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Climbing the Papal Mountain and Other News

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Today’s post covers three news stories, two of which test public reactions to the religious landscape following, respectively, the resignation of the Pope and last month’s four cases of alleged religious discrimination appealed to the European courts.

Climbing the papal mountain

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to leave office at the end of this month, following the announcement of his resignation, his successor will have a veritable mountain to climb, if he is to hold together the Roman Catholic Church and improve its image and influence with non-Catholics.

In a post-resignation poll only about one-fifth (22%) of adults in Britain now consider the Catholic Church to be a force for good in the world, 45% disagreeing (and thus implicitly saying it is a force for ill), and 32% undecided. If we assume that all professing Catholics reckon their Church to be a force for good, then the corollary is that not much more than one-tenth of the rest of the population does so.

Among all Britons, the number in agreement with the proposition never rises above 28% for any major demographic group (and that for the over-65s, Welsh, and Scots), while dissentients represent a majority of the 45-64s, in the South and North-East of England, and among supporters of several smaller political parties.

Comparison with surveys around the time of the papal visit to Scotland and England in September 2010 indicates that the public standing of the Church has taken a real battering during the final two and a half years of Benedict XVI’s pontificate.

The current 22% positive rating of the Catholic Church contrasts with 31-33% recorded by Opinion Research Business in identical questions about the Church as a force for good on 14-16 and 22-24 September 2010 and 9-11 September 2011; with 41% by Ipsos MORI on 20-26 August 2010; and 47% by Populus on 10-12 September 2010.

Some commentators have argued that modernization of the Catholic Church demands the appointment of the next Pope from the developing rather than the developed world, reflecting the fact that it is in the former that the Church is growing while in the latter it is in decline, notably losing the battle against secularism in Western Europe. The possibility of an African Pope is often mentioned in this context, with Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana the most cited name and, currently, a bookie’s favourite.

Britons, however, do not seem hugely enthusiastic about the prospect of the Church moving in this direction. Asked whether ‘it would be a positive step for the Catholic Church if they chose an African for their next Pope’, 33% agree, with 19% disagreeing, and 48% having no opinion (and probably no real interest in the matter either). The groups most in favour of an African Pope are the 25-34s (42%), Scots (41%), and Labour voters (43%). Most opposed are men (24%), residents of South-West England (28%), and UKIP supporters (26%).

Source: The two questions about the Roman Catholic Church were included in the online regular political survey by ComRes for The Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror on 13-14 February 2013, although it appears that, in the end, neither newspaper made use of these particular findings. The sample comprised 2,002 Britons aged 18 and over. Full data appear on pp. 89-96 of the tables at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/IoS_SM_Political_Poll_Feb_2013.pdf

Wearing religious clothing and symbols at work

Public attitudes to the wearing of religious clothing and symbols in the workplace vary according to the clothing or symbol concerned and to the occupation of the person wearing it.

So finds new research commissioned in the wake of the four British cases of alleged faith discrimination recently adjudicated by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In one of them, the ECHR found against the UK Government in the action brought by Nadia Eweida, who was sent home by her employer (British Airways) in 2006 for refusing to remove a chain necklace with a small silver Christian cross.

In the study, opinion was sought about the entitlement to wear three religious items (a chain necklace with a Christian cross, a Jewish kippah/skullcap, and an Islamic burka) in four professional situations: flight attendant, nurse, teacher, and accountant. The number believing that people in the UK should be allowed to wear the item under each circumstance is as follows:

	Cross	Kippah	Burka
Flight attendant	81	68	22
Nurse	70	60	18
Teacher	77	68	22
Accountant	85	77	47
Mean	78	68	27

The table reveals greatest comfort with individuals wearing the Christian cross at work, albeit this is deemed somewhat less acceptable for a nurse than for the other three occupations. This caveat doubtless reflects recall of the case of Shirley Chaplin whose employers, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, had ordered the removal of her crucifix and chain on health and safety grounds. Chaplin had also appealed to the ECHR but, unlike Eweida, unsuccessfully. Opposition to a nurse wearing a cross peaked at 30% among the 18-24s and Liberal Democrat voters.

The Jewish article of clothing, the kippah, is deemed slightly less acceptable than the Christian symbol, with a mean score ten points lower. Some may find a slight hint of anti-Semitism here. However, a majority of adults still support its wearing in all four contexts, even by nurses where disagreement is greatest (30% overall, and rather more among the over-60s and Conservative voters).

But the burka worn by female Muslims finds no real favour at all, even when worn by an accountant, who is presumably less likely to come into regular contact with the public than a flight attendant, nurse, or teacher. Of course, the fact that the burka is so much larger and more ‘intrusive’ than the other two items (respondents were reminded that it covers the body and face) may well have influenced thinking.

Nevertheless, a plurality (47%) do endorse an accountant wearing a burka, whereas for the other three occupations opposition ranges from 67% to 72%. The over-60s are especially hostile, from 81% to a burka worn by a flight attendant to 86% when worn by a nurse, and a majority (51%) even arguing an accountant should not be allowed to wear it.

Public hostility to the burka has been evidenced in numerous other opinion polls during recent years, as already noted by BRIN. The garment is clearly widely seen as ‘un-British’ and as a manifestation of Muslim reluctance to integrate into mainstream society. Therefore, attitudes to the burka are inextricably bound up with views of Islam, about which there continue to be many reservations relative to Judaism and, still more, to Christianity which is still implicitly regarded as defining Britain’s heritage and culture.

The research is an interesting example of how principles of religious equality and liberty, to which most Britons would doubtless say they are committed, can be qualified when translated into real-life situations which are the cause of controversy and annoyance.

Source: Three online surveys undertaken among Britons aged 18 and over by YouGov for the YouGov-Cambridge think-tank: on 29-30 January 2013 (n = 1,939, on attitudes to the cross); 3-4 February 2013 (n = 1,712, on attitudes to the kippah); and on 30-31 January 2013 (n = 1,914, on attitudes to the burka). The results are discussed in a YouGov-Cambrdige blog post of 20 February 2013 at:

http://www.yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/?p=4412

The detailed data tables are located at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/3xu7auqj0x/YGCam-Archive-results-300113-European-Court-Human-Rights.pdf

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/es1qzi4mv7/YGCam-Archive-results-040213-European-Court-Human-Rights-Kippah.pdf

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ep1emkef5f/YGCam-Archive-results-310113-European-Court-Human-Rights-Burka.pdf

Anglican church-led social action

Four-fifths (82%) of parishes in the Church of England have provided informal support to people in their community who have requested help, and 54% run organized activities to address at least one local social need. The latter figure ranges from 39% of churches whose congregation numbers fewer than 50 people to 94% where it exceeds 250; and from 80% in parishes based on council estates to 47% in the most rural areas. More than one social need is being formally met in 29% of parishes. Activities most commonly offered are: support with school work (69%), care for the elderly (54%), and parent and toddler groups (51%). Food banks are managed by 28% of parishes, although this is now likely to be an underestimate.

Community problems being tackled, formally or informally, by more than two-thirds of parishes comprise lack of self-esteem/hope, homelessness, mental health, and family breakdown/poor parenting. At the other end of the spectrum, more than one-half of parishes admit to doing very little or nothing to alleviate poor housing, benefit dependency, unemployment, unhealthy lifestyles, low education, crime/anti-social behaviour, or low income. While working relationships with schools are active and very close in three-quarters of parishes, the same is true of less than one-fifth in the case of the police, poverty charities, councils, local businesses, and social services.

Source: Online sample survey of Anglican incumbents undertaken by the Church Urban Fund (CUF) on behalf of the Church of England in December 2011. Of the 2,960 clergy invited to participate, 865 or 30% did so. There was an under-representation of rural parishes and small churches in the responses. Key findings are summarized in Bethany Eckley, The Church in Action: A National Survey of Church-Led Social Action, newly published and available at:

http://www.cuf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Research/The_Church_in_Action_Church_Urban_Fund_2013.pdf

It should be noted that this is actually the third report to have been issued by CUF on this survey. The first was Growing Church Through Social Action: A National Survey of Church-Based Action to Tackle Poverty, prepared by Benita Hewitt of Christian Research Consultancy, the agency which undertook the fieldwork; and the second a four-page summary of it, Growing Church Through Social Action. As their titles imply, their focus was especially on the church growth aspects of the research. These earlier reports have already been discussed on BRIN at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/church-growth-and-social-action/

Posted in News from religious organisations, Organisational data, Religion and Social Capital, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged accountants, African Pope, Anti-Semitism, Bethany Eckley, Burka, Christian cross, Christian Research Consultancy, Church of England, Church Urban Fund, clergy, ComRes, European Court of Human Rights, flight attendants, force for good, Independent on Sunday, Islamophobia, kippah, Nadia Eweida, nurses, papacy, parishes, Religious discrimination, religious dress, Roman Catholic Church, Shirley Chaplin, skullcap, social action, Sunday Mirror, teachers, workplace, YouGov, YouGov@Cambridge | Leave a comment

Trust in Clergy and Other News

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Clive D. Field

While waiting for the first tests of public opinion to the sudden resignation of Benedict XVI as Pope, here is a batch of six recently-published sources of British religious statistics on a miscellany of subjects.

Trust in clergy

Clergy/priests are the sixth most trusted group in a list of seventeen read out by Ipsos MORI in a telephone survey of 1,018 Britons aged 18 and over conducted on 9-11 February 2013 and published on 15 February. Clergy/priests were trusted to tell the truth by 66% of the sample, a figure exceeded only for doctors (89%), teachers (86%), scientists (83%), judges (82%), and television news readers (69%).

As might have been anticipated, the list was propped up by estate agents, MPs in general, bankers, journalists, and politicians in general; in each of these cases seven-tenths or more of adults stated that they did not trust these groups to tell the truth. However, 27% also said the same about clergy/priests, with 7% expressing no opinion.

The truthfulness of clergy/priests was not subject to major demographic variations, but it is interesting to note that some of the highest scores came from the 18-24s (72%), owner occupiers (70%), Scots (74%), intending voters for the Conservatives (76%) and UKIP (72%), and from those satisfied with the Coalition Government (75%).

For both topline and detailed data, go to:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3133/Politicians-trusted-less-than-estate-agents-bankers-and-journalists.aspx

Although clergy/priests might well take comfort from their relatively positive performance in this poll, they should not get too complacent. An Ipsos MORI time series clearly shows that trust in them to tell the truth has fallen fairly steadily from 85% in 1983, with the level of distrust rising from 11% in the same year. See:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/Veracity2011.pdf

Beginning of life

People of faith are more likely than those without religion to say that human life begins at conception. Overall, a plurality (44%) of Britons takes this view, but the proportion rises to 50% among Anglicans and Muslims and 60% among Catholics and Baptists, whereas for the ‘nones’ it falls to 34%. For the ‘very religious’, it is higher still: two-thirds of those who say they get some guidance in life from God, religion, religious leaders, or religious teachings. This same set of groups is also three times more likely than the norm to want to see abortion banned altogether: one-fifth or more as opposed to 7% for all respondents.

For adults as a whole, life is thought to start at some point during pregnancy by 30% but not until the baby is born by 17%, both options being selected by an above-average number of persons professing no religion (36% and 21% respectively). Don’t knows amounted to 8%, including one-third of those who preferred not to declare what their religious affiliation was.

The data come from the YouGov survey of 25-30 January 2013 for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, the abortion aspects of which we have already covered in our post of 12 February. The full data tables for all these questions were released on 14 February and are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/a0c0uf8c2g/YouGov-Survey-University-of-Lancaster-Results-130130.pdf

Lenten intentions II

Further to the coverage in our post of 9 February, YouGov has conducted a second online poll about the intended observance of Lent this year. Fieldwork took place on 10-11 February 2013 (before the start of Lent on 13 February) among 1,691 adult Britons aged 18 and over. Of these 27% said that they had plans to give something up for Lent, not dissimilar to the 24% recorded in the earlier poll. Full data tables (which also cover the anticipated consumption of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday) are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/9szci1h69s/YG-Archive-110213-Pancake-Day.pdf

Religious affiliation

The latest survey to collect information about religious affiliation was conducted by ComRes for Marie Curie Cancer Care on 6-8 February 2013. A total of 2,601 Britons aged 18 and over was interviewed online. In reply to the question ‘which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?’ 53% said Christian, 8% non-Christian, and 37% none, with 2% preferring not to say.

The number professing no religion peaked among the under-45s (49% for the 18-24s, 46% for the 25-34s, 43% for the 35-44s), falling to 22% with the over-65s. There was also an above-average proportion of ‘nones’ in the lowest (DE) social group (42%), among private sector workers (42%), in the North East (42%), and in the South East (44%).

People who reported that somebody close to them (a relative or friend) had died in the last three years were somewhat less likely to declare themselves to have no religion (35%) than those who had not been bereaved on this timescale (39%); they were also more prone to say that they were Christian (55% against 52%). Perhaps the proximity of death still exercises a marginal pull towards the religiosity end of the religious-secular spectrum? For more detail, see Table 43 in the dataset at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Marie_Curie_Perceptions_of_Death_Data_February_2013.pdf

Inflated churchgoing

The tendency for respondents in sample surveys to exaggerate the frequency with which they attend public religious services is a well-known fact. It is described, somewhat euphemistically, as ‘measurement error’.

The outcome of the ‘prestige effect’, whereby people are still reluctant to admit that they are not so ‘religious’ as they or society feel they should be, the gap between reality and aspiration can be clearly seen by comparing the number who attended church on a typical Sunday in the last (2005) English Church Census with those claiming to worship weekly in polls around the same time.

However, the phenomenon is by no means peculiarly British but can be found internationally, too, including in North America. Philip Brenner, a sociologist from the University of Massachusetts Boston, is one of the scholars who has studied it, with his most recent research reported in the Winter 2012 issue (Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 361-83) of Sociology of Religion: ‘Investigating the Effect of Bias in Survey Measures of Church Attendance’. It is far from being a light read and will win no prizes for linguistic accessibility! Although this is normally a subscription journal, Brenner’s article is, at the time of writing, free to view (apart from the three appendices) at:

http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/73/4/361.full.pdf+html

Brenner’s approach is to compare the reports of churchgoing in time use diaries with claims made in national sample surveys between the 1970s and early 2000s. Fourteen countries are investigated (United States, Canada, and twelve in Europe). In the case of Great Britain, the evidence derives from a comparison of time diaries for 1974-75, 1983-84, 1987, 2000-01, and 2005 with fifteen multinational surveys of adults from 1975 to 2006 in which fieldwork was undertaken in Britain.

The author’s particular concern is to establish whether the over-reporting of church attendance in surveys is related to the individual demographic ‘predictors’ commonly associated with religious practice. He has therefore compared the replies of sub-groups with regard to Sunday churchgoing in both the diaries and the surveys by means of logistic regression models. The demographic variables employed were: gender, age, marital status, presence of children in the household, educational attainment, and household income. Religious affiliation was excluded through insufficiency of data.

The core of this analysis is to be found in Table 1, which is entitled ‘testing the equality of residual variation assumptions and equality of underlying coefficients’. His principal conclusion (to paraphrase) is that there is very little evidence to suggest that demographic sub-groups respond differentially when reporting churchgoing in sample surveys against time diaries.

The over-reporting of church attendance which Brenner presupposes to exist in North American surveys (but generally not in European ones) is said at one point of the text not to be rooted in demography but to reflect the tendency of North Americans to ‘view religiosity as a more central part of their identities’.

However, in the conclusion, it is admitted (perhaps somewhat contradictorily) that the gap between time diaries and survey results probably reflects differences in data collection method, between directive (in the surveys) and non-directive (in the diaries) techniques.

Anglican episcopate

‘Bishops are a touchy subject within the Anglican Church. They wield a lot of power and matter more than most people realise, but because of this their origins have rarely been studied in a dispassionate way nor their present functions honestly weighed up in the light of the needs of the Church within a modern society’.

In his new book, deriving from his D.Min. thesis at the University of Wales Bangor in 2009, Michael Keulemans (an associate priest of the Church in Wales) attempts to rectify these deficiencies. Bishops: The Changing Nature of the Anglican Episcopate in Mainland Britain (2012) is available in hardcover, softcover, and ebook editions from http://www.XlibrisPublishing.co.uk

Apart from a good deal of historical context, two major surveys are included in the work. The first examines the background and careers of diocesan bishops in England, Wales, and Scotland at twenty-year intervals between 1905 and 2005 (chapters 6, 7, and 8). The second, employing a self-completion postal questionnaire, looks at attitudes towards the bishop’s role of 255 serving clergy and 358 leading laity (churchwardens or equivalent) in four Anglican dioceses (two in England, one each in Wales and Scotland), and compares them with those of 25 bishops who retired between 2000 and 2008 (chapters 10 and 11).

Although now around five years old, the second survey inevitably touches on a couple of issues which remain (controversially) current in the Anglican Communion: practising gay and women bishops. On the latter, 72% of clergy, 67% of laity, and 84% of retired bishops endorsed female bishops. Respondents from the Scottish diocese (Edinburgh) were notably supportive (83% of clergy and 82% of laity). There was much less enthusiasm for practising gay bishops: 30% of clergy, 17% of laity, and 25% of retired bishops.

Posted in church attendance, Historical studies, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged abstinence, beginning of human life, bereavement, Bishops, Church of England, churchgoing, clergy, ComRes, conception, episcopate, gay bishops, Ipsos-MORI, Lent, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Michael Keulemans, Philip Brenner, priests, Religious Affiliation, religious festivals, Sociology of Religion, trust, truth, Westminster Faith Debates, women bishops, Xlibris, YouGov | Leave a comment

Abortion and Other News

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Our lead religious statistical news story today concerns the first release of data from the YouGov poll specially commissioned for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which commences tomorrow. There will be further releases of data in connection with every debate, each covering a specific area of religion and personal life.

Abortion

A new survey has revealed that most religious people are not against abortion and that their views on the topic are not markedly different from those of the public as a whole. The research (in which 4,437 adult Britons were interviewed online on 25-30 January 2013) was commissioned from YouGov by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University in connection with the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which Woodhead has organized in conjunction with Rt Hon Charles Clarke.

According to the poll, 43% of people who identify with a religion are in favour of keeping or raising the current 24-week upper time limit on abortions (compared with 46% of the general population), 30% would like to see it lowered (28%), and 9% support a complete ban on abortion (7%). The remainder is undecided.

Of particular faith traditions, Catholics, Muslims, and Baptists are the most hostile to abortion, but still only about half of them would like to see the law on abortion changed. Even though the Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is always wrong, just 14% of Catholics in this country favour a ban, with 33% wanting to see the 24-week limit lowered. Among Muslims 30% support a ban and 16% would like to see the 24-week limit reduced.

Standard (secular) demographics – such as gender, age, and voting preference – do not make much difference to attitudes to abortion. Individuals most likely to be opposed to it are those: who believe in God with most certainty, who rely most heavily on scripture or religious teachings for guidance in their daily life, and whose religion has a strong anti-abortion message. A mere 8% of the population fits this profile, and of this 8% no more than one-third endorse a ban on abortion.

Among the population as a whole, anti-abortion sentiment is declining and support for current abortion law is growing. Comparisons with earlier YouGov polls reveal that the percentage of adults who would like to see a ban on abortion has fallen from 12% in 2005 to 7% today. Of those who express a view, support for keeping (or even relaxing) the current 24-week limit has risen by about one-third to a clear majority (57%) today.

The full press release about the abortion results of the survey is available at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/westminster_faith_debate_13_02_13_stem_cell_research_abortion_press_release

In an interview with Ben Quinn of The Guardian, Woodhead has commented: ‘The impression one gets from many religious leaders and spokespeople is that most religious people are opposed to the liberalising trend in society. That is just not true and statistics like this give the lie to that view.’ For The Guardian’s coverage, go to:

http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/12/anti-abortion-feelings-declining

The poll findings have been released in connection with the first of the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, on ‘Stem cell research, abortion and the “soul of the embryo”?’ This takes place tomorrow (13 February 2013). However, BRIN readers should note that the debate is full, although names are still being taken for a reserve list.

Anti-Semitic incidents, 2012

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK rose by 5% in 2012, to reach 640, the third highest total since records began in 1984, according to Antisemitic Incidents Report, 2012, published by the Community Security Trust (CST) on 7 February 2013. However, the figure of 640 included ‘100 anonymised incident reports provided by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as part of an incident data exchange programme introduced between CST and MPS in London in 2012. Removing these 100 “extra” incidents – which had been reported to MPS but not directly to CST – to give a “like for like” comparison with 2011, suggests an 11 per cent fall in real terms in the UK-wide antisemitic incident total in 2012.’ Abusive behaviour accounted for the majority of incidents in 2012 (73%), followed by assaults (10%), damage and desecration (8%), and threats (6%). Eighty incidents involved the use of internet-based social media, compared to just 12 in 2011. The 32-page report, containing exhaustive quantitative and qualitative analysis, is available at:

https://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Incidents%20Report%202012.pdf

Believing in belonging

BRIN readers may like to know that a paperback version of Abby Day’s acclaimed 2011 book Believing in Belonging: Belief and Social Identity in the Modern World was published by Oxford University Press on 7 February 2013 (ISBN 978-0-19-967355-1, £25.00). It has a certain topicality in helping to unpack the results of the recently-released religion census of England and Wales in 2011 through its research into ‘performative, nominalist Christianity’ in the 2001 census. Indeed, the central ‘puzzle’ which underpins the work is, considering ‘all forms of public Christian religious participation have been declining for at least the last fifty years’, ‘why would so many non-religious people choose to claim a Christian identity on the census?’ The conundrum is explored by means of a critical reappraisal of the secondary literature (empirical and theoretical) and by qualitative interviews undertaken in North Yorkshire between 2002 and 2005. The 2001 census features particularly in chapters 3 and 9. One of Day’s findings is that, when asked how they had recorded their religious identity at the 2001 census, ‘half of my informants who answered “Christian” were either agnostics or atheists, who either overtly disavowed religion or at least never incorporated religion, Christianity, God, or Jesus into our discussions. They were … functionally godless and ontologically anthropocentric.’ Day feels that the language, form, and location of the questions used in the 2001 census (they varied between the home nations) may have contributed to ‘a false picture of an enduring Christian Britain’ by breaking ‘a number of fairly rudimentary rules about questionnaire design’. Likewise, there are useful summaries in the book of the background to the taking of the 2001 religion census and the ways in which its results were subsequently used in public discourse and policy formation.

BRIN in the media

On the morning of 10 February 2013 Clive Field was interviewed on ten BBC local radio stations about the religious dimensions of the same-sex marriage debate in terms of public opinion, and in the wake of the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. The discussion centred around four main questions:

Has society become more accepting of same-sex marriage?
The growing acceptance of same-sex marriage has coincided with a decline of religion – are the two linked?
The Church of England and the Coalition for Marriage claim that public opinion does not support same-sex marriage – are they right?
What impact will same-sex marriage have on society as a whole?

Field had previously done a series of interviews on Radio 4 and eight BBC local radio stations on 16 December last about the initial results of the 2011 religion census for England and Wales.

Posted in News from religious organisations, Official data, Religion in public debate, Religion in the Press, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged Abby Day, abortion, anti-Semitic incidents, Anti-Semitism, BBC, Ben Quinn, census of population, Charles Clarke, Clive Field, Community Security Trust, Linda Woodhead, nominalist Christianity, Religious Affiliation, religious census, same-sex marriage, The Guardian, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | Leave a comment

Lenten Intentions and Other News

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Clive D. Field

With Lent starting next Wednesday, 13 February, our lead story this week concerns what people say they will be giving up this year, but there is the usual miscellany of other religious statistical news items, too.

Lenten intentions

One-quarter (24%) of British adults said that they intended giving something up for Lent this year, when they were interviewed online by YouGov on 16-18 January 2013, about four weeks before the start of Lent. Chocolate (10%) headed the list of forfeits, followed by alcohol (4%), smoking (3%), and meat (2%).

The poll, of 2,222 persons, was commissioned by the Church Times as part of its sesquicentennial celebrations and is published (with the full data table) in the 8 February issue of the newspaper (p. 5). The article is freely available online at:

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/8-february/news/uk/(tropical)-fish-for-lent-%e2%80%94-young-to-give-up-most

The proportion planning to give something up for Lent varied by demographics, perhaps most interestingly by age. Whereas only one-fifth of the over-35s had abstinence on their mind, the number rose to 30% for the 25-34s and 35% for the 18-24s. Women (27%) aimed to be more observant than men (21%), and non-manuals (26%) more than manuals (22%). Geographically, Scots were least inclined to make any sacrifices (16%) and Midlanders the most (29%).

It would seem reasonable (if cynical) to assume that many of these good intentions will not translate into reality once Lent begins. Certainly, a YouGov poll on 22-23 February 2012, when Lent had already started, discovered that only 12% had actually given anything up. However, in age terms, it also found Lenten observance peaking among the 18-24s (19%), albeit the most dutiful group of all last year was the self-proclaimed very or fairly religious (28% of whom had given something up).

Respondents this year were additionally asked to write down, in free text, what they understood Lent to mean. Only 10% had to admit that they did not know what it was. A plurality (49%) described it as a time for giving things up, 43% as the period before Easter, 40% as a Christian festival, and 28% mentioned that it lasted 40 days or six weeks. These answers were not mutually exclusive. Possibly the most intriguing definition to be offered was that Lent is ‘a type of tropical fish’.

Opinion formers and same-sex marriage

An online survey of UK opinion formers (or ‘influentials’, drawn from politics, business, media, academia, non-governmental organizations, and the public sector), undertaken by YouGov in late January 2013, has revealed a division of view about the provisions of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill as regards the marriage of sex-sex couples in places of worship. Essentially, the Bill permits most religious organizations to conduct such marriages but on an opt-in basis, the exceptions being the Church of England and Church in Wales who are effectively banned from marrying same-sex couples.

Among influentials, 39% are in support of these provisions regarding same-sex marriages in places of worship, 38% are opposed, and 23% undecided. This spread of opinion was found to be consistent across political party lines. The proportion opposed to these provisions is lower than reject the whole concept of same-sex marriage (27%), perhaps suggesting that many influentials favour same-sex marriage but feel it should be possible to be conducted in places of worship without restriction, and not just in civil venues. Overall, 58% of influentials back same-sex marriage, a similar number to the British public in other recent YouGov surveys.

Full data are not yet available online, but there is a YouGov press release at:

http://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/02/07/uk-influentials-back-gay-marriage/

Catholic MPs and same-sex marriage

Notwithstanding the strong opposition to same-sex marriage of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales, the majority of Catholic MPs voted for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in the crucial Second Reading debate in the House of Commons on 5 February 2013. This is according to an analysis by The Tablet (9 February 2013, p. 30). Out of at least 82 Catholic MPs, 57% voted for the Bill, 34% against, and 9% did not register a vote. The figures of Catholic MPs for the three main political parties are:

	Con	LibDem	Lab
For the Bill	12	2	32
Against the Bill	11	2	15

Roman Missal

It is over a year since Catholic parishes in English-speaking countries started to use the revised English translation of the Missale Romanum edition tertia, which aimed to offer a more literal rendition of the Latin, replacing the translation introduced after Vatican II, with its emphasis on capturing the sense of the words.

However, ‘Catholic opinion remains split down the middle over the new English text of the Mass, an online survey by The Tablet has revealed. Catholics in the UK and Ireland are more critical of the document than their counterparts in the United States. Overall, 70 per cent of the clergy who responded to our questions are unhappy with the new text and want to see it revised’. The survey ran from 5 December 2012 to 9 January 2013.

A self-selecting (and thus potentially unrepresentative) group of 5,795 persons completed the questionnaire. Virtually all described themselves as practising Catholics attending Mass at least once a week. Of these 2,538 lived in the UK and Ireland.

A summary of the survey by Abigail Frymann and Elena Curti appears in the print edition of The Tablet for 9 February 2013 (pp. 8-9), as well as on the magazine’s website. On the latter will also be found eight detailed reports, of results for: all respondents; UK and Ireland; USA; Australia; clergy; religious and consecrated; those preferring the Ordinary Form; and those preferring the Extraordinary Form. These can be read at:

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/blogs/468/26

Focusing on the UK and Ireland data, we find that 63% of Catholics dislike the new translation against just 35% who like it, with 2% not noticing much difference. There has been some changing of minds: before its introduction, 5% were looking forward to the translation but now do not like it, whereas 7% were previously apprehensive but have grown to like the new translation. On the other hand, given the choice, only 22% elect for the new translation, 63% wanting to revert to the old translation, and 15% to the Latin version in either the Ordinary or Extraordinary Form.

Among the more unpopular features of the new text in the UK and Ireland are the ‘obsequious and distracting florid language’ (disapproved of by 64%), the ‘special language’ used to address God (60%), and the more formal style (59%). Three-quarters (76%) report that they always or sometimes see people around them in the pews struggling to follow the text, and 57% that the priest had experienced difficulties in saying the new eucharistic prayers (31% that he continues to do so). Three-fifths (62%) agree that the new translation requires urgent revision.

Mapping the 2011 religion census

The Office for National Statistics has released a searchable interactive map for the 2011 religion census of England and Wales, which will enable BRIN users to visualize the high-level (nine-category) religious profile of their local areas and to make comparisons with 2001. Go to:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/interactive/census-map-2-1—religion/index.html

Meanwhile, Alex Singleton (Lecturer in Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool) has launched the 2011 Census Open Atlas, utilizing the Key Statistics variables from the 2011 census of England and Wales to generate an atlas of vector PDF maps of the results for each local authority area. The high-level (nine-category) religion variable (KS209EW) is one of those to be mapped in each atlas. For more information, and to download each local atlas (note: the files are necessarily large), go to:

http://www.alex-singleton.com/2011-census-open-atlas-project/

Posted in News from religious organisations, Official data, Religion and Politics, Religion in the Press, Religious Census, Survey news, visualisation | Tagged Abigail Frymann, abstinence, Alex Singleton, Catholic MPs, census of population, Census Open Atlas, Church Times, Elena Curti, Lent, mapping, Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, Mass, Missale Romanum edition tertia, Office for National Statistics, opinion formers, places of worship, religious festivals, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Missal, same-sex marriage, The Tablet, YouGov | Leave a comment

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The increasingly heated controversy over the Coalition Government’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales shifts to Parliament tomorrow (5 February 2013), with the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons. It therefore seems a good point to take stock of what we know about the religious dimensions of the same-sex marriage issue.

Attitudes of faith groups to same-sex marriage

In terms of British public opinion overall, most recent polls are reporting that an absolute majority of adults now favours the legalization of same-sex marriage. YouGov’s last three polls (between December 2012 and February 2013) have all recorded 55% for and 36% against. The latest surveys (December 2012) by Survation, ICM, and Ipsos MORI found majorities of 60%, 62%, and 73% respectively. Where trend data exist, holding question-wording constant, they reveal that support for same-sex marriage has been building slowly but steadily over time.

Notwithstanding there have been many polls on the subject, and that religious leaders have been at the forefront of opposition to same-sex marriage, few data exist about the attitudes to it of adherents of particular faiths. A notable (but limited) exception has been YouGov, whose surveys in March and November 2012 both included breaks for professing Anglicans, who were less positive than average about same-sex marriage.

For example, in November 2012, when 51% of all adult Britons wanted the law changed to permit same-sex marriage, the proportion among Anglicans stood at only 41%, with a plurality of Anglicans (47%) actually opposed to the legislation. Back in March 2012, a mere 24% of Anglicans said that they would support same-sex marriage, against 46% who endorsed civil partnerships. Moreover, 65% vindicated the Church of England’s stance in defending marriage as an institution for just heterosexual couples (18% more than in the population as a whole).

Another YouGov poll (November-December 2011) contrasted the views of those professing some religion and those who had none. At that stage, 71% of Britons agreed with Government plans to ‘extend the legal form and name of civil marriage to same-sex couples’, but the number rose to 82% among those with no religion and fell to 58% for those professing some faith. Similarly, 15% more of the former than the latter (88% versus 73%) backed civil partnerships.

Beyond that, at least in terms of poll data which have fully entered the public domain, one has to go back to the British Social Attitudes Surveys in 2007 and 2008 for a full profile of attitudes to same-sex marriage by religion. Different questions were asked in each year, so direct comparison is not possible. However, in 2007 people of no faith had an 11% more positive attitude to same-sex marriage than the norm and in 2008 9% more. Almost at the other end of the spectrum, Anglicans had, respectively, 27% and 22% less positive views than those without a religion. Christians other than Anglicans and Catholics were also relatively unsympathetic to same-sex marriage at that point.

An even firmer line has been taken by regular churchgoers, surveyed by ComRes in October 2011 and June-July 2012. At the former date, 83% declared their opposition to Government plans to legalize same-sex marriage, 93% fearing that ministers of religion would have to conduct gay marriages against their conscience, 88% that schools would be required to teach children that same-sex relationships are on an equal footing as heterosexual relationships, and 85% that the value of marriage would be further undermined.

As many as 57% of regular churchgoers in October 2011 claimed that they would be less likely to vote Conservative as a result of Prime Minister David Cameron’s commitment to legalize same-sex marriage, and the figure was still 58% in June-July 2012. At this second date, 75% reported that their perceptions of Cameron had worsened in the light of his Government’s desire to change the definition of marriage, while 65% said the same about Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The suggestion that the threat to the institution of marriage posed by same-sex unions might have been overblown was dismissed by 69%.

Same-sex marriages in places of worship

In an endeavour to placate religious opinion, the Government, in drafting the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, has tried to ensure that no religious body would be forced to conduct same-sex weddings in places of worship against its will. The measure contains a so-called ‘quadruple lock’ to guard against this possibility, including clarification that the duty of the Church of England and the Church in Wales to marry parishioners ‘does not extend to same-sex couples’, thereby (it is claimed) protecting them from legal challenge.

The ‘compromise’, albeit most faith bodies do not necessarily regard it in that light, seems to have muddied the waters somewhat so far as public opinion is concerned. In its latest poll (January-February 2013) YouGov charted a spread of views: 9% feeling that all religions should be required to conduct same-sex marriages; 40% that all religions should be empowered to perform such ceremonies if they wished to; 24% that religions should be so empowered but that the law should protect the freedom of those bodies who wished to prevent same-sex marriages occurring on their premises; and 20% that no religion should be entitled to conduct same-sex marriages.

Ipsos MORI’s poll in December 2012 revealed a bigger proportion (28%) wanting the law to require religions to provide weddings for same-sex couples, but far more (45%) wished to see no such requirement, the residuum of 24% opposing same-sex marriages in any location. On the other hand, as many as 40% of Britons in the OnePoll study in May 2012 wished to see same-sex couples having the opportunity to get married in church if that is what they desired to do.

In another YouGov survey (December 2012), which predated publication of the Bill, the topic was approached in a different way. British adults were then inclined, in the matter of religious marriages, to put the interests of faith bodies above sexual equality: 46% believed that, ultimately the right of Churches to restrict religious marriages to men and women should take precedence over the rights of same-sex couples, with only 27% taking the opposite line. A slim plurality (45%) wanted the law to keep religious weddings to those between a man and a woman, just 4% ahead of those who disagreed. However, a majority (53%) also wanted religions to have the legal option to offer same-sex marriages, if they wanted, albeit this was 18% down on the level in the YouGov survey of November-December 2011.

As for the position of the Church of England, Survation found in December 2012 that a majority (58%) defended its entitlement to oppose same-sex marriage, twice the number in disagreement, but in a YouGov poll in November 2012 more said that the Church was wrong (48%) than right (39%) to oppose same-sex marriage. At the same time, certainly by December 2012, most Britons wanted individual Anglican clergy to have the discretion to offer religious weddings to same-sex couples if they could do so in good conscience: 62% expressed this desire in a ComRes poll and 54% in the Survation one (with 35% arguing the opposite, that the Government should make it illegal for any Anglican clergy to conduct same-sex marriages until such time as the Church’s governing body approves the idea).

The concern for faith bodies, of course, is that however confident the Government may be about the security of its ‘quadruple lock’, the courts – whether British or European – might have other ideas. The public feels that there may be some ground for this anxiety, 34% in YouGov’s poll in December 2012 considering there was a risk, following legislation, that the courts would force places of worship to conduct same-sex marriages whether they wanted to or not; 43% deemed the prospect unlikely, with 23% undecided.

Regular churchgoers have particular concerns in this regard. In the ComRes survey of June-July 2012, 79% disbelieved Government assurances that places of worship would not be forced to conduct same-sex marriages, and 86% were apprehensive that the courts in Britain or the European Court of Human Rights would overturn any legal protections.

These churchgoers will be further discouraged by the fact that 50% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (LGBs) interviewed by ComRes in January 2013 fully expected the European courts eventually to remove any statutory restrictions on access to same-sex weddings in places of worship. Three-fifths of LGBs at that time, and in another ComRes poll in April-May 2012, contended that true marriage equality would only be achieved when same-sex couples had the identical choice of marriage locations as heterosexuals. Indeed, 35% of LGBs at the earlier date wanted the Government to force faith groups to offer religious ceremonies from the start.

Conclusion

Although more research is needed into the attitudes of members of faith groups to same-sex marriage, it seems undeniable that the opposition to the Government’s plans does come disproportionately from people of faith, and that the more committed that faith (for example, in terms of regular churchgoing), the stronger the defence of the ‘traditional’ concept of marriage between a man and a woman. Even 42% of all Britons interviewed by Survation in December 2012 recognized that ‘marriage is a sacred act between a man and a woman and cannot be a sacred act between same-sex couples’.

The opposition to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on the part of most major faith bodies (the exceptions are really quite small in terms of their active memberships) has undoubtedly been accentuated by fears that the ‘quadruple lock’ would not withstand serious legal challenge, particularly from Europe, and by what appear to many to be the muddying of the divide between civil and religious marriages in the provisions of the Bill. The latter undoubtedly seem to have triggered quite a wide range of views.

In practice, most pundits expect that, notwithstanding the prospect of blood on the Conservative benches, the Bill will clear the House of Commons, thanks to Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs’ support. In its blog of 16 January 2013, the Coalition for Equal Marriage, the pro-same-sex marriage lobby, reported that ‘for the first time, a majority of MPs have committed to vote for a change in the law to lift the ban on same-sex marriage in England and Wales’. The Bill’s passage in the House of Lords is less predictable. As BRIN noted on 12 January, the latest ComRes survey among peers suggests there could be major resistance on the Conservative benches.

It is hopefully superfluous to caution that it would be potentially misleading to generalize from attitudes to the specific measure of same-sex marriage to opinions of gay rights as a whole. It does not follow that, because faith bodies have significant objections in principle to what they see as the undermining of the traditional view of marriage, they are homophobic. We will have to leave for another day a broader review of the changing perceptions of homosexuality among faith groups. In the meantime, interested readers could start with the research by Dr Ben Clements of the University of Leicester, which was posted on BRIN on 12 June 2012.

In order to keep this post relatively brief and uncomplicated, source references have not been given to the many opinion polls mentioned above. In most cases, topline and/or disaggregated data can be found on the websites of the polling agencies concerned. BRIN has collated all recent opinion polls on the subject of same-sex marriage, not just those pertaining to the religious aspects, in connection with research for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates. This collation will eventually appear on the BRIN website.

Posted in Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Research note, Survey news | Tagged British Social Attitudes Surveys, Church of England, ComRes, courts, David Cameron, government, homosexuality, ICM, Ipsos-MORI, legislation, lesbians/gays/bisexuals, Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, OnePoll, places of worship, religious marriages, same-sex marriage, Survation, YouGov | 1 Comment

More Census Data and Other News

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Clive D. Field

It is a matter of two quantitative steps forward and one back this week. On the upside, more religion data have been released from the 2011 census and new survey research has been commissioned for the 2013 Westminster Faith Debates. On the downside, the standard published source of national-level Roman Catholic statistics in England and Wales has been discontinued.

More census data

The Office for National Statistics released further micro-level data from the 2011 religion census of England and Wales on 30 January 2013. The following religion reference tables are now available in Excel format by clicking the links to ‘key statistics’ and ‘quick statistics’ at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-and-quick-statistics-for-parishes-and-parliamentary-constituencies-in-england-and-wales/index.html

TABLE KS209EW – 9 category classification of religion for:

regions, counties, London boroughs, districts, and unitary authorities in England and Wales
unitary authorities in Wales

TABLE QS210EW – 58 category classification of religion for:

regions, counties, London boroughs, districts, and unitary authorities in England and Wales
regions, counties, London boroughs, districts, unitary authorities, and wards in England and Wales
regions, districts, Middle Layer Super Output Areas, and Lower Layer Super Output Areas in England and Wales
unitary authorities in Wales
unitary authorities and electoral districts in Wales
Middle Layer Super Output Areas, Lower Layer Super Output Areas, and Output Areas in London
Ditto in Eastern England
Ditto in the East Midlands
Ditto in the North East
Ditto in the North West
Ditto in the South East
Ditto in the South West
Ditto in the West Midlands
Ditto in Wales
Ditto in Yorkshire and the Humber

Meanwhile, church statistician Peter Brierley has continued his analysis of the 2011 religion census data in the current issue (No. 25, February 2013) of FutureFirst, the bimonthly bulletin of Brierley Consultancy. There is an article on ‘Census Sense’ on pp. 1-2 of the main bulletin, and further detail on pp. 1-2 of an accompanying paper on ‘Religion, Age, and Gender from the 2011 Census’. Brierley is also offering (for £2) a 2,800-word report on Making Sense of the Census. For more information, contact Brierley Consultancy, 1 Thorpe Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent, TN10 4PW, email peter@brierleyres.com

In ‘Census Sense’ Brierley hypothesizes that the decrease of 3.8 million in the number of professing Christians in England between 2001 and 2011 is accounted for by an addition of 1 million new Christians less 4.3 million Christians who died during the decade less 0.5 million other losses to Christianity between 2001 and 2011.

In ‘Religion, Age, and Gender’ Brierley directly addresses the question of whether Christianity in Britain will die out. He concludes: ‘We are not yet in the final generation of Christians, and the next generation will not be the last either, but the Christian scene is likely to alter very considerably over the next 20 years or so’. He further suggests that ‘the Church of England’s actuaries forecasting that Anglican church attendance could drop 58% by 2030 is about right for most of the other denominations also’.

Westminster Faith Debates

The 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which aims to ‘bring the best research and thinking on religion into public debate’, is about to commence. Organized by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University and Rt Hon Charles Clarke under the auspices of the Religion and Society Programme, the theme of the series is ‘Religion and personal life’. The debates take place in central London, as follows:

Wednesday, 13 February: ‘Stem cell research, abortion, and the “soul of the embryo”?’
Wednesday, 27 February: ‘Too much sex these days – the sexualisation of society?’
Thursday, 14 March: ‘Is it right for religions to treat men and women differently?’
Wednesday, 27 March: ‘What’s a traditional family and do we need it?’
Thursday, 18 April: ‘Do Christians really oppose gay marriage?’
Thursday, 2 May: Should we legislate to permit assisted dying?’

For full details of speakers and how to register to attend, go to:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/faith_debates

To inform this year’s series of debates, the organizers have commissioned YouGov to conduct original online research into the issues which will be covered. Fieldwork took place on 25-30 January 2013 with 4,437 adult Britons, a much larger sample than in most opinion polls. In addition to three or four topical questions for each debate, there are a dozen or so background questions to measure the religion of respondents, thus permitting multiple cross-tabulations.

Results of this YouGov survey will be incrementally released in connection with each of the debates and will also be selectively covered on BRIN at the same time. To contextualize the findings, BRIN has researched comparative poll data for Britain since 2005. Also watch out for the series of articles linked to the debates which will be published in The Tablet on 9 and 23 February, 9 and 23 March, and 13 and 27 April.

Roman Catholic statistics

The 2013 edition of the annual (commercially published) Catholic Directory of England and Wales is the first for exactly a century not to include a section on Catholic statistics. In the absence of any central statistical unit in the English and Welsh Church, the Catholic Directory has long performed a useful public service in collating the figures gathered annually by each of the 22 dioceses. The volume and range of this information had already been thinned out by the Catholic Directory over recent years, but now it has come to a grinding halt.

The editor of the publication explains the decision to discontinue the statistical section thus: ‘For some time I have been troubled by the lack of consistency from one year to the next. Rather than publish potentially misleading information, it would be better to apply to the individual dioceses for up-to-date details as and when required’.

Even though the data were known to be of variable quality, and have been extensively critiqued by commentators such as Tony Spencer, the Catholic Directory has been an accessible national-level source, especially for those outside the Church. The editor’s advice to make enquiries of multiple dioceses is hardly helpful or practicable, especially for the all important pastoral and population statistics.

One can but hope that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales will now act to plug the hole. We understand that the Conference’s Department of Evangelisation and Catechesis is in the process of scoping a project to obtain a more accurate picture of the make-up of the Catholic community in England and Wales. This is to be warmly welcomed and, if implemented, would address the internal data requirements of the Church as well as the public interest, thereby avoiding potentially ill-founded estimates.

Posted in Attitudes towards Religion, News from religious organisations, Official data, Religion in public debate, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged Catholic Directory of England and Wales, census of population, Charles Clarke, Linda Woodhead, Office for National Statistics, personal life, Peter Brierley, religious census, Roman Catholic Church, The Tablet, Tony Spencer, Westminster Faith Debates, YouGov | Leave a comment

Demographics of Atheism

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Clive D. Field

On 7 December 2012 Atheist Alliance International, a global network of atheist and freethought groups and individuals, launched its so-called Atheist Census online, in order ‘to count and collect demographic information on the world’s atheists’. It was relaunched on 16 December following a denial of service attack on the census website, whose URL is:

http://www.atheistcensus.com/

Like many online surveys, the Census is based on a self-selecting sample of people volunteering to register their details, although, to guard against misuse, they cannot do so anonymously but have to provide an email address and validate their personal information by clicking on an email confirmation link. If they fail to do so, their submission is deleted after 24 hours. Of course, those possessing multiple email accounts can still make multiple returns.

Self-evidently, this methodology will not produce a random or otherwise scientifically representative body of data. Nevertheless, given the relative absence of quantitative research into non-religion, the results of the Census are not without interest, not least considering the large number of entries attracted thus far.

The Census is ongoing, with no apparent cut-off date, and the following tables of percentages have been generated from the database as it stood on 26 January 2013 (comprising 172,461 respondents globally, 12,215 of whom were from the UK).

Gender

	UK	Global
Men	77.9	73.9
Women	21.6	25.5
Other	0.5	0.6

Atheists are disproportionately male, and particularly so in the UK.

Age

	UK	Global
15-24	24.4	30.4
25-34	25.8	35.9
35-44	22.8	18.1
45-54	15.8	9.2
55-64	8.0	4.4
65+	3.3	2.0

Globally, two-thirds of atheists are adults aged 15-34, but in the UK the proportion is only one-half. All older age groups record more atheists in the UK than in the world, with 11% more for the 35-54s and 5% more for the over-55s.

Highest educational achievement

	UK	Global
Postgraduate	21.7	19.5
University or college	58.5	60.1
Trade qualification	7.1	6.0
Secondary	12.6	13.0
Primary	0.0	1.5

Four-fifths of atheists have been educated to tertiary level, the proportion being slightly higher in the UK than globally, especially for postgraduates.

Religious background

	UK	Global
Christianity excluding Catholicism	51.0	33.7
Catholicism	14.2	31.6
Islam	1.0	9.6
Judaism	0.9	2.2
Hinduism	0.5	2.1
Buddhism	0.0	0.7
Other religion	1.4	2.3
No religion	30.9	17.7

Only a minority of atheists have non-religious backgrounds, although this is more likely to be the case in the UK than globally. In both instances 65% have Christian backgrounds, albeit UK atheists are only half as likely to have been raised as Catholics. Very few UK atheists have non-Christian backgrounds.

Self-description

	UK	Global
Atheist	69.7	63.6
Non-religious	7.5	7.7
Agnostic	2.9	7.4
Humanist	8.6	7.1
Freethinker	3.9	6.7
Rationalist	3.8	4.1
Secularist	1.4	1.5
Other	2.3	2.0

More UK atheists describe themselves as atheists than is the case in the world as a whole. Nevertheless, 30% prefer some alternative descriptor, humanist and non-religious being the most favoured.

There is a cautious reaction to the Census in Stewart Ware’s commentary in the current issue of the National Secular Society’s ezine at:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/newsline-25-january-2013.pdf

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion Online | Tagged atheism, Atheist Alliance International, Atheist Census, non-religion, Stewart Ware | Leave a comment

North African Islamism and Other News

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The threat posed by Islamism in North Africa is the lead story in today’s round-up of religious statistical news, with two of the other three items concerning the role of religion in state education.

North African Islamism

Recent events in Mali and Algeria have raised the profile of ‘Islamist militants in North Africa’ to such an extent that 23% of Britons now consider them to be a great threat to this country and a further 43% a minor threat. Those regarding them as some kind of threat are concentrated among Conservative voters (77%) and the over-60s (81%, almost double the number of 18-24s, 42%, holding this view). Only 19% of Britons deem North African Islamism to pose little or no threat, with 15% undecided (including more than one-fifth of the under-40s).

Source: Online survey by YouGov of 2,119 Britons aged 18 and over on 21 and 22 January 2013. Full data posted on 24 January at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/rnrn313ieq/YouGov-Survey-Terrorism-220113.pdf

Faith schools

Almost half (49%) of Britons support making all state schools secular, and thus severing existing links with particular religions. This is 11% more than implicitly back the status quo arrangement for faith schools, with 14% uncertain. The demographics of support for the proposition are interesting. Men (54%) are more in favour than women (44%), which was predictable. The age breaks are more surprising, almost the reverse of what might have been expected: it is the over-60s (54%) who most support ‘secularization’ of state schools and the 18-24s (42%) who are the least sure. Is this a tacit expression of the elderly’s suspicion of Islam and Muslim schools? Geographically, it is in Scotland (63%) where opposition to faith schools peaks, perhaps reflecting the long-standing controversies around the position of Roman Catholic state schools in Scotland. Parents of children in the state primary sector (where the majority of faith schools in Britain are to be found) are somewhat less in favour of secular schools than parents of children in the secondary sector, 42% versus 51% respectively. Conservative voters (48%) are only slightly less likely than Labourites (52%) to want to abolish faith schools.

Source: Online survey by YouGov of 1,750 Britons aged 18 and over undertaken on 6 and 7 January 2013 for Prospect magazine. Full data tables were posted on 24 January, to coincide with publication of Peter Kellner’s feature about the survey in the February 2013 issue of Prospect. The tables are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/gzklm8utri/YG-Archive-Prospect-results-070113-education-state-schools.pdf

EBacc and RE

The Government’s introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is having a negative impact on school provision of non-EBacc subjects, including religious education (RE), according to a new survey of schoolteachers. Among respondents, 13% reported a decline in provision for RE in their schools as a consequence of the EBacc (3% more than recorded that their schools were planning to cut RE in a similar survey in May 2011). Comparable reductions in provision for other non-EBacc subjects were: 14% for citizenship, music, and personal, social and health education; 15% for information and communication technology; and 16% for art, and design and technology.

Source: Online survey of over 2,500 schoolteachers by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the largest teachers’ union. No methodological details were given in the press release about the survey issued by the NASUWT on 23 January 2013. However, by analogy with the 2011 study, it seems probable that the sample comprised members of the NASUWT working in secondary schools in England, and reporting on the experiences of their own schools. The press release can be found at:

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/Whatsnew/NASUWTNews/PressReleases/EBaccSurvey#

Ageing priests

Quite a bit is known about the age profile of Church of England clergy (see, for example, Tables 23 and 24 in Church Statistics, 2010/11), but less information has been available about Roman Catholic priests. Now, thanks to new research by the Movement for Married Clergy (MMC), we know that only 4% of secular clergy in England and Wales in 2012 were aged 40 and under, and 38% aged 60 and under. That left 27% aged 61-70 and 35% over 70 years. Projecting the data forward by a decade, the MMC notes ‘a danger sign about replacement’, not least considering that, although ‘secular priests continue to remain in parishes until 70, the most effective work is done by those below the age of 60’.

Source: Analysis by the MMC of the dates of birth of 1,074 secular priests in seven English and Welsh dioceses in 2012, representing 26% of all such priests in England and Wales. Information was either extracted from published diocesan directories or provided by diocesan offices. The analysis is unpublished but has been generously supplied to BRIN by Dr Michael Winter, MMC’s chairman. It should be noted that the snippet about the study in the Catholic Herald of 18 January 2013 is garbled.

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Survey news | Tagged EBacc, English Baccalaureate, Faith schools, Islamism, Islamist militants, Movement for Married Clergy, NASUWT, National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, North Africa, priests, Prospect, religious education, Roman Catholic Church, state schools, terrorism, YouGov | 1 Comment

Britishness and Other News

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The lead item in today’s round-up of religious statistical news sheds some light on the phenomenon of cultural Christianity which arises in connection with the 2011 religious census. In keeping with BRIN’s objectives, we also find space for some historical data which exemplify that the symptoms of what we now describe as secularization have chronologically deep roots.

Britishness

The number of professing Christians in England and Wales revealed by the 2011 census (59%) may have dropped significantly since 2001, but many commentators still feel the proportion to be inflated through an association in the popular mind between Christianity on the one hand and nationality or ethnicity on the other. To declare oneself to be Christian, it is argued, still seems for many, within the British cultural and historical context, to be a function of being British/English and/or of being white.

Notwithstanding, a new poll finds that just 7% of Britons agree that being Christian is an important attribute for being British. This compares with 50% who say that Britishness equates with respect for people’s right to free speech, 46% with respect for the law, 41% with speaking English, 38% with treating men and women equally, 29% with respect for all ethnic backgrounds, 26% with respect for all faiths, 26% with being born here, and 21% with voting in elections. Only being white (6%) scores lower than being Christian. Demographically, the number citing being Christian peaks among the over-45s (11%), those with no formal educational qualifications (11%), and readers of mid-market newspapers such as the Daily Mail and Daily Express (12%).

In answer to another question, tensions between different religions are (at 26%) the sixth most cited (of ten) causes of division in British society, after tensions between immigrants and people born in Britain (57%), between tax payers and welfare claimants (47%), between rich and poor (35%), between different ethnicities (33%), and between tax payers and tax avoiders (32%). However, tensions between different religions are ranked lower (seventh, at 16%) as a cause of division in the respondent’s local area. All percentages are the sums of those ranking each cause in first, second or third position.

Source: Online interviews with 2,515 Britons aged 16-75 between 23 and 27 November 2012, undertaken by Ipsos MORI on behalf of British Future, a think tank which seeks to encourage debates on identity, integration, migration, and opportunity. Topline data are available in State of the Nation: Where is Bittersweet Britain Heading?, edited by Rachael Jolley and published by British Future on 14 January 2013 at:

http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/State-of-the-Nation-2013.pdf

Detailed computer tabulations, with breaks by demographics, can be found at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/British%20Future_Weighted%20Tables%20FINAL.pdf

Church social action

Notwithstanding the economic recession, and the mounting difficulties of attracting external grants, the UK’s churches have actually increased their investment in local social action initiatives during the past two years, according to research released on 20 December 2012. Funds given by UK church members and which were spent on such initiatives climbed by 19% during this period, to reach £342 million. The amount of time spent by church volunteers on social action initiatives rose by 36% over the same timescale, to stand at 98 million hours. In addition, paid church staff members commit 55 million hours to these initiatives. The overall value of such voluntary and salaried endeavour in 2012 is estimated to have been worth £1.925 billion per annum, at the level of the average wage, rising to £2.5 billion if other direct and indirect church contributions are factored in. The mean number of social action projects undertaken by a church grew from 5.7 in 2010 to 8.2 in 2012, and 58% of churches plan to scale up their social activities in the next 12 months. All the statistics exclude voluntary work undertaken by Christians in the community outside a church context.

Source: Survey of several thousand churches of all denominations in the UK during the autumn of 2012, of whom 359 replied. This is a low response rate, and, accordingly, the sample may not necessarily be representative of all UK churches, which has implications for the scaling-up of data to national level. Specifically, it is acknowledged that the sample is skewed towards medium-sized places of worship. Results (sometimes broken down by church size and location, and including comparisons with a similar survey in autumn 2010) are summarized in Geoff Knott, Church and Community Involvement: National Church Social Action Survey Results, 2012, published by Jubilee+ and the ACT Network and available at:

http://www.jubilee-plus.org/Articles/337911/Jubilee_Plus/About_Us/Research/RESULTS_OF_THE.aspx

Thefts of metal from churches

Thefts of metal from Anglican churches in 2012 dropped to their lowest level since 2006. Last year, there were some 930 claims to Ecclesiastical Insurance from such churches in respect of the theft of lead and other metals from church exteriors, compared with over 2,600 in 2011 (the worst year on record). The cost of these claims fell from nearly £4.5 million in 2011 to £1.8 million in 2012. The improved situation follows concerted action to deter criminals by the Government and a range of other industries affected by metal thefts. Ecclesiastical has also been running its own campaign to fit sophisticated electronic alarm systems on the roofs of churches.

Source: Press release by Ecclesiastical (which insures 96% of Anglican churches in the UK) on 17 January 2013, and available at:

http://www.ecclesiastical.com/Images/Theft%20of%20metal%20from%20churches%20drops%20to%20lowest%20level%20in%20six%20years.pdf

Eighteenth-century diocesan statistics

Few national statistics were collected by the Church of England prior to its major administrative overhaul between 1832 and 1841, and even thereafter the pace of quantification was relatively slow. In terms of religious belonging, the number of confirmands (1872) and Easter Day communicants (1891) were among the first data to be collated and reported nationally, with usual Sunday attendance not being counted until as late as 1968.

Before these national Anglican figures become available, diocesan records often provide clues as to what was happening in the Established Church. Particularly important sources are the returns made by parochial clergy to queries issued in advance of an episcopal visitation of a diocese (which, in theory, took place every three years). Although the process of visitation antedated the Norman Conquest, the practice of sending out questionnaires to be answered by the clergy only took hold in the early eighteenth century.

The principal innovator of such parochial returns was William Wake when Bishop of Lincoln. A splendid scholarly edition of the abstract (speculum) compiled from the returns Wake obtained from his clergy in 1706, 1709, 1712, and 1715 has just been published: Bishop Wake’s Summary of Visitation Returns from the Diocese of Lincoln, 1706-1715, edited by John Broad (Records of Social and Economic History, New Series 49-50, Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2012, 2 vols, xlii + 1,075pp., ISBN 978-0-19-726518-5, 978-0-19-725519-2, £190).

The edition is a mine of information about the state of parishes in the Diocese of Lincoln, which, at that time, covered no fewer than six counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire (part), Huntingdonshire, and Leicestershire, in addition to Lincolnshire. Quite a lot of the detail is statistical, including numbers of communicants and estimates of the presence of nonconformists. Broad’s introduction contains (p. xxvii) a useful table summarizing changes in Dissenters (up by 61%) and Roman Catholics (down by 12%) across the Diocese between the Compton Census of 1676 and Wake’s surveys.

A rather later set of clergy visitation returns exist for the Diocese of Salisbury in 1783, instigated by Bishop Shute Barrington. These have recently been subjected to secondary analysis, alongside other contemporary evidence, in order to build up a semi-quantitative picture of religious life in the Diocese (which then comprised Berkshire and Wiltshire). The research is reported in Clive Field, ‘Status animarum: A Religious Profile of the Diocese of Salisbury in the 1780s’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Vol. 106, 2013, pp. 218-29.

In terms of religious profession, the Diocese of Salisbury in the 1780s was found to have had a higher proportion of nominal Anglicans, and fewer Dissenters and Roman Catholics, than England and Wales c irca 1800. Non-churchgoing was a genuine problem for the clergy, particularly in towns, although, relative to population, aggregate congregations seem to have been similar to the religious census of 1851, which revealed Wiltshire and western Berkshire to be areas of comparatively high observance.

Posted in Historical studies, News from religious organisations, Religion and Social Capital, Survey news | Tagged ACT Network, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, British Future, Britishness, Buckinghamshire, Christianity, Church of England, Clive Field, Diocese of Lincoln, Diocese of Salisbury, Ecclesiastical Insurance, Geoff Knott, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Ipsos-MORI, John Broad, jubilee, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, metal theft, Oxford University Press, Rachael Jolley, Shute Barrington, social action, tensions, visitation returns, volunteering, William Wake, Wiltshire, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine | 1 Comment

Anglican Comments on the Census and Other News

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The results of the 2011 religion census for England and Wales continue to reverberate around faith communities. The lead item in today’s BRIN post concerns coverage of the census in the country’s conservative evangelical newspaper for the Church of England.

Church of England Newspaper and the census

In the current issue (13 January 2013) of the Church of England Newspaper (CEN) no fewer than three of its columnists devote space to the religion results of the 2011 census of England and Wales, which were published on 11 December 2012.

The most extensive treatment (‘Making Sense of the Census’, p. 15) is by Peter Brierley, the veteran church statistician. He is unsurprised by the 11% fall in the number of professing Christians between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, which he sees as foreshadowed in the estimated 6% drop in church membership between 2000 and 2010 and the 14% decline in church attendance during the same period. He advances three possible explanations for decreasing Christian ‘adherence’: a) the surge in immigration (with Brierley reckoning the majority of the new immigrants to be non-Christians, although this claim is unevidenced); b) the death of elderly Christians since 2001 (said by Brierley to account for 8% of the 11% decline, which seems a rather high proportion in comparison with the calculation by David Voas on BRIN on 13 December last); and c) the relative lack of new people becoming Christians, the transmission of the faith being said to be at ‘an all-time low’.

The other two columnists take to task Arun Arora, the Church of England’s Director of Communications, who, from his press statement issued on 11 December onwards, has tried to cast the census results in the best possible light for the Church of England. In a CEN short entitled ‘Militant Communicator’ (p. E2), the compiler of ‘The Whispering Gallery’ explicitly criticizes Arora for his selective use of statistics (especially of baptisms) in his recent letter to The Times (31 December 2012), written in response to the call (28 December 2012) by that newspaper’s Phil Collins for the disestablishment of the Church. Arora should realize, the CEN continues, ‘inertia is the best defence of the establishment, not statistics that unravel when they are examined carefully’.

In his CEN column on ‘The Future for Evangelicalism’ (p. 16), Paul Richardson also fixes his sights on Arora, without actually naming him: ‘it will not do to dismiss the census as just showing the disappearance of “cultural Christians” … People who in the past wrote “C of E” on forms now write “no religion”. Long term this is going to make it difficult to sustain the Church of England’s position as an established church’. Richardson further contends that the Roman Catholic Church is in similar denial in its statement about the census, Richardson pointing out that ‘the census shows … large numbers of people entering Britain over the past 10 years from Poland and other Catholic areas but that this influx is not reflected in figures for mass attendance. These figures have risen only slightly, suggesting there has been a large exodus from the pews of indigenous Anglo-Irish Catholics’.

Twittering Christmas

The Church of England released figures on 8 January 2013 for its Christmas campaign on Twitter, #ChristmasStartsWithChrist (or #CSWC), aimed at the UK’s estimated 10 million ‘Twitterati’. In all, 8,878 Christmas-related tweets were sent by Anglicans (from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York downwards) using these two hashtags, with peak traffic occurring on Christmas Day around 11 am and a smaller peak on Christmas Eve around 11 pm. Over a 24-hour period from 11 pm on 24 December to 11 pm on 25 December there were an average of 370 tweets an hour. See the Church’s press release at:

http://churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2013/01/church-rejoicing-over-christmas-twitter-campaign.aspx

Same-sex marriage

As the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government continues to press ahead with its legislative plans for same-sex marriage, there are continuing indications that many Conservative Parliamentarians have serious misgivings about them. The latest evidence (published on 9 January 2013) comes from a ComRes poll (on behalf of the Coalition for Marriage) of 106 members of the House of Lords during the autumn of 2012, with 69% of Conservative peers wishing to see the proposals postponed until after the next general election and 100% opposing any use of the Parliament Act to steamroller opposition in the Lords.

Moreover, although Government believes it can ensure that churches and other places of worship will not have to perform same-sex marriages against their will, 51% of Conservative peers and 40% of all peers believe that there is no effective way of guaranteeing such an outcome. The proportion thinking this is four times as great for peers born before 1940 as after 1950, and more than 10% higher for peers who have sat in the Upper Chamber since before 1997 as those who became members after that date. Full results available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Same-Sex_Marriage_Peers_Final_Data_Tables_21_Dec_2012.pdf

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religion in the Press, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged Arun Arora, census of population, Christmas, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Coalition for Marriage, ComRes, House of Lords, Paul Richardson, Peter Brierley, Religious Affiliation, religious festivals, Roman Catholic Church, same-sex marriage, The Times, Twitter | Leave a comment

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