender equality, homosexuality, Religious Affiliation, same-sex marriage | 2 Comments

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