Faith in the Financial Services Sector

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The Archbishop of Canterbury may have intervened in the controversy surrounding the Occupy London protest, as noted in our post at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1477, but financial services professionals emphatically reject the Church’s role in high finance.

This is the very clear message from an online survey of 515 finance professionals in the City of London conducted by ComRes between 30 August and 12 September 2011, on behalf of the St Paul’s Institute at St Paul’s Cathedral. 88% of respondents were aged 25-54 and 65% were men.

The research is summarized by Rita Duarte of ComRes on pp. 8-19 of Value and Values: Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today, a report and reflections from the St Paul’s Institute published on 7 November. This can be downloaded from:

http://www.stpaulsinstitute.org.uk/Reports

Additionally, ComRes has released the full data tables from the study, with breaks by gender, age, and length of working in the financial services sector. These can be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/St_Pauls_results_Sep11.pdf

Asked whether the City of London needed to listen more to the guidance of the Church, only 12% agreed, 76% disagreed, with 12% uncertain. Men (79%) were more likely to disagree than women (70%), with dissent reaching 80% among those who had worked longest in the sector (for fifteen years or more).

Nor can such attitudes be entirely attributed to an absence of faith. Belief in God ran at 41% and at virtually one-half for the over-55s and those who had been in the sector for fewer than five years. 38% disbelieved, but one in two of them said that they believed in a higher power or were a spiritual person. 21% did not know what to think about God.

16% of financial services professionals claimed to attend religious worship at least once a month, 37% less frequently, and 47% never. Total non-attendance peaked at 54% for the 25-34 cohort and 60% for those who had worked in the sector from six to ten years.

More generally, the poll discovered that: ‘professionals in the financial services sector believe that City bond traders, FTSE chief executives and stock brokers are paid too much, teachers are paid too little and that there is too great a gap between rich and poor in the UK.’

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Papal Visit Anniversary

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Seven-tenths of the British public can still recall Pope Benedict XVI’s state and pastoral visit to Scotland and England, which took place from 16 to 19 September 2010, but fewer than one-third consider that his presence here was good for the country.

This is according to a poll by Opinion Research Business (ORB) for the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales which was published on 18 September. 2,049 Britons aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 9-11 September 2011. With ORB’s kind permission, the data tables are available on BRIN:

ORB papal visit 9-11 Sep 2011

Recollection of the visit was relatively high, at 71% (ranging from 60% to 89% by demographic sub-groups), 91% of whom were even able to remember a specific event or aspect of it, albeit sometimes a negative one.

But approval of the visit ran at only 31% (with the notable exception of Catholics, on 62%), with 36% saying it had been a bad thing (46% in Eastern England, 44% in Scotland, 42% of the AB social group, and 41% of men), and 32% uncertain what to think.

Moreover, the overall favourability rating of the Pope was only 24% (just 2% more than a year ago), against 42% holding a negative opinion of him (rising to 52% in Scotland and 48% among men). 58% (peaking at 69% in Scotland) were dissatisfied with his apology for the child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, compared with 24% who were satisfied.

However, there was more support for some of the messages which the Pope had communicated during his visit, including his statements touching on religion (there were also some more ‘motherhood and apple pie’ homilies about society in general, such as recognizing the worth of all people, including the old and disabled, which few would contradict).

For example, 67% agreed with the Pope that religious people should not be forced to keep their beliefs to themselves in the name of political correctness; 62% that the UK should guard against aggressive forms of secularism; 59% that there is a place for God, religion and virtue in public life; and 51% that schools should teach religion and morals. On the other hand, just 35% agreed with the Pope that true happiness is to be found in God (45% disagreeing).

The rating of the Catholic Church was even lower than the Pope’s. 21% entertained a favourable and 59% an unfavourable view of it. 70% (79% in Scotland) described it as out of touch with contemporary society, and 43% denied that – on balance – it was a force for good (13% more than made the same allegation about religion in general). Opinions were doubtless coloured by the sex abuse scandals, with 45% doubting whether the right steps were being taken by the Church to avoid their repetition.

At the same time, there was some backing for the Catholic Church taking a moral lead in British society, especially in encouraging mutual respect between individuals (48%), promoting self-respect and self-discipline (45%), tackling poverty and social exclusion (43%), developing and sharing strategies to combat child abuse (42%), and defending the family unit and family values (41%). In a separate question promotion of family values and family life was ranked as the most important function the Church could perform.

The Catholic Communications Network’s official press release on the survey majored on this finding (‘Catholic Church should take a lead in promoting the family unit, says poll’). It can be read at:

http://catholic-ew.org.uk/Catholic-Church/Media-Centre/Press-Releases/Press-Releases-2011/Catholic-Church-should-take-a-lead-in-promoting-the-family-unit-says-poll

The press release also highlighted an apparent increase over the past year in the proportion of Britons describing themselves as spiritual or religious, with an implication that this could legitimately be attributed to the papal visit. This was picked up in a brief Sunday Telegraph report (‘Spiritual surge from Pope visit’), which spoke of ‘a lasting rise in religious feeling’.

Yet if the figures are examined carefully, it will be apparent that there was some overlap between the spiritual and religious categories, since all possible responses to this question sum to 105%. Also, when those recalling the papal visit were asked whether it had put them more or less in touch with their own personal spiritual values, 91% said it had made no difference, with the more and less answers cancelling out at 4% each.

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21st Century Evangelicals – The Sequel

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The UK’s evangelical Christians are far more likely to be active in their communities than the average person, according to a new report from the Evangelical Alliance – Does Belief Touch Society? – published on 5 September. Hard copies can be purchased at £3 from the Alliance (at 186 Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4BT) or the report can be downloaded for free from:

http://www.eauk.org/snapshot/upload/Does-Belief-touch-society.pdf

The publication is numbered as Series A, Issue 1 in a collection of reports on 21st Century Evangelicals, following on from the document of the same name released at the start of the year, and based upon 17,300 responses by Christians aged 16 and over in 2010 to a questionnaire devised by Christian Research on behalf of the Alliance. The sample divided between attenders at seven Christian festivals in the UK and congregants at 35 churches randomly selected from the Alliance’s membership. See the BRIN post of 12 January 2011 for further details:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=826

Does Belief Touch Society? derives from a panel of 3,300 of the original 17,300 evangelicals who signed up to take part in further enquiries, of whom 1,151 participated in this first survey, which was conducted online around Easter 2011. Given the self-selecting nature of the micro-sample, and the methodology deployed for the 2010 study, there is a risk that the respondents to Does Belief Touch Society? may not be fully representative of the approximately two million evangelical Christians in the UK estimated by Tearfund in 2007. The Alliance concedes in the report (p. 3) that it has been unable to weight its findings and that younger people and ethnic minorities may be under-represented in the panel.

On the doctrine of the cross, 99% of evangelicals agreed or strongly agreed that the message of the cross had made a huge difference in their lives, 91% strongly agreed that Christ’s blood is the final and only effective sacrifice for human sin, 89% strongly agreed that Jesus Christ defeated the powers of evil through His death, and 84% strongly agreed that God Himself was suffering in Christ for humankind in the crucifixion. However, only 51% agreed that at the cross God poured out His holy anger upon His son, with 27% dissenting and 22% unsure.

On the Resurrection, 91% agreed or strongly agreed that Jesus rose from the tomb with a physical body, 91% agreed or strongly agreed that at the end all who have died will be raised to face judgment, 85% strongly agreed that after death Christian believers will enjoy everlasting life, 82% strongly agreed that belief in the Resurrection shaped the way they lived now, and 78% were very confident that they would enjoy everlasting life on their own death.

On Easter observance, 95% had worshipped on Easter Sunday but far fewer (65% overall and just 52% of under-35s) on Good Friday. 45% had attended a special church event in the week before Easter, and 41% took part in a public act of witness or evangelistic outreach over Easter. Under one-third had given up or taken up something during Lent, with women and younger people significantly more likely to do so.

In terms of civic participation, evangelicals were far more likely than the average citizen to be trustees of a charity, school governors, members of a political party, local councillors, and magistrates, but trade union membership was about the national norm.

On politics, 91% intended to or had voted in the 5 May 2011 elections and referendum (compared with a UK-wide turnout of 42%), with 38% in favour of and 39% opposed to the Alternative Vote. Evangelicals were equally divided about the military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, but 80% were emphatic in opposing the legal status of marriage being extended to same-sex partnerships.

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YouGov@Cambridge on Religion

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Clive D. Field

On 30 April last, we reported on the virtual launch of YouGov@Cambridge (a collaboration between pollsters YouGov and the University of Cambridge’s Department of Politics and International Studies) and on the interim results from the first annual YouGov@Cambridge census of British life and attitudes. See:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1223

Between 4 and 7 September, in advance of a two-day physical launch in Cambridge on 8-9 September, YouGov@Cambridge released final tables on the 2011 census, the fieldwork for which extended from 13 April to 20 May 2011 and involved online interviews with a representative sample of 64,303 adult Britons aged 18 and over (although most questions were put to sub-samples).

The new tables included the results for a module on religion, which had not featured in the interim release, and this post summarizes some of the main findings. For the full data, go to:

http://www.yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/sites/yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/files/Religion.pdf

  • 40% of adults professed no religion, 55% were Christian and 5% of other faiths – age made a major difference, with only 38% of the 18-34s being Christian and 53% having no religion, whereas for the over-55s the figures were 70% and 26% respectively 
  • 74% of respondents had been brought up in some religion (including 70% as Christians, implying a net 15% leakage from Christianity over time) and 25% not, the latter figure rising to 39% among the 18-34s 
  • 35% described themselves as very or fairly religious and 63% as not very or not at all religious – there were no big variations by demographics (even by age), but Londoners (41%) did stand out as being disproportionately religious, doubtless reflecting the concentration of ethnic minorities in the capital 
  • 34% believed in a personal God or gods (ranging from 28% among the 18-34s to 42% of over-55s), 10% in some higher spiritual power, 19% in neither, with 29% unsure or agnostic 
  • 11% of respondents claimed to attend a religious service once a month or more, 27% less often, and 59% never – non-attendance was higher among the young (62% for the 18-34s) than the old (54% for the over-55s) and among manual workers (62%) than non-manuals (56%), while London had the best figure for monthly or more attendance (16%) 
  • 16% claimed to pray daily, 12% several times a week, 4% once a week, 7% several times a month, 4% once a month, 24% less often, and 29% never – men (34%) were more likely not to pray at all than women (24%) 
  • 79% agreed and 11% disagreed that religion is a cause of much misery and conflict in the world today 
  • 72% agreed and 15% disagreed that religion is used as an excuse for bigotry and intolerance, with a high of 81% in Scotland where sectarianism has often been rife 
  • 35% agreed and 45% disagreed that religion is a force for good in the world, dissentients being more numerous among men (50%) than women (41%) 
  • 78% (82% of the over-55s) agreed and 12% disagreed that religion should be a private matter and had no place in politics 
  • 16% agreed and 70% disagreed that Christians and the Church should have more influence over politics in the country – only among the over-55s did the proportion in favour of the proposition scrape above one-fifth 
  • 61% agreed and 18% disagreed that organized religion is in terminal decline in the UK – the over-55s (67%) were most prone to agree and Londoners (21%) to disagree 
  • 40% agreed and 40% disagreed that the decline of organized religion had made Britain a worse place – the over-55s (54%) were twice as likely to agree as the 18-34s (27%) 
  • 51% (57% in Scotland) agreed and 32% (37% among men) disagreed that all religions are equally valid 
  • 34% agreed and 49% disagreed that some religions are better than others, men (39%), the over-55s (38%), and Londoners (38%) being disproportionately likely to agree 
  • 49% agreed and 29% disagreed that it is good for children to be brought up within a religion – among the 18-34s opinion divided at 36% each (whereas for the over-55s 64% agreed and 22% disagreed) 
  • 40% agreed (rising to 46% of men and 44% of 18-34s) and 39% disagreed that religion is incompatible with modern scientific knowledge 
  • 29% agreed and 54% disagreed that there are some things in life which only religion can explain, the over-55s (35%) placing more trust in religion than the 18-34s (24%)

All in all, these data point to a society in which religion is increasingly in retreat and nominal. With the principal exception of the older age groups, many of those who claim some religious allegiance fail to underpin it by a belief in God or to translate it into regular prayer or attendance at a place of worship. People in general are more inclined to see the negative than the positive aspects of religion, and they certainly want to keep it well out of the political arena.

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Ipsos Global @dvisor Surveys Religion

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Forced to choose, no fewer than 71% of Britons contend that ‘religious beliefs promote intolerance, exacerbate ethnic divisions, and impede social progress in developing and developed nations alike’. Only 29% say the polar opposite, that ‘religion provides the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to thrive in the 21st century’.

This ranks Britain fifth equal in terms of negativity towards religion in a league table of 23 countries surveyed in Wave 14 of the Ipsos Global @dvisor omnibus poll. Fieldwork was conducted online between 7 and 23 September 2010 among a total of more than 18,000 adults aged 16-64, including 1,002 in Great Britain.

The weighted average for all countries produced a pro-religion vote of 48% and an anti one of 52%, but there was wide variation in the national scores. The negative list was headed by several Western European countries, Sweden (81%), Belgium (79%), France (76%) and Spain (75%).

The pro-religion vote was led by Muslim Saudi Arabia (92%) and Indonesia (91%), with the United States one of several countries around the two-thirds mark. In general, developing economies displayed a higher level of support for the positive role of religion than did the advanced economies of the G8 and Europe.

The topic was investigated by Ipsos in the run-up to the Munk Debates on Religion, between the Roman Catholic Tony Blair and the atheist Christopher Hitchens, in Toronto on 26 November 2010, and a summary report of the findings was released on that date. It can be downloaded from:

http://www.ipsos-na.com/download/pr.aspx?id=10209

The same survey also included three other questions on religion, posed on behalf of Reuters News, although the results were not published until 25 April 2011. The full data tables for these questions, with breaks by various demographics, are available at:

http://www.ipsos-na.com/download/pr.aspx?id=10669

Across all 23 countries, 51% believed in God or a supreme being, 18% disbelieved and 30% were undecided. Disbelievers numbered 34% in Great Britain, exceeded only by France (39%), Sweden (37%) and Belgium (36%). The proportion was a mere 7% in the United States and 3% or less in Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey. British disbelievers were especially concentrated among men (43%) and persons with a high household income (42%).

Globally, 51% believed in some form of life after death, albeit not necessarily in heaven and hell, while 23% stated that one simply ceased to exist and 26% were uncertain. In Britain far fewer adults (37%) believed (13% in heaven or hell, 5% in reincarnation, 19% in some other form of afterlife), 31% regarded the present life as the end, and 32% expressed no opinion.

Britons who said that there definitely was no afterlife were more numerous than in 16 other countries, being surpassed by South Korea and Spain (40%), France (39%), Japan (37%) and Belgium (35%) and equalled by China. Disbelievers were again more likely to be found among men (39%) and the wealthiest households (40%).     

Asked about the origins of human life, 41% in all countries were evolutionists, 28% creationists and 31% unclear. In Britain evolutionists outnumbered creationists by more than four to one (55% against 12%), although there were fewer than in Sweden (68%), Germany (65%), China (64%), Belgium (61%) and Japan (60%), with the British proportion the same as in France and Hungary.

Creationists were in a majority in only four countries (Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey), three of them predominantly Muslim. The most highly-educated Britons were the most pro-evolution (69%), but the converse was not true. Indeed, creationists never exceeded 14% in any British demographic sub-group. 34% of all Britons were undecided on the issue.    

The results for this question on the origins of human life may be compared with the near-contemporaneous statistics from an Ipsos MORI poll for the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, which approached the topic from two contrasting perspectives. See our coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1232

It should be noted that, as is common with online panels, the sample excluded the cohort of over-65s, since these are still generally underrepresented among online users. As this is precisely the cohort which, in other surveys, tends to come out as the most religious, then it follows that the Ipsos Global @dvisor data are likely to underestimate somewhat the nation’s religiosity.

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Public Attitudes to Science

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Although not anti-science, people with a more religious or spiritual outlook on life are disproportionately more likely to highlight the limitations of science and to express reservations about the intentions of scientists. They are also the least convinced of the economic benefits of investing in science and that the Government has sufficient control over science and technology.

These are some of the principal conclusions drawn from a segmentation analysis which was applied to a very detailed survey of public attitudes to science undertaken on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and published on 2 May. Fieldwork was conducted by Ipsos MORI through face-to-face interviews with 2,103 adults aged 16 and over in the UK between 11 October and 19 December 2010.

The religious outlook of the sample was determined not by direct questioning about their religious affiliation, beliefs or self-assessed religiosity but on the basis of their responses to a series of attitude statements impacting on science.

First of these (Q.16.2) was the statement ‘we depend too much on science and not enough on faith’. 29% agreed with this proposition, 46% disagreed, and 25% were neutral or did not know what to think. Particularly high levels of agreement were recorded among the 65-74s (37%), the over-75s (52%), BMEs (46%), the DE social group (40%), those with no educational qualifications (46%), those with no internet access (48%), and the cluster voicing concerns about science (45%). Dissentients were especially prominent among the AB social group (57%), those with a higher education (54%), readers of broadsheet newspapers (59%), Scots (52%), those informed about science (54%), and confident engagers with science (72%).

The next topic (Q.16.3) was whether ‘human beings have evolved from other animals’. 67% said that they had, 17% disagreed, and 15% expressed no firm opinion. Strongholds of evolutionism, where three-quarters or more agreed, were located among the 45-64s, the ABs, Scots, those with a higher education, readers of broadsheet newspapers, and confident and distrustful engagers with science. Creationism found greatest favour with BMEs (39%).     

Q.16.10 asked about the origins of life on earth in a different way, and was obviously deliberately separated from Q.16.3. It produced a much finer balance of public opinion, a useful illustration of the sensitivity of popular attitudes to variant question-wording. The statement was ‘God created the earth and all life in it’. 39% agreed, 37% disagreed, with 24% undecided. A strongly divine creation line was taken by the over-75s (62%), BMEs (74%), DEs (50%), Northern Irish (51%), those with no educational qualifications (52%), those without internet access (54%), those with concerns about science (59%), and those indifferent about it (50%). Dissentients concentrated among readers of broadsheet newspapers (47%) and the three most pro-science clusters (late adopters, confident engagers, and distrustful engagers).

Q.16.5 sought agreement with the statement ‘we are put on earth for a purpose’. 57% agreed with this view, 20% disagreed, and 23% took no position. The highest level of agreement was voiced by the over-75s (67%), BMEs (82%), DEs (66%), those with no educational qualifications (65%), those with no internet access (69%), and those concerned about science (74%). Respondents less likely to believe that there was a purpose to their existence included men, the ABs, and those with a higher education – all on 27% – and readers of broadsheet newspapers (29%), confident engagers with science (31%), and distrustful engagers with science (35%).

While this survey resurfaces the age-old tensions between science and religion, and demonstrates their linkage with ethnicity, it does not indicate that the UK is a particularly faith-based society. Asked unprompted in Q.1 which two or three issues in life were most important to them personally, only 3% mentioned their religion or faith, the same as in 2005 when the question was first put. The highest proportion (6%) was recorded among the over-75s and BMEs. Overall, friends and family (47%) topped the list of choices, with health on 25%, financial security on 20%, and career/employment on 16%.

The full data tables from this survey (with an unusually wide range of breaks by gender, age, ethnicity, working status, social grade, education, children in household, internet access, newspaper readership, country, region, science awareness and clustering) are available at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/ipsos-mori-pas-2011-computer-tables.pdf

The segmentation analysis is discussed in chapter 8 of the main report on the survey, which can be found at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/sri-pas-2011-main-report.pdf

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A Perfect Companion

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Anybody feeling a little at sea in the plethora of religious data may find a new briefing paper from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) a great boon. Written by EHRC’s research manager, David Perfect, and simply entitled Religion or Belief, it is available to download from:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/publications/religion_or_belief_briefing_paper.pdf

The 25-page paper brings together a selection of key national statistics on religion in Great Britain, sometimes as time series. The document is short enough for BRIN readers to consult directly, so no summary of findings will be attempted here. However, an annotated listing of the 19 tables may be found useful.

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

1. Religious affiliation, Great Britain, 2001, from Census

2. Religious affiliation, Great Britain, 2004/05-2008/09, from Annual Population Survey

3. Religious affiliation, England, Scotland, Wales, 2001, from Census

4. Religious affiliation, England, Scotland, Wales, 2009/10, from Integrated Household Survey

RELIGIOUS BELONGING

5. Belonging to a religion, Great Britain, 1983, 2008, from British Social Attitudes [BSA] Survey

6. Belonging to a religion by gender, Great Britain, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008, from BSA

7. Belonging to a religion by age, Great Britain, 2008, from BSA

RELIGIOUS PRACTICE

8. Active practice of religion, England and Wales, 2008/09, from Citizenship Survey

9. Attendance at religious services, Great Britain, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008, from BSA

10. Church attendance, England, 1979, 1989, 1998, 2005, from English Church Censuses

RELIGIOUS BELIEF

11. Belief in God, Great Britain, 1991, 1998, 2008, from BSA

12. Belief in God, United Kingdom and Europe, 2010, from Eurobarometer  

RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE

13. Perceptions of religious prejudice, England and Wales, 2005, 2007/08, 2008/09, from Citizenship Survey

14. Perceptions of more religious prejudice by religion, England and Wales, 2005, 2007/08, 2008/09, from Citizenship Survey

15. Perceptions of racial or religious harassment as a big problem, England, 2009/10, from Citizenship Survey

16. Perceptions of widespread discrimination by religion or belief, United Kingdom and Europe, 2009, from Eurobarometer

17. Perceptions of discrimination by equality strand, United Kingdom and Europe, 2009, from Eurobarometer

18. Disposal of Employment Tribunal cases by equality strand, Great Britain, 2009/10, from Employment Tribunal Statistics

19. Female Church of England clergy, England, 2000-09, from Church Statistics  

The paper concludes with a discussion of the sources (pages 20-2), mostly giving online links, and endnotes (pages 23-5).

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21st Century Evangelicals

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Clive D. Field

According to a large-scale survey of churchgoing published by Tearfund in 2007, there are approximately two million evangelical Christians in the UK. Hitherto, we have had only limited insights into their profile and attitudes.

We now know a great deal more about them, thanks to a study undertaken by Christian Research for the Evangelical Alliance in 2010, and published on 11 January under the title 21st Century Evangelicals: A Snapshot of the Beliefs and Habits of Evangelical Christians in the UK.

17,298 Christians aged 16 and over completed the Christian Research questionnaire. These mostly divided between two samples: 14,511 attenders at seven Christian festivals in the UK and known to be popular with evangelicals, and 1,159 attenders at 35 churches randomly selected from the 3,222 in membership of the Evangelical Alliance.

Interestingly, 6% of both samples could not say for certain that they were Christians, while fully one-quarter of the professing Christians failed to designate themselves as evangelicals.

A third sample was also drawn, of black majority churches and conferences. Only a few agreed to participate. Although 1,239 questionnaires were completed by attenders at these churches, Christian Research clearly has reservations about the typicality of this sample, and limited use has been made of the findings from it.

Two reports on the research have been issued at present, although more are promised. The first (described as the ‘initial report’) is a ‘popular’ 24-page summary. This is fully-illustrated, selective in its use of statistics, and has an emphasis on headlines and brief commentaries. Such data as are quoted in it mainly relate to the festival sample. It can be found at:

http://eauk.org/snapshot/upload/21st-Century-Evangelicals-PDF.pdf

The second 47-page report (the so-called ‘data report’) is likely to be of special interest to BRIN users. This contains detailed information about the research methodology and the all-important weighting procedures, which require careful review (see the discussion and weighting factors on pp. 6-7).

The second document mainly comprises tables of results (pp. 8-45), routinely disaggregated for the festival and church samples and, more occasionally, for non-evangelical festival-goers. There are some minor inconsistencies between some of the tables when replies to certain questions are duplicated. This report can be accessed at:

http://www.eauk.org/snapshot/upload/21st-Century-Evangelicals-Data-Report.pdf

There were fewer differences in the profiles, beliefs and behaviours of the festival and church samples than might have been expected. However, for simplicity, and because they instinctively feel more ‘representative’ of grass-roots evangelicals, all the figures quoted below derive from the church sample only.

DEMOGRAPHICS: 60% of evangelical churchgoers are women and 38% men. 36% are under 45 years of age, 39% 45-64, and 21% 65 and over (an age profile far less skewed than for churchgoers in general). 24% are single, 1% cohabiting, 61% married, 6% separated or divorced, and 7% widowed.

BELIEFS: 98% agree that their faith is the most important thing in life and 96% that it is the key factor in their decision-making. 96% believe that Jesus is the only way to God. 96% consider the Bible to be the inspired word of God and 82% say that, in its original manuscript, it is without error. 92% believe in miraculous gifts of the Spirit. 59% believe in a physical hell, but 27% are unsure and 14% disbelieve. 39% think evolution and Christianity are incompatible, 43% that they are not.

PRACTICES: 95% claim to attend church once a week or more. 76% attend a small group meeting at least once a fortnight. 55% read the Bible daily and a further 36% during the course of a week. 78% pray daily and a further 20% during the course of a week.

EVANGELISM VERSUS SOCIAL ACTION: 91% deem it the Christian’s duty to be actively engaged in evangelism, and 58% talk about their faith with a non-Christian once a month or more. 82% regard evangelism and social action as equally important and 80% as complementary, but 39% think many churches place too much emphasis on social action. 88% consider it a Christian’s duty to volunteer in the service of the local community. 78% volunteer at least once a month. 98% voted in the 2010 general election.

MORALITY: 82% agree that sexual intercourse outside marriage is always wrong. 62% say that assisted suicide is always wrong (and 15% not). 49% agree and 33% disagree that abortion can never be justified. 36% feel it is wrong to have homosexual feelings, with 22% unsure and 42% not seeing it as problematical. However, 80% condemn homosexual actions. 84% oppose the blessing of civil partnerships in churches.

GIVING: 97% have given money to their church in the past year, 77% to Christian charities, 48% to other charities, 47% to individual missionaries, and 22% to individual homeless people. 62% claim to have given at least one-tenth of their household income during the past month to their church and charities. 73% agree that it is a Christian’s duty to give 10% of their income to their church, but only 40% tithed to their church during the past month.

ECUMENICAL AND INTER-FAITH WORK: 95% consider it important for Christians to be united in truth and 93% in mission. 88% say that their church works with other places of worship. 63% want Christians to collaborate with people of other faiths on community projects.

Also worth a glance is the Evangelical Alliance’s press release about both strands of the research, issued on 10 January. This focused on the themes of distinctiveness and diversity in the evangelical constituency, and highlighted the vital role of evangelicals in volunteering in the community. See:

http://eauk.org/media/uk-evangelical-christians-distinct-yet-diverse.cfm

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Dunfermline Presbytery Community Survey

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Other than statistics regularly collected by the various Christian denominations, there is only limited national data about religion in Scotland in very recent years. One has to go back to sources such as the 2001 civil census, the religion module in the 2001 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, and the census of churchgoing by Christian Research in 2002.

It is, therefore, good to note some more contemporaneous, albeit more localized, evidence in the shape of a 37-page report on the Church of Scotland Dunfermline Presbytery Community Survey, undertaken earlier this year by Rev Allan Vint, the Presbytery’s Mission Development Officer. This is available to download at:

http://www.dunfermlinepresbytery.org.uk/documents/surveyreportjuly2010.pdf

The survey was primarily designed for internal Kirk purposes, to give the Dunfermline Presbytery ‘insight’ into the factors which underlie the seemingly relentless decline in Church of Scotland membership and attendance, and ‘discernment and wisdom’ to help develop future missiological strategy. Vint has previously carried out two censuses of attendance in the Presbytery.

The community survey was conducted on a limited budget and through a hybrid methodology, which will raise some doubts about the representativeness of the three achieved samples of adults, primary school pupils and young people who completed an online or paper questionnaire.

The questions asked covered: spare-time activities, religious affiliation, attributes of a Christian, level of Christian commitment, belief in God, image of God, perception of Jesus Christ, idea of heaven, religious experience, churchgoing and reasons for it, attitudes to church services, and previous Sunday school attendance.

Particular difficulties were encountered by the researcher in reaching teenagers (who constitute a mere 3% of the Presbytery’s worshippers). Only 131 young people replied to the survey. Anybody requiring information about the attitudes to religion and the Church of Scots aged 12-17 would be advised to gain access to the Ipsos MORI study conducted for the Church of Scotland in 2008 (see http://www.brin.ac.uk/sources/1011).    

Perhaps the most interesting section of the Dunfermline report relates to the replies from 358 adults. This highlights some notable differences between sub-samples of regular (monthly or more) and irregular or non-attenders at church (of whom 69% identified as Christian, although only 11% regarded themselves as strongly committed to the faith and no more than 50% believed in God).

Especially striking differences emerged with regard to the definition of a Christian. Whereas 89% of regular churchgoers prioritized knowing Jesus as personal saviour, just 31% of irregular or non-attenders attached importance to this. The latter were far more likely than the former (63% versus 34%) to see faith in terms of leading a good life. They also attached much less significance to belief in God, belief in the truth of the Bible, being baptized and attending services. This – in effect – interchangeability of religion with ethics has been a long-standing feature of popular beliefs.

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Biotechnology

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The European Commission has recently published Special Eurobarometer 341 on Biotechnology. This is based upon face-to-face interviews by TNS with representative samples of the adult population aged 15 and over in the 27 member states of the European Union plus Croatia and Turkey (candidate countries) and Switzerland, Iceland and Norway (members of the European Free Trade Association). 1,311 interviews were conducted in the UK, between 29 January and 15 February this year.

At the topline level, four matters are of particular relevance to BRIN. Among the set of biotechnology questions, one (p. 165 and table QB19.10) asked whether religious leaders were doing a good job for society in saying what is right or wrong about developments in the biotechnology field.

In the UK 25% thought they were doing a good job (somewhat below the EU average of 31%), 47% a bad job (EU average 46%), with 28% uncertain (EU average 23%). In both the UK and the EU religious leaders scored the lowest ratings of ten groups for benefiting society with regard to biotechnology.

The other three questions were intended to provide religious background for analysing the biotechnology set. 37% of UK citizens claimed to believe in God (p. 204 and table QB32), well below the EU average of 51% and way behind Malta and Turkey (94%) and Romania (92%).

Additionally, 33% in the UK believed in some sort or spirit or life force, while 25% disbelieved in any kind of God, spirit or life force (against 20% in the EU as a whole), and 5% did not know what to think. Disbelievers were up by 5% from the last Eurobarometer survey to cover this issue, in January-February 2005.

Only 11 of the other 31 countries had a lower proportion of believers in God than the UK: Bulgaria (36%), Finland (33%), Slovenia (32%), Iceland (31%), Denmark and The Netherlands (28%), France (27%), Norway (22%), Sweden and Estonia (18%), and the Czech Republic (16%).   

On religious affiliation (table QB33), 6% in the UK said that they were atheists and a further 24% non-believers or agnostics. 14% were Catholics, 44% other Christians, 5% non-Christians, 2% from other religions, and 5% did not know what their religion was.

At 30%, those with no religion (including atheists) in the UK had increased by 5% since the question had last been put in May-June 2009. The EU average was 8% lower, at 22%. Just six countries had more irreligious than the UK (Czech Republic, the former East Germany, France, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden).

As for attendance at religious services (table QB34), apart from weddings or funerals, 12% of UK adults claimed to go once a week or more, 6% once a month, 5% every two or three months, 7% on special holy days only, 9% once a year, 14% less often, and 46% never.

The UK figures were little changed from when the European Commission last posed the question, in September-October 2006. But the proportion never attending religious services in the UK today is 17% higher than the EU average. Only the Czech Republic, the former East Germany, and France have more non-worshippers.  

The report is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_341_en.pdf

A four-page fact-sheet on the UK results is at:

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_341_fact_uk_en.pdf

The dataset for the survey is deposited with the Economic and Social Data Service as SN 6518 (Eurobarometer 73.1). This would obviously support analysis of the answers to all the many specialized biotechnology questions by the three religious variables.

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