Lords Spiritual

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Clive D. Field

‘Six out of ten Brits think bishops should be booted out of the House of Lords after defeating plans to cap benefits at £26,000 a year.’ So declared The Sun on 25 January 2012, following the poll it commissioned from YouGov on the public’s reactions to the Welfare Reform Bill.

The survey was undertaken online on 24 January 2012, among a sample of 749 adults aged 18 and over, and in the wake of the amendment to the Bill passed by the House of Lords the previous night, which had the effect of excluding child benefit from the £26,000 cap being proposed by the Government. Data tables have been posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/pbzn4ckvyb/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-BishopsHouseLords-260112.pdf

Five of the 26 senior bishops of the Church of England who are entitled to sit in the House of Lords had voted in favour of the amendment, and one of them (Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds) had actually proposed it. Three-fifths of YouGov’s interviewees opposed the amendment, and 74% supported the Government’s original cap.

Against this somewhat charged backdrop, YouGov asked whether bishops should still be allowed to sit and vote in the Upper Chamber. Only 26% of respondents said that they should, with 60% wanting them excluded, and 14% uncertain.

Removal of bishops from the House of Lords particularly appealed to Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters, 67% and 68% respectively. This was unsurprising, given that these are the two parties which form the Coalition Government, which had been on the receiving end of episcopal votes against the welfare cap.

Men were also more inclined than women to want the bishops unseated (64% versus 56%), while – less predictably – the anti-bishop lobby built by age, rising from 45% among the 18-24s to 70% with the over-60s. This partly reflected the large number of don’t knows (29%) in the 18-24 cohort.

The sample size for this poll was fairly small, and the context may have influenced the results. However, in an ICM survey for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust in March 2010, just 33% believed it important for Anglican bishops to have a role in the House of Lords and 74% said that it was wrong for some of them to have automatic seats there. See BRIN’s coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/religion-in-public-life-another-poll/

 

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Loyal Subjects

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Churchgoing Christians are mostly (81%) convinced that there is such a thing as a ‘British’ identity, and they retain a strong sense of commitment to the monarchy in general, and the present Queen in particular, according to a Cpanel survey by ComRes for Premier Christian Radio, which was published on 20 January 2012.

Fieldwork was conducted online between 2 and 14 December 2011 with a sample of 559 UK Christians. The full data tables, the third set from this poll (others, previously featured on BRIN, have covered attitudes to Christmas and the Occupy London movement), have been posted at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_C-Panel_Monarchy_Dec11.pdf

74% of churchgoers said that they were proud of the monarchy as a whole, the proportion being below average for the 16-44 age cohorts and peaking at 85% among the over-65s. Denominationally, one of the lowest figures (69%) was recorded by Roman Catholics. 24% of the whole sample said that they were not proud of the monarchy.

As with the general public, attitudes to the monarchy are largely conditioned by positive views of Queen Elizabeth II. 85% of Christians were proud of her (including 96% of the over-65s but only 72% of Catholics) and 13% not proud.

Her son, Prince Charles, is much less highly regarded. Just 41% of churchgoers were proud of him and 58% not proud. This relatively poor rating is probably a legacy of hostile reactions to his adultery and divorce in the 1990s. His son, Prince William, fared better, with 77% proud and 17% not proud of him.

Despite this admiration for the monarchy, no more than 31% thought that the monarch should continue to be head of the Church of England, with 55% opposed. The main groups registering a small majority in favour of the status quo were the over-65s (45% for, 42% against) and Anglicans (44% versus 38%). 61% of non-Anglicans, 64% of men and 67% of the 35-44s wanted the current arrangement to cease.

Opinion was more balanced when it came to the question of disestablishment, 43% of Christians supporting it and 45% negative. Not unexpectedly, Anglicans strongly favoured an established church (by 59% to 30%) and non-Anglicans slightly backed disestablishment (by 48% to 40%). Women (51%) also endorsed establishment more than men, and the over-65s (55%) more than the young.

 

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ONS Opinions Survey Religion Module

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Clive D. Field

On 18 January 2012 the Economic and Social Data Service released for secondary analysis the dataset from the ‘ONS Opinions Survey, Census Religion Module, April, May, June and July, 2009’. This is available, under special licence access to approved UK researchers (accredited by the UK Statistics Authority), as SN 6938. For further information, see:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=6938

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Opinions Survey (OPN), previously known as the ONS Omnibus Survey, is a regular, multi-purpose study carried out by the ONS Social Survey Division. It started operating commercially in 1990 and was conducted for eight months of the year until April 2005 and monthly thereafter.

A census religion module (MCG/MCGb) was included in the OPN for April-July 2009 inclusive, as part of the final testing of question-wording for the 2011 population census. Citizenship was also covered in the same module (in April and May). A total of 4,235 Britons aged 16 and over living in private households were interviewed face-to-face.

The question which was tested on religion is one which is not often used in sample surveys. ‘Which of these best describes you?’ was followed by eight reply options: Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, any other religion (specify), and no religion. In the May and July 2009 surveys no religion was made the first option, ahead of Christian. Any spontaneous comments made by the respondent to the question were also captured by the interviewer.

As well as through the OPN, ‘Which of these best describes you?’ was evaluated through: a postal test in England in March 2009 (with no religion given as the first option), cognitive testing, and engagement with key stakeholders. For comparative purposes, another question – ‘What is your religion, even if not currently practising?’ – was included in the core questionnaire for the April-July 2009 OPN.

In the end, ONS decided against using ‘Which of these best describes you?’ in the 2011 census and in favour of ‘What is your religion?’ – which many commentators regard as potentially leading. The ONS rationale for doing so is set out in the October 2009 report Final Recommended Questions for the 2011 Census in England and Wales: Religion, which is available through the Government web archive at:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110109084035/http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/question-and-content-recommendations-for-2011/index.html

In Annex A of this document ONS tabulated the results from the core and module questions on religion in the April-July 2009 OPN. ‘Which of these best describes you?’ was found to increase the proportion professing no religion compared with ‘What is your religion, even if not currently practising?’ But the difference was especially noticeable in May and July, when no religion headed the list of options. In this instance, perhaps it was the running order of options more than the question-wording per se which most affected the results.

So, these April-July 2009 OPN data do not simply have historical significance. They remain important methodologically in demonstrating how variations in questionnaire design can impact upon the statistics generated by enquiries into religious affiliation. Doubtless, the first results from the religion question in the 2011 census, when they come, will reignite the debate about what is the ‘right’ way to formulate this question.

 

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Christian Attitudes to Poverty

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Attending church appears to do little to change people’s underlying attitudes to poverty and inequality, with no great differences between the views of churchgoers and non-churchgoers, and – in particular – sharp divergences between those of clergy and their congregations.

These are among the key findings of a new research report from the Church Urban Fund (CUF) in association with Church Action on Poverty, previewed in the Church of England Newspaper and Church Times of 16 December last but only just released in full. Entitled Bias to the Poor? Christian Attitudes to Poverty in this Country, it can be downloaded from:

http://www.cuf.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/PDFs/Bias_to_the_poor.pdf

CUF’s data derive from a survey of 170 Church of England clergy, carried out at deanery chapter meetings in 2011, and for regular (at least monthly) churchgoers of all denominations and non-churchgoers or professing non-religious from secondary analysis of NatCen’s British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey (seemingly for 2009). Among the headline statistics are:

  • 73% of clergy said poverty is mainly due to social injustice, compared with only 22% of regular churchgoers and 20% of non-religious
  • 38% of churchgoers and non-religious have a fatalistic or passive attitude to poverty, regarding it as ‘an inevitable part of modern life’, against 16% of clergy
  • 23% of churchgoers and 27% of non-religious attribute poverty to laziness or lack of willpower (1% of clergy)
  • 83% of clergy assessed that large income differences contribute to social problems like crime, versus 56% of churchgoers and 65% of non-religious
  • 77% of clergy described large income differences as unfair, compared with 50% of churchgoers and 51% of non-religious
  • 73% of clergy believed that large income differences are morally wrong, twice the figure (36%) for both churchgoers and non-religious
  • 79% of churchgoers and 75% of non-religious saw large income differences as inevitable, against 34% of clergy
  • 64% of churchgoers and 60% of non-religious thought large income differences incentivized people to work hard (just 19% of clergy taking the same position)
  • 76% of clergy acknowledged that there is ‘quite a lot’ of child poverty in Britain, against just 37% of churchgoers and 38% of non-religious (in fact, official statistics prove that nearly one in three children are living in poverty)

Comparing results with BSA surveys for 20 years ago, sympathy for the poor among churchgoers is revealed to have declined. Attitudes to benefits have especially hardened, 57% of churchgoers in 2009 arguing they are too high and discourage work (versus 30% in 1987). 

CUF concludes: ‘Our findings show that clergy understand poverty and inequality very differently to their congregations, and that church attendance has little impact on people’s underlying attitudes to these issues (in stark contrast to other moral issues, like euthanasia, censorship, and marriage, where there are very marked differences between churchgoers and non-churchgoers).’

‘The majority of churchgoers do not recognise the extent of poverty in this country and only a small minority attributes poverty to social injustice. If, as we believe, tackling poverty is at the heart of the gospel message, then there is a clear need for churches to do more to raise awareness and understanding of these issues among their congregations.’

 

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Metal Theft

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Clive D. Field

2011 was the worst year on record for the number of claims received by the specialist Anglican insurer Ecclesiastical (founded in 1887) arising from the theft of lead and other valuable metals from churches, according to a press release issued on 1 January 2012.

The total of such claims received by Ecclesiastical in 2011 exceeded 2,500, surpassing the previous record of 2,400 in 2008. The Diocese of Chelmsford headed the list for metal-related claims, followed by Lincoln, Lichfield, London, and Southwell.

Such thefts from churches were denounced by the general public in an online survey conducted by YouGov for Ecclesiastical on 13-15 December 2011, in which 2,058 UK adults aged 18 and over were interviewed.

In answer to an apparently somewhat leading question, 49% of adults claimed they were ‘appalled’ by the systematic destruction of places of worship through metal theft, with a further 37% ‘saddened’ by the crime.

79% supported tougher sentences for those convicted of stealing metal from churches (analogous to the 82% wanting harsher punishments for thefts from war memorials in a separate YouGov poll on 1-2 December 2011).

The full YouGov data have not been put into the public domain, but Ecclesiastical’s press release can be found at:

http://www.ecclesiastical.com/general/press-office/index.aspx

 

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British Future

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Almost three-quarters of Britons consider that the country is a less religious place now than in 1948, the last time the Olympic Games were held here, according to a new survey by Ipsos MORI commissioned for the launch of British Future.

‘British Future is an independent, non-partisan thinktank seeking to involve people in an open conversation, which addresses people’s hopes and fears about identity and integration, migration and opportunity, so that we feel confident about Britain’s future.’

Fieldwork for the survey took place online among 2,320 adults aged 16 and over (including a boosted Scottish sample of 497) between 30 November and 6 December 2011.

Results were previewed in The Observer for 8 January 2012, with fuller analysis available in Rachael Jolley and Sunder Katwala, Hopes and Fears: The British Future State of the Nation Report, 2012, which can be found at:

http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/BritishFutureHopesFears.pdf

Asked to assess various social changes which had taken place between 1948 and 2012, 72% said that Britain had become less religious (29% strongly agreeing with the statement, and 43% tending to agree). 13% were neutral, 13% disagreed, 2% uncertain.

The 59% in net agreement compared with 85% thinking women now had more choices available to them, 67% that Britain had become less polite, 61% that it had become more tolerant of gays, 44% that parenting standards had declined, 27% that there was less national pride, and 15% that relations between ethnic groups had improved.

The other question in the poll of potential interest to BRIN readers related to the biggest challenges which Britain was perceived to face in 2012. Only 5% cited racial or religious unrest among their three main concerns, with just 1% rating it as their top anxiety.

These were identical figures to those worried about terrorist attacks, and in joint penultimate place to environmental issues. Not unexpectedly, rising prices, unemployment, and public spending cuts headed the list of worries by a big margin.

 

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December 2011 Cpanel

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

ComRes released two tranches of data from its latest Cpanel survey on 20 and 24 December. The study was undertaken among an online sample of 559 practising UK Christians aged 18 and over between 2 and 14 December 2011.

One set of tables featured the attitudes of churchgoers to Christmas. They were in fairly downbeat mood, to judge by the proportion agreeing with specific statements about the festival:

  • 93% that the true meaning of Christmas has been devalued
  • 88% that Christmas today is more about presents than Jesus
  • 86% that Christmas in the UK is seen as a cultural rather than religious holiday

Although 70% concurred that Christmas should be for everyone and not just Christians, only a minority (36%) argued that more should be done to include people of other faiths in the celebration of Christmas, with 45% dissenting.

The Christmas tables can be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/C-Panel_Christmas_questions_Dec11_(2).pdf

The second set of questions, posed on behalf of Premier Christian Media Trust, related to the anti-capitalist Occupy London tent city which has been outside St Paul’s Cathedral since 15 October. Judgment of the courts has been reserved until at least 11 January on the City of London Corporation’s legal action to evict the protestors.

51% of practising Christians sympathized with the sentiments of Occupy London (against 29% who did not), albeit just one-quarter (27%) were certain that Jesus would have supported the movement (with 37% in disagreement and 36% unsure). 

But 56% contended that, by camping outside St Paul’s Cathedral, the protestors were actually targeting the Church of England, rather than the financial services sector. The same number disagreed that the protestors had the right to stay adjacent to the Cathedral.

Notwithstanding, Christians were divided about what action should be taken. While 44% agreed that the police should clear the protest camp, 37% said the opposite. Backing for forcible eviction stood at just 24%, compared with 56% who opposed any such step.

The Anglican establishment was criticized by churchgoers for its response to Occupy London. 66% accused it of mishandling the affair, and 56% of poor communication with the media about it.

Just 10% believed that Jesus would have endorsed the Church of England’s response to the protests (38% disagreeing and 51% uncertain), with 63% calling for it to speak out more strongly against the financial services sector.

The relatively small size of the sample means that breaks by demographics, which are reported by ComRes, should be interpreted with caution.

Replies by the 159 Anglicans do not seem to differ radically from those of non-Anglicans. However, older churchgoers were notably less well-disposed to Occupy London than younger ones. 

The Cpanel Occupy London tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_St_Pauls_Survey_Dec11.pdf

Variations in question-wording and fieldwork dates make it difficult to compare churchgoers’ views about Occupy London with those of the general public, the latter already covered by BRIN in three posts which may be traced through:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2011/occupy-london-londoners-speak-out/

 

 

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Christian Research’s Christmastide Pot-Pourri

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

A rather improbable 53% of Britons claim they will be observing Christmas as a religious festival in some way this year, 2% more than actually affiliate as Christians, according to an opinion poll published today (23 December 2011).

Fieldwork was undertaken online by ComRes on behalf of Christian Research between 9 and 11 December 2011. The sample comprised 2,009 British adults aged 18 and over. The data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Christian_Research_Morality_Dec11.pdf

Abbie Heath has also blogged about the survey on the Christian Research website at:

http://www.christian-research.org/christian-research-blog/2011-12-22-15-59-40.html

Respondents were given a list of nine forms of Christmas religious observance and asked which of them they intended to do this Christmas. In descending order, the answers were:

  • Watch or listen to a broadcast Christmas service – 27%
  • Send a religious-themed Christmas card – 22%
  • Attend a carol service – 19%
  • Attend a nativity play – 16%
  • Pray – 15%
  • Attend a church service on Christmas Eve – 14%
  • Attend a church service on Christmas Day – 7%
  • Go carol-singing – 6%
  • Read the Bible – 6%

Predictably, Christians expected to be far more observant than non-Christians. Women were also planning to be more religiously active than men, the elderly more than the young (although the peak for frequenting nativity plays was 25% among the 35-44s), and – less consistently – the top social group (ABs) than the bottom one (DEs).

The 47% of the population who thought they would do none of these things were especially located among non-Christians (72%), 18-24s (62%), private-sector workers (54%), skilled manual employees (54%), and men (53%).

For 24% of adults (31% of Christians) the consumerist and commercial emphasis surrounding Christmas had supposedly made them more likely to think about ‘faith-based moral values’. But most (69%) said that they had been unaffected in this way.

It was a similar story when six other experiences of 2011 were raised. Only about one-quarter claimed they had prompted their mind to turn to ‘faith-based moral values’, rising to one-third for Christians and the over-65s.

The experiences concerned were: the summer riots; global financial instability; potential job insecurity; the Arab uprisings; personal circumstances; and the Occupy London protest (which triggered moral thoughts for just 19%).

Reviewing the past year more generally, Christians did not differ hugely from non-Christians in their assessments. There was most negativity about the state of world affairs (60% among Christians) and of British society (56% with Christians).

Looking ahead to 2012, Christians scored more highly than non-Christians on each of six measures of anticipated social activism. Nevertheless, only 34% of Christians said they would look out for the welfare of their neighbours and 30% donate regularly to charity.  

The largest numbers of Christians were found among the over-55s (69%), the ABs (58%), public-sector workers (57%), and women (53%). The biggest concentration of non-Christians was in the 18-24 cohort (69%).

This will probably be the last news post on BRIN before Christmas, but we will be back soon afterwards. Whatever your faith, or none, the BRIN team extends our warmest seasonal greetings to all users of our site.

 

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Religious Christmas Cards

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Supermarkets have become ‘ashamed’ of selling Christmas cards with religious themes, some Christian leaders have claimed in response to a survey published in today’s Daily Mail which showed that only 0.5% of 6,576 cards sold individually and 5.0% of 1,337 multipacks carried religious images. For the story, see:  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077278/Supermarkets-ashamed-sell-religious-Christmas-cards-obscene-ones-litter-high-street.html

The newspaper visited stores owned by the four biggest supermarket chains (Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco) in seven areas: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Colchester and Witham, London, Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Its findings were disaggregated by supermarket within area.

The chances of a shopper being able to buy an individual Christmas card with a religious theme were highest in Morrisons (1.7%) and lowest in Asda (0.2%). Tesco scored 0.4% and Sainsbury’s 0.8%. Tesco in Newcastle and Sainsbury’s in Colchester had most single cards with a Christian design (seven each).

Asda (3.0%) was also bottom of the list for multipacks including at least one religious card. Then came Morrisons (4.5%), Tesco (6.2%), and Sainsbury’s (6.7%). Colchester had the most choice, the Tesco store there having six multipacks containing a religious card and Sainsbury’s seven. 

The Daily Mail ran a similar survey this time last year, with even lower figures. The proportion of religious Christmas cards was then 0.2% for individual designs and 3.5% for multipacks. Details at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337653/Stores-airbrush-Christ-Christmas-cards.html

Obviously, Christmas cards can be bought at many other outlets besides these four supermarket chains. However, impressionistic and anecdotal evidence would suggest that cards with overtly religious themes will not necessarily be in more frequent supply elsewhere either. Such cards have become a niche market and increasingly need to be actively sought out through specialist Christian retail shops and online/mail-order suppliers.

The debate, of course, is whether retailers are simply responding (as they claim) to lack of customer interest in religious cards, by not stocking many of them. Or are they, in effect, driving the trend towards more secular cards by disproportionately giving them shelfspace? The context is also relevant: the number of people sending Christmas cards of any kind has been diminishing in recent years, and the credit crunch from 2008 seems to have exacerbated the trend.

 

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