Churches and New Media Use

Posted on February 4, 2011 by sarabatts

Sara Batts, a PhD student at Loughborough University, introduces her findings on churches and new media use.

I am just beginning my fourth year of what I hope will be a five-year project. I’m based at Loughborough, but work in London with a full-time day job as a researcher for a City law firm. It’s the way information is handled online by churches that is of interest to me, and this sparked enough of a curiosity to embark on a research degree.

The key questions that I am addressing in the project are:

  • Are English churches establishing their own individual web presence, and then using online tools?
  • Is this having any influence on, or being influenced by, traditional hierarchies within church organisations?

The first major work was to establish a baseline of how many churches have a findable website. I then followed my sample through over two years to see how the numbers changed.

I took a sample of English churches from four major denominations – Church of England, Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic. I used the website Findachurch.co.uk and with permission polled its database using random numbers to represent the database index entries. In this way I could create a list that was not biased by geography – other online church-finding websites depended on using a postcode as an index. Given the vastly different proportions of church denominations in England, having 100 of each allowed for relatively straightforward comparisons. It means that Church of England churches are under-sampled and the others are over-represented, but this is preferable to having wildly varying numbers that would be needed for a proportional sample.

I either followed links from the findachurch.co.uk site or I used Google to search, and looked at the first two pages of results. Other studies have shown that that is consistent with most people’s real search techniques. Over two years, the percentage of churches I found websites for are as follows.

So the number of church sites I could find has been increasing, but increasing at different rates for different denominations. I have not yet established why.

The other key piece of desk research from last year was a content analysis of 147 church websites, from the area roughly equivalent to the Diocese of Chelmsford. I classified over 1,000 external hyperlinks and found that there were clear patterns of links. Christian Aid, Rejesus.co.uk and the Alpha Course were the three most linked-to independent organisations.

There were many more categories and types of information and the analysis is ongoing. It’s worth noting that although I collected data on photographs and some basic design elements (was navigation on the site straightforward?) this project is definitely not concerned with overall design choices, rather the information content on the sites.

I am moving into the next – and final – phase of data collection now and away from my desk. I will be interviewing leaders about their choices of online media, about their websites and the thinking behind them. From my desk I have been able to answer some of the ‘what’ questions in my research, now I hope to tackle the ‘why’ questions.

I blog about the PhD at http://phdinprogress.wordpress.com and aim to be posting content analysis results in late spring. 

Posted in Measuring religion, Religion Online, Research note | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Transatlantic Trends Immigration Report

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Britons emerge as one of the most sceptical of western nations when it comes to immigration, according to the third annual Transatlantic Trends: Immigration report, which was published in Washington DC on 3 February.

65% of us see immigration as more of a problem than an opportunity, 70% think the government is doing a poor job at managing the issue, and 63% say that immigration policy may affect the way we vote.

Transatlantic Trends: Immigration is a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo, and the Barrow Cadbury Trust, with additional support from the Fundacion BBVA.

The key findings and topline data for the 2010 study will be found at, respectively:

http://www.gmfus.org/trends/immigration/doc/TTI2010_English_Key.pdf

http://www.gmfus.org/trends/immigration/doc/TTI2010_English_Top.pdf

Fieldwork was conducted in Great Britain (by ICM between 27 August and 9 September 2010) and in France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Canada. 1,003 Britons aged 18 and over were interviewed by telephone.

The principal interest of the 2010 survey to BRIN users lies in two questions on attitudes to the integration of Muslim immigrants. These were only posed to a half-sample (n = 496 in Britain).

A slight majority (53%) of Britons considered that Muslim immigrants were integrating poorly into British society, 16% more than believed them to be integrating well. 10% could not say one way or the other.

The other half-sample was asked about the integration of immigrants in general. 52% of Britons said that they were integrating badly and 43% well, perhaps suggesting that Muslims were likewise to the front of mind in their replies.

Those holding that Muslim immigrants were poorly integrated were more numerous in Britain than in the United States (40%), Canada (44%), Italy (49%) and France (51%) but less than in The Netherlands (56%), Germany (67%) and Spain (70%).

Views were more favourable about the integration of the children of Muslim immigrants who had been born in Britain. 59% of Britons thought they had integrated well, 30% badly, with 11% uncertain.

Canada (66%) was most positive about the integration of the Muslim second generation, followed by the United States (62%) and Italy (60%). The other four European countries had lower figures than Britain, with 57% of Germans actually stating that the children of Muslim immigrants had integrated poorly.

A more extensive, but different, set of questions about Muslim immigrants was asked in the first Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey in 2008, the topline data for which are available at:

http://www.gmfus.org/trends/immigration/doc/TTI_2008_Topline.pdf

The 2010 study also enquired into self-assessed religiosity. This question was put to the full sample. In reply, 10% of Britons described themselves as very religious, 42% as somewhat religious and 47% as not religious at all.

The proportion claiming not to be religious was higher in Britain than in any of the other countries surveyed. In descending order, the statistics were: The Netherlands (46%), France (43%), Germany (40%), Spain (35%), Canada (34%), and the United States and Italy (16% each).

This echoes the finding of a recent Gallup Poll which placed the United Kingdom 109th in a list of 114 countries in the importance attached by its citizens to religion in their daily lives. See further:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=520

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Anti-Semitic Incidents in 2010

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Clive D. Field

There were 31% fewer anti-Semitic incidents in the UK in 2010 than in 2009, according to the latest annual report from the Community Security Trust (CST). It runs to 36 pages and is available at:

http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Incidents%20Report%202010.pdf

The CST is a registered charity which provides physical security, training and advice for the protection of British Jews; represents Jewry to Government and police in respect of matters affecting security and anti-Semitism; and assists victims of anti-Semitism.

The decline in anti-Semitic incidents might have been anticipated. 2009 had been an exceptional year, largely on account of hostility to Israel’s substantial military operations in Gaza at the start of 2009, described by CST as a significant ‘trigger event’. 

Nevertheless, the 639 incidents recorded in 2010 was still the second-highest number since CST began collecting data in 1984 and a rise of 17% on the 2008 total.

This reflects a generally upward trend, which CST attributes in part to better reporting of incidents, although it considers that many instances of verbal abuse are not yet notified.

The 639 incidents were categorized as: abusive behaviour (60%), assaults (18%), damage and desecration of property (13%), threats (5%), and anti-Semitic literature (4%). No examples of extreme violence were recorded in 2010, of which there are a handful in most years.

Incidents were not evenly distributed throughout 2010. The largest monthly figure (82) was in September, believed to be linked to the presence of visibly Jewish people in public during the High Holy Day period.

81 incidents were logged in June, many of them related to negative reactions to the Israeli boarding on 31 May of a flotilla of ships trying to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, as a result of which nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed.  

Not unexpectedly, the largest number of incidents was reported from areas of Jewish concentration, with 34% each in Greater London and Greater Manchester, although the Jewish population of the latter is just one-seventh of the former (21,700 against 149,800).

6% of incidents occurred in Hertfordshire (where 16,900 Jews live) and 26% elsewhere in the UK (with 78,300 Jewish residents).   

The victims of these incidents came from the whole spectrum of the Jewish community. The most frequent were: random Jewish individuals in public (48%), synagogues and their congregants (17%), Jewish organizations (12%), and private homes and schools/schoolchildren/teachers (9% each).

In cases where the demographics of victims could be identified, 65% were male, 27% female and 8% mixed groups. 66% of victims were adults, 25% minors and 9% a combination of both.

Physical descriptions of the incident perpetrator were received in some cases, of whom 47% were white, 6% East European, 7% black, 29% Asian, and 10% of Arab appearance. 83% of perpetrators were men, 12% women, and 5% of both sexes. 68% were adults and 31% minors.

In one-quarter of incidents the perpetrators employed discourse based upon the Nazi period, including swastikas and references to the Holocaust. Discourse related to Israel or the Middle East was used in 12% of incidents and Islamist discourse in 4%. Evidence of political motivation was found in 37% of instances and of premeditation in 65%.

In addition to the 639 anti-Semitic incidents, CST investigated 372 other cases which it eventually concluded were not anti-Semitic in terms of motivation, targeting or content. Two-fifths of these concerned potential information collection and suspicious behaviour at Jewish locations.

CST includes in its tally of incidents some which are not crimes. The CST statistics will therefore exceed the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes tabulated by the police, on which we have previously reported at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=746

A further measure of anti-Semitism is found in sample survey data. The BRIN source database contains descriptions of 72 such surveys undertaken between 1938 and 2010. Go to:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/sources/

and key ‘anti-Semitism’ in the search box.

One of the most recent and extensive (as regards the number of questions) surveys was conducted in December 2008-January 2009 on behalf of the US-based Anti-Defamation League, with fieldwork in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Spain, as well as Great Britain. The report on this study is at:

http://www.adl.org/Public%20ADL%20Anti-Semitism%20Presentation%20February%202009%20_3_.pdf

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Social Trends 41

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

As previously noted (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=365), Social Trends, the compilation by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) of social data from governmental and other sources, is now only published online, and in serialized form.

The latest version of the chapter on lifestyles and social participation was released on 27 January, as part of Social Trends, 41. It is written by Carla Seddon and can be downloaded from:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/social_trends/ST41-Lifestyles.pdf

Included at the end (pp. 28-30) is a short section on religion, derived from the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Citizenship Survey, 2008/09, specifically from the topic report on race, religion and equalities, already covered on BRIN (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=564).

Social Trends, 41 focuses on the questions in the Citizenship Survey relating to religious affiliation, religious practice and the influence of religion on everyday life (in terms of where respondents lived and worked, who their friends were and their choice of school for their children). Much fuller detail is available in the original topic report at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurvey200809equality

The new Social Trends, 41 chapter has been picked up by the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph (the latter erroneously suggesting in today’s printed edition that the data are from the 2009/10 rather than the 2008/09 Citizenship Survey). To read this coverage, go to:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351251/Number-British-Muslims-double-5-5m-20-years.html [a short article on ‘Christians “are less devout”’ appears at the bottom of this piece, which is otherwise about the Pew report on Muslim population]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8286168/Christians-less-devout-than-Muslims-in-Britain.html

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Christmas Churchgoing in the Diocese of London

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Anglican churches in the Diocese of London (which serves 17 boroughs in Greater London north of the River Thames) saw Christmas Eve and Christmas Day attendance levels rise by one-fifth between 2009 and 2010, according to returns from a cross-section of 22 churches from the 480 parishes in the diocese and summarized in a press release on 24 January. See:

http://www.london.anglican.org/NewsShow_14110

Two in every three London churches in the sample recorded an increase in their Christmas congregants. Grossed up, there would have been 130,000 worshippers at Christmas in 2010, compared with 110,000 in 2009, thus (assuming we are comparing like with like) more than reversing the decline from 116,000 in the Diocese of London on Christmas Eve/Day 2008 (the latest year for which national Anglican statistics are available at present).

According to a report in the Church of England Newspaper for 28 January (‘Christmas Attendance Soars in London Diocese’), the increase in 2010 is partly attributed to the use of radio advertisements for its Christmas services, the first time the Diocese of London has used them. London was possibly also helped by the fact that it generally suffered less from the adverse weather than many other parts of the country in the run-up to last Christmas.

It is sometimes said that Christmas attendances are affected by the days of the week on which Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fall. In 2010 they were Friday and Saturday. Nationally, some of the largest attendances at Anglican Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services (2,786,000) were recorded in 2005, the only occasion in the past decade when Christmas Day has been on a Sunday, the traditional day for Christian worship. However, they were surpassed by 2,994,000 in 2006, when Christmas Day was a Monday, followed by a decline in 2007 and 2008.

None of these figures include congregations at carol and other Christmas-related services during Advent.

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Hereafter Report

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Today marks the UK release of Warner Brothers’ supernatural thriller film Hereafter, based on the screenplay by Peter Morgan and directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Matt Damon as George, a seemingly ordinary guy who has a special gift allowing him to commune with the dead.

In conjunction with the launch, a survey into the supernatural has been commissioned in consultation with Dr Penny Sartori, a former intensive care nurse and expert on near-death experiences. She is the author of The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: a Five Year Clinical Study (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008).

To judge from accounts in the print media, 3,000 adult Britons were interviewed online for the Hereafter Report, but precise details of fieldwork dates and methodology are as yet unavailable, so judgment has to be reserved on just how representative the sample and the findings might be.

66% of respondents believed in some form of afterlife and 65% that our actions in this life could affect the fate of our soul in the hereafter.

Specifically, 35% believed in heaven, a lower proportion than in other surveys (http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/documents/heaven_000.xls), and 22% in reincarnation, similar to other studies (http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/documents/reincarbelchart.xls).

58% thought that their late loved-ones were with them in spirit, and 40% expressed the desire to speak with them. There was also some wish to talk to dead historical figures, foremost among them being Princess Diana (19%), followed by Albert Einstein (10%), Marilyn Monroe and Freddie Mercury (8% each), Adolf Hitler (7%), and Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Winston Churchill (6% each).

53% were convinced that psychics can communicate with the dead, and 19% that somebody in their own family possessed such powers. 22% had actually visited a medium or psychic, consistent with earlier research (http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/documents/psycmediumcons.xls), spending an average of £31 on each visit. 54% knew someone who had made such a visit.

22% claimed to have seen a ghost or to have felt the presence of a spirit, slightly higher than in other polls (http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/documents/ghostsreportedsighting_000.xls), of whom 13% were sure that it was a deceased relative or friend. However, most would have been too embarrassed to own up to the fact.

40% believed in guardian angels, although 18% would feel awkward about saying they had been visited by one. The proportion of two-fifths is higher than in a recent ICM study but broadly consistent with previous Ipsos MORI polls (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=809).

Overall, 32% described themselves as ‘spiritual’ and 25% as ‘religious’, a result which touches the wider academic debate about the extent to which traditional religion is giving way to spirituality (see, especially, Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead, The Spiritual Revolution, Blackwell, 2005).

Summing up, but without any obvious access to comparative data, Dr Sartori was quoted as saying that ‘the nation is becoming more open-minded in accepting that consciousness may exist independently of the body and is not created by the brain’.

The above is a composite write-up, largely derived from reports in today’s Daily Express, Daily Mail and The Sun newspapers, which are the principal sources about the poll which I can find at the moment. You can read these articles at:

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/225702/It-s-spooky-how-much-we-miss-Princess-Diana

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351249/Half-believe-Hereafter–1-5-want-talk-Diana.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3375920/Seen-a-ghost-Its-Para-Normal.html

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Future of the Global Muslim Population

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The long-awaited Pew report on The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010-2030 was eventually published yesterday by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The Forum, based in Washington DC, is a non-partisan organization delivering timely and impartial information on issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs. It is an initiative of the Pew Research Center, financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

This report on Muslim population is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, jointly funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation.

The next documents in the series will be on the number of Christians (to be published later this year) and (in 2012) projections for the future growth of Christianity and other world faiths and of the religiously unaffiliated.

The study of Muslim populations covers 232 countries and territories (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), so it is obviously not going to be possible to summarize it succinctly here. Rather, we shall concentrate on the UK data.

Estimates (the medium of three scenarios) of the number of self-identifying Muslims are provided for 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2030.

Projected figures for each country derive from the application of the well-established cohort-component method to the best available data on fertility, mortality and migration rates, and on related factors such as education, economic well-being and birth control.

The principal sources of the UK information are stated in Appendix B as: ‘1990 estimate based on World Religion Database; 2000 estimate based on 2001 Census; 2010, 2020 and 2030 projections carried out by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis based on the 2001 Census’ (p. 202).

The Institute referred to is located in Laxenburg, Austria, and a number of scholars from it are listed in Appendix C as consultants in respect of the UK: Bilal Barakat, Anne Goujon, Samir KC, Vegard Skirbekk and Marcin Stonawski. Other advisers on the UK were Erik Kaufmann (England) and Erling Lundevaller (Sweden).

The overall size of the UK Muslim population is estimated at 1,172,000 in 1990 (equivalent to 2.0% of all citizens) and 1,590,000 in 2000 (2.7%). The former figure seems somewhat high but is not drastically out of line with other estimates (largely ethnically-derived), while the latter is from the 2001 census, the first in Britain to include a question on religious profession.

The Pew estimate for 2010 is 2,869,000 (4.6% of the UK population). This has been arrived at through the cohort-component method (p. 174). As BRIN noted when this figure was given a preliminary airing by Pew on 16 September last (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=598), it seems a little inflated.

A subsequent BRIN calculation based on the Integrated Household Survey for 2009-10, which interviewed 442,000 individuals in Britain, suggested that there are roughly 2,520,000 Muslims at present (see http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=603).

For a more definitive answer, we shall obviously have to await the results from this year’s census, which will be taken on 27 March, and will again run a (voluntary) question about religious affiliation.

Clearly, if Pew’s 2010 figure is somewhat inflated, this will presumably have impacted on its projections for 2020 and 2030, which could be unduly high. They are, respectively, 4,231,000 (6.5% of the population) and 5,567,000 (8.2%).

The projected UK percentage for 2030 is lower than for France (10.3%), Belgium (10.2%), Sweden (9.9%), Austria (9.3%) and the Western European average (8.6%), but higher than in Switzerland (8.1%), The Netherlands (7.8%), Germany (7.1%), Italy (5.4%) and Spain (3.7%).  

The anticipated rise in the number of UK Muslims between 2010 and 2030 is thus 94%, compared with 145% between 1990 and 2010. Despite this lessening in the rate of growth, the projected UK increase for 2010-30 is still almost three times the global and European figures (35% and 32% respectively).

One of the factors behind the expansion in the Muslim community relative to the non-Muslim population is the higher fertility of the former (3.0 children per woman in the UK in 2005-10) than the latter (1.8).

Although Muslim fertility is declining, and the gap on non-Muslims is narrowing, it is still expected to be 0.8 children per woman in 2025-30 compared with 1.2 in 2005-10.

Greater fertility is linked to the younger age profile of Muslims, meaning that they are disproportionately already in or entering the prime reproductive years (ages 15-29).

Another reason for Muslim growth in the UK is net migration. The net inflow of Muslim immigrants in 2010 is estimated by Pew at 64,000, representing 28% of all immigrants to the UK in the year. There were 70,000 in Spain, 66,000 in France and 60,000 in Italy.

However, the five-year projected Muslim net migration into the UK is set to fall, according to Pew, from 312,000 in 2010-15 to 274,000 in 2025-30.  

No allowance seems to have been made for conversions to Islam, about which we made a post recently (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=813). Pew’s working hypothesis is that ‘future conversions into Islam will roughly equal conversions away from Islam’ (p. 166).

Needless to say, projections such as these could be overturned in the event of unanticipated changes in national or global social, economic or political conditions. Therefore, they should be treated with some discretion.

The 221-page report is available in both hypertext and PDF formats, alongside an interactive map and sortable data tables, thereby providing a truly flexible online resource. All these components can be accessed by following the links at the executive summary page:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1872/muslim-population-projections-worldwide-fast-growth

To view the report alone as a PDF file, go to:

http://features.pewforum.org/FutureGlobalMuslimPopulation-WebPDF.pdf

Pew’s research will inevitably fuel the debates about immigration and Islamophobia in the UK. Early off the starting-block is the article in today’s Daily Mail which claims that by 2030 ‘Britain would have more Muslims than Kuwait and close to the number found in America, even though five times as many people live there’. See:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351251/Number-British-Muslims-double-5-5m-20-years.html

Posted in Historical studies, Measuring religion, News from religious organisations, Religion in public debate | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Ways We Say Goodbye

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Even for those not overtly religious in their everyday lives, the three rites of passage (birth/baptism, marriage and death – or, colloquially put, hatching, matching and dispatching) have traditionally been a point of contact with institutional religion.

Church of England and other religious statistics have long charted a decline in infant baptisms, while Government data (separately recorded for England and Wales and Scotland) have shown a decrease in weddings solemnized according to religious rites.

Now there are signs that the most long-standing ecclesiastical near-monopoly, over death, may also be eroding, partly in the face of a shift of focus in funerals away from an act of mourning mediated by a religious professional to a more participatory time of celebration and commemoration.

The established Church of England has experienced a fall of 19% in eight years in the number of funerals its clergy conduct, from 232,550 in 2000 to 188,100 in 2008. Expressed in terms of total deaths, the 2008 figure translated into a 39% market share.

The latest evidence about funeral customs and practices comes in a report today from Co-operative Funeralcare, the UK’s largest provider (100,000 funerals a year).

Entitled The Ways We Say Goodbye: a Study of 21st Century Funeral Customs in the UK, the document is mostly based on data gathered from funeral directors at 559 of Co-operative Funeralcare’s network of 850 funeral homes.

67% of Co-operative’s funerals still take a traditional form, in accordance with the rites of a particular religion, and generally including a service led by a recognized minister, followed by burial or cremation.

However, 21% are characterized as contemporary, where the emphasis is on celebration of an individual’s life and personalization of the funeral service, albeit an element of religion (such as a hymn or prayer) may still be retained.

12% of funerals arranged by Co-operative Funeralcare are classified by them as ‘humanist’, entirely without a religious component. They may be led by a humanist official, or by family and friends of the deceased.

In the words of one funeral director: ‘People don’t just want religion spoken about – they want the person spoken about. They’re making more of a day of it … more of an occasion.’

But the report highlighted that, such is the pace of personalization of ceremonies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain these somewhat arbitrary distinctions between funeral types.

Following this trend, only 36% of funerals now have purely religious music, the remaining 64% using contemporary music, classical music or a mixture of styles. So, in this and other respects, even religious ceremonies are being modernized and ‘secularized’.  

The top three funeral songs in 2009, according to a separate Co-operative study, were My Way (Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey), Wind Beneath My Wings (Bette Midler, Celine Dion) and Time to Say Goodbye (Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli).

Additional information came from an online poll conducted by ICM Research on behalf of Co-operative Funeralcare among a representative sample of 2,002 Britons aged 18 and over interviewed on 22-24 September 2010.

This revealed that 54% of respondents would prefer their funeral to be a personalized celebration of their life, with just 27% opting for a traditional funeral such as a church service with hymns. The latter figure ranged from 20% in the case of the 18-24s to 40% of the over-65s.

In a separate question, 49% wanted their funeral to be individualized in a specific way, most commonly in terms of their favourite music but, for some, even to reflect their favourite hobby, colour or football team.

The Ways We Say Goodbye can be downloaded from:

http://www.co-operative.coop/Funeralcare/PDFs/Ways%20We%20Say%20Goodbye%20Brochure.pdf

There is also a Co-operative press release, containing topline findings from the ICM poll, at:

http://www.co-operative.coop/funeralcare/about-us/News/First-ever-report-into-UK-funeral-customs-highlights-major-change/

This is by no means the first piece of research by Co-operative Funeralcare in this area. For instance, in October 2001 its forerunner produced a report Taking Fear out of Funerals, informed by a survey from BMRB the preceding March.

This showed that, even at that point, Britons sought funerals which were more cheerful, colourful and personal, with seven-tenths saying that non-religious ceremonies were perfectly acceptable.

One of the last major studies of attitudes to death more generally was by ComRes for Theos in April 2009 in the wake of the early death from cancer of Jade Goody, the ex-Big Brother contestant. The tables from this study are still available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/resources/7/Social%20Polls/Theos%20Death%20Poll%20results%20Apr09.pdf

37% then expressed a wish for a Christian funeral, 4% for another form of religious funeral, 17% for a non-religious funeral, with the remaining 43% having no clear preference.

30% of the ComRes sample agreed that their religious faith helped them to deal with the death of a loved-one or to prepare for their own death, but 38% disagreed, with 32% undecided or refusing to answer.

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Perceptions of Discrimination

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Today’s news includes a report that two devout Christians running a private hotel in Cornwall have been found to be in breach of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a double room on their premises. The couple has been awarded damages against the hotel owners.

The fact that a Christian husband and wife seeking to uphold, as they saw it, a traditional Christian view of marriage have committed an act of direct discrimination against two homosexuals in a civil partnership will doubtless be seized upon by some Christians as further proof that the legal odds are stacked against Christians.

But does the general public agree with this reading of events? Before Christmas we reported on a ComRes poll for Christian Concern on the topic (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=804). This probed attitudes to the rights of Christians, but largely in isolation from those of other sections of society.

Now YouGov has undertaken another poll for The Sun which provides a broader, more comparative context. The 1,884 respondents, adult Britons aged 18 and over interviewed online on 17 and 18 January, were asked to say how far they felt each of sixteen groups (four of them religious) was unfairly discriminated against in Britain.

10% said that Christians suffered a lot of discrimination, rising to 12% among men, the over-60s and Conservative voters. A further 18% thought they suffered some discrimination (including 24% of Conservatives and 22% of over-60s), 29 per cent a little, 34% not at all, while 10% had no clear opinion.

The proportion holding that Christians suffered a lot of discrimination was higher than those saying the same about Jews (5%) and atheists (2%), although it was less than for Muslims (18% saying that they experienced a lot of discrimination, peaking at 29% among the 18-24s).

Only 17% of the sample claimed that Muslims were not discriminated against at all, which was 7% less than in the case of Jews, 17% less than for Christians and 38% less than for atheists.

In fact, 55% were of the view that atheists suffered absolutely no discrimination, the only one of the sixteen groups for which an absolute majority took this line. This figure rose to 62% with Conservatives and 60% with over-60s and Scots.

If we combine the categories of groups perceived to suffer a lot of discrimination and to suffer some discrimination, then the following rank order emerges:

  1. Gypsies and travellers  –  60%
  2. Immigrants  –  54%
  3. Transsexuals  –  53%
  4. Muslims  –  50%
  5. Elderly people  –  45%
  6. Asian people  –  44%
  7. Gays and lesbians  –  43%
  8. Black people  –  41%
  9. White people  –  32%
  10. Working class people  –  31%
  11. Women  –  29%
  12. Christians  –  28%
  13. Jews  –  26%
  14. People with ginger hair  –  25%
  15. People with regional accents  –  17%
  16. Atheists  –  10%

The survey therefore appears to confirm the findings from other research that Muslims are the religious group suffering greatest discrimination. Despite a millennium of British anti-Semitism, and contrary to the impression of some Jewish commentators, Jews seem to fare better than expected and better even than Christians.

It should be remembered, of course, that this was a survey about people’s perceptions of groups which suffer discrimination, and that Christians would have been the largest single religious category of people doing the perceiving. The study was thus analogous to some of the questions in the Government Citizenship Surveys.

It is therefore possible that a different league table might have emerged had the questioning been about either personal experiences of being discriminated against and/or prejudices which individuals hold against particular groups. It would be especially interesting to know how atheists would come out of such an exercise, given that they seem the least disadvantaged of all the groups in this study.

The data tables for this YouGov poll will be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Life-Sun-Discrimination-190111.pdf

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