Online Tools for Analysing Religious Data: (2) Britsocat.com

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Siobhan McAndrew

Following on from the previous post, a second online resource exists at Britsocat.com, which provides an online tool for analysis of data from the British Social Attitudes survey. You need to register your e-mail address and login with a password, but access is free and it’s very easy-to-use. It’s run by the Centre for Comparative European Survey Data, which also runs a resource for the British Election Study.

This is an amazing resource: over 20,000 questions have been put to respondents over the course of the 1983-2008 surveys, most as a one-off, but some recurrently. Answers are for nationally-representative samples of the population. You can search the database of questions, or browse by category: attitude and value scales; business ethics; central government and the establishment; civil liberties; constitutional issues; crime; defence and diplomacy; the economy; education; e-society; ethnicity and race; Europe; “gender”; health; housing; identity, locality and region; labour market, employment and training; relationships; media and technology; morality and personal ethics; Northern Ireland; pensions and elder care; politics and political parties; religion and beliefs; science; class, age and “gender”; social welfare, inequality and poverty; and transport.

With regard to religion, the frequency of church attendance and religious affiliation has been asked in all survey years (namely since 1983, although not 1987 or 1992, when the survey was not run). Religious beliefs were examined in selected years since 1991. The respondent’s past own and parental attendance was asked in 1991, 1998, and 2008.

In 2008, there was round about 100 additional questions on specific aspects of religion and religious identity (described further here).

Within Britsocat, the questions are categorised for browsing purposes as relating to:

  • the meaning of life;
  • religions and religious organisations;
  • religious affiliation;
  • religious beliefs;
  • religious convictions;
  • religious observance;
  • religious participation; and
  • religious prejudice.

You can calculate frequency of responses for different questions for different years online, and export the results as CSV files for editing in Excel. Alternatively, you can also create charts of the results online, and edit the charts to make them more attractive for your work – and of publishable quality (subject to acknowledging the software creators).

You can also create cross-tabulations to break responses to questions down by age, sex, broad faith group and so on.

Here is an example of what is possible. In 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1996, respondents were asked, 

“How would you describe yourself … as very prejudiced against people of other religions, a little prejudiced, or, not prejudiced at all?”

The responses were: very prejudiced; a little prejudiced; not prejudiced at all.

I looked for breakdowns by age (18-34, 35-54 and 55 plus) and used the chart tool to help visualise trends. It’s interesting to note that the young, who are generally more tolerant towards minorities, are apparently a little more intolerant in this case than the older age groups. Whether this is an aversion to religious difference or religiosity (since a high proportion of the young are secular, and have no religious affiliation) is an open question.

I’ve also used the different colour options to show how the charts can be edited: it’s a neat little tool.

I’m a big fan of these tools, because in quantitative sociology there is a slight fetish for the less accessible statistical softwares and methods – which screen out the amateurs! But there is a great deal of value in using existing data and accessible tools to cover unexplored ground, and also to provide exploratory empirical analysis quickly, particularly for survey papers or policy-oriented papers. Many researchers do not have access to SPSS or Stata at work (they can be expensive) and so tools of this sort are extremely valuable.

An additional tool which allows simple multivariate analysis (namely linear regression) and two-way cross-tabulations exists at the ESDS via the Nesstar tool, though this analysis requires either a UK Higher Education Federation login, or registration with the UK Data Archive (follow the links provided by  the ESDS). Reports of frequencies (percentages of respondents replying to each response option) are available without a login.

For the BSA data, go to the ESDS Nesstar catalogue, and then click on ‘Research Datasets’. The BSA data is then ordered by year, with clickable headings beneath each survey year for ‘Metadata’ and ‘Variable Description’. The individual questions are listed under the latter, categorised by subject.

For those with access to statistical software, the British Social Attitudes survey microdata are available for download at the Economic and Social Data Service, again following registration, or via a UK HE Federation login. The datasets and questionnaires aren’t as ‘browsable’ as at Britsocat.com, so it’s worthwhile using Britsocat.com in tandem with the microdata.

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Online Tools for Analysing Religious Data: (1) The 2001 Census

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Siobhan McAndrew

About a month ago I gave a talk at an Open University M.A. workshop on researching religion using online resources (thanks to Stefanie Sinclair for inviting me). I will soon be writing up the material for a formal BRIN commentary paper, but thought it worth providing a summary of what we covered and the resources available here in advance of the finished version.

Many students researching religion are keen to run their own surveys and devise their own questions. For very specific and unresearched areas, this can be innovative and valuable. It’s helpful however to turn to the wealth of data resources which have already been created – often at great expense, and often virgin territory.

Furthermore, large-scale survey organisations are usually keen to maintain a reputation for quality, and so generally pre-test or pilot survey questions to ensure that responses seem valid and not triggered by very specific wording and use of emotional language. Many existing surveys also replicate questions from other surveys, so that responses can be compared between groups or over time. Student researchers running smaller surveys might also want to consider whether replicating questions might be useful for their own work.

Much of the data on brin.ac.uk/figures is drawn from the 2001 Census and the 1983-2008 British Social Attitudes surveys, each of which can tell us a great deal about religion in Britain. For both of these datasets, online tools are available for capturing and analysing data. I’ll begin in this post by describing access to Census data.

The 2001 Census has been described in detail elsewhere (see the sources listed here), but it’s worth revisiting briefly.

England and Wales residents were asked, ‘‘What is your religion?’ with the following options provided: None; Christian; Buddhist; Hindu; Jewish; Muslim; Sikh; and Any other religion, please write in…..

The question followed questions on ethnicity and it is thought that people may have accordingly considered their religion in cultural or ethnic terms, as well as (or instead of)belief and religious practice.

In Scotland, the question wording was more specific:

What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?

None; Church of Scotland; Roman Catholic; Other Christian (please write in); Buddhist; Hindu; Jewish; Muslim; Sikh; Another religion (please write in).

In addition, Scottish residents were asked:

What religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in?

None; Church of Scotland; Roman Catholic; Other Christian (please write in); Buddhist; Hindu; Jewish; Muslim; Sikh; Another religion (please write in).

Northern Ireland has a longer history of a religious question being included on the Census. The questions were:

Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion? (Yes; No)

If yes, what religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?

Roman Catholic; Presbyterian Church in Ireland; Church of Ireland; Methodist Church in Ireland; Other, please write in

If no, what religion, religious denomination or body were you brought up in?

Roman Catholic; Presbyterian Church in Ireland; Church of Ireland; Methodist Church in Ireland; Other, please write in

Notably, in England and Wales, unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Christian category is not subdivided further. Nevertheless, we can still learn a good deal about religiosity in England and Wales – and at more local scales – through resources available online.

To get hold of Census data, there are various options.

For academic researchers with a UK Higher Education Federation login, you can go to CASweb to download aggregate data at any of the following scales: the country, the government office region, the county, the unitary authority, district authority, standard table ward, census area statistics ward, or output area. CASweb is user-friendly in that it’s straightforward to combine area-level variables. It’s also valuable in that it’s possible to download the data with geographical boundary information (as ESRI shapefiles), and to map the results.

Alternatively, Neighbourhood Statistics is available to all users. This website is a resource provided by the Office for National Statistics: there is no need to register, or use a UK Federation login. There are various ways of looking at Census religion data, for example by entering your postcode and selecting ward or local authority area. To get data on all areas, go to:

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/

Click on ‘Topics’ on the left-hand side of the page, and then select ‘2001 Census: Census Area Statistics’. You can then select ‘Religion’, and choose to view online, or download. You can choose a specific region (North West, North East, etc), or ‘2003 Administrative Hierarchy’ for all regions. You can then save the data in Excel, CSV, or pdf file. The numbers belonging to each religious group or none is given for England, Wales, for Government Office Region, County, Local Authority, and Electoral Ward.

Finally, academic researchers can also go to http://census.ac.uk/ to access individual-level data from the 1971-2001 censuses. You need to register, and once logged in, go to ‘Available Data’ and then ‘Microdata’. You will then need to access http://sars.census.ac.uk/ to download files as SPSS, Stata, or tab-delimited files. They can also be explored online, running simple analyses, using the Nesstar online analysis tool.

The following versions of the Census data are available:

  • The individual licensed SAR, a 3 per cent sample of individuals in the UK with 1.84 million records. Each individual record provides information on their age, sex, the region they live in, educational background, employment status, ethnicity, country of birth, and housing situation alongside religious affiliation. The size of the sample means that it’s possible to examine minority groups in much greater detail.
  • The Individual Controlled Access Microdata Sample (I-CAMS) provides a more detailed version of the individual SAR and can be accessed, following approval of a research proposal, in a secure environment at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
  • There is also a Special Licence Household SAR (2001 H-SAR) released for England and Wales only, with a 1 % file providing details on individuals in the same family and in the same household. Access can be obtained through an ONS Special Licence from the UK Data Archive. Users have to agree to protect the data during their research to maintain confidentiality.
  • The Household Controlled Access Microdata Sample (Household CAMS) provides full detail on all variables in each file, and also includes data for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The file can be accessed in a secure environment at the ONS, again following approval of a research proposal.
  • Finally, the Small Area Microdata file (2001 SAM) is a 5% sample of individuals in the UK, with 2.96 million cases. The local authority is also identified for England and Wales respondents, council area for Scottish respondents, and parliamentary constituencies for Northern Ireland residents. However, because of the greater geographical detail, the individual-level detail is less than in the individual 3% SAR – again to protect anonymity.

More information is available on http://sars.census.ac.uk/2001. The site also provides customised subsets in SPSS or Stata formats, which may be helpful and accessible if you are still learning how to handle such data. I’ve only worked with the aggregate and individual SAR datasets so far and found plenty to be getting on with.

In my next post I’ll describe what is available for the British Social Attitudes survey, but hope this is helpful for now.

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‘Religious Swearwords’

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The ancient common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, which made it illegal to insult Christianity, were abolished two and a half years ago in England and Wales by Section 79 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. This was partly because the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 had created a new offence of inciting hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion.

Notwithstanding, blaspheming, in the dictionary sense of talking impiously or profanely, remains a very common occurrence, not least in television programmes. As part of a more general study into the acceptability of swearwords, YouGov has recently gauged public reactions to the use of ‘hell’, ‘Jesus Christ’ (as an expletive) and 26 other words on television.

Fieldwork was conducted online on 7 and 8 December 2010 among a representative sample of 1,539 adults aged 18 and over, of whom 7% opted to skip the questions on swearing because they feared they would be too offensive.

‘Hell’ was widely regarded as an innocuous utterance, with 67% thinking that the word should be allowed in television programmes at any time. Indeed, from this perspective, it was the most acceptable of all 28 swearwords, being 9% ahead of ‘bloody’. Men (75%) and young persons aged 18-24 (79%) were most likely to take this line.

A further 29% of respondents (particularly women and the over-60s) were only comfortable with ‘hell’ being used after the 9 pm watershed, while a mere 2% wanted to see it banned from television altogether.

People were also fairly tolerant about the use of ‘Jesus Christ’, with 41% considering that the expression should be permitted on television at any time. Just ‘hell’, ‘bloody’, and ‘c**p’ (49%) were deemed more acceptable swearwords. Men (50%), the 18-24s (56%), the 25-39s (51%), and Liberal Democrat voters (47%) were especially relaxed about taking Christ’s name in vain in this way.

However, almost as many (37%) in the whole sample wanted ‘Jesus Christ’ solely to be allowed after 9 pm, rising to 41% with females and 42% of the over-60s. Another 19% (including 35% of the over-60s) wanted its use to be totally banned, which was a middling result, 13 words achieving a higher vote for prohibition and 14 a lower one.

Perhaps it is another mark of progressive secularization that ‘religious swearwords’ no longer seem to shock. And, in case you are wondering, it was not actually the word which has been immortalized in recent BBC Radio 4 spoonerisms which topped the list of public disapproval, although 56% certainly wanted to see that four-letter word totally banned from television. The prize dislike was a six-letter word with racial overtones (58%).

BRIN is, of course, a ‘family website’, so we will refrain from quoting more of this naughty language. The full data tables from this poll can be accessed at:  

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-YouGov-Swearing-131210.pdf

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Clive Field on Attitudes to Islam and Muslim Attitudes in Britain

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Siobhan McAndrew

Last week, the Institute for Social Change (where BRIN is based) hosted a seminar by Clive Field, who co-directs this resource and blogs here assiduously. The title was “Muslim Opinions and Opinions of Muslims: British Experiences”. Clive provided a historical overview of Islam in Britain, followed by a “survey of surveys”, and culminating in an exploratory analysis of a survey of British Muslims sponsored by Harvard and Manchester.

The growing salience of Islam shows up in the number and subjects covered by surveys. Before the late 1980s, Islam and Muslims did not feature per se in national surveys; where diversity was considered it was qua ethnicity and nationality rather than religion. Imposing a survey ‘quality threshold’, Clive found that 15 surveys on Islam and/or Muslims were carried out over 1988-2000, 7 of them in 1990. However, 154 surveys were conducted between 2001 and 2010.

Clive then surveyed the headline findings emerging from such surveys, arguing that

‘[t]here is extensive negativity towards Muslims but no absolute level of Islamophobia, nor are views necessarily consistent between questions’.

More specifically, 9/11 and 7/7 spurred negative perceptions of Muslims’ integration, loyalty and radicalism. Knowledge of Islam and Muslims has improved somewhat but is still limited, and appears mostly to derive from (negative) media coverage). While direct social contact has grown, over one-half of non-Muslim Britons have no Muslim friends, and negative attitudes correlate with lack of knowledge and social distance. Double standards appear prevalent: Muslims are heavily criticised for failing to integrate, and yet little effort is made to bridge the gulf between the Muslim and majority communities.

Looking at surveys of Muslims, the first was conducted by Harris in 1989. It is expensive to survey minority communities and particularly those which are linguistically diverse. This means that such surveys often make methodological compromises, particularly with regard to sample size, which is typically 500 (which limits further breakdown by age or other category). Nevertheless Clive found 39 surveys of adequate quality conducted between 2001 and 2010.

The headline findings from these indicate that Muslims are much more religious than non-Muslims in Britain, and stricter on most aspects of morality. The overwhelming majority are attached to Britain, but there appears to be some ambivalence regarding a perceived clash between British and Muslim values, and a sense that Islamophobia is growing in British society.

Clive then provided an overview of findings from the Harvard-Manchester survey of Muslims, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and conducted over February-March 2009. It was designed to complement the 2008 British Social Attitudes survey where the number of Muslim respondents was too small for analysis of responses. Ipsos MORI ran the survey, providing a questionnaire in English, Sylheti and Punjabi and sampling output areas that had a population that was at least 10% Muslim.

Interviews were conducted face-to-face with 480 British Muslims aged over 18. 85% were South Asian, and 55% aged 18-34 (namely a young demographic profile). There were significant rates of non-response to sensitive questions (for example, on sexual morality), while complex questions such as the position of Sharia attracted a high rate of ‘don’t knows’.

Regarding the questions themselves, seven in eight reported that religion was extremely or very important in daily life, compared with 15% in the BSA 2008 survey. 82% reported that religion was very important to their sense of identity (BSA 16%) versus 55% for ethnicity (BSA 29%). Two-thirds reported that they were very or moderately spiritual (BSA 34%). 84% endorsed a literalist view of scripture (BSA 10%) and 44% creationism (BSA 14%).

Weekly attendance at services was claimed by 30% of those aged 18-34 and 50% of those aged 35 and over (BSA 10%). Praying at least several times a day was claimed by 45% of those aged 18-34 and 60% of those aged 35 and over (BSA 5%). Two-thirds reported that they read the Qur’an at least weekly, compared with 11% of the BSA sample reporting that they read the Bible or equivalent holy book. 71% reported that they observe Ramadan fully, and 17% mostly.

Headscarves worn (by the respondent if female or close female relative if the respondent was male) by 58% of those aged 18-34, and 77% of those aged 35 and over.

Regarding religion and personal morality, 75% reported that there are absolutely clear guidelines about what is good or evil (BSA 37%). 60% of those aged 18-34, and 78% of those aged 35 and over, reported that pre-marital sex was always wrong (BSA 8%). 58% of those aged 18-34 and 74% of those aged 35 and over regard homosexual acts as always wrong (BSA 30%). 45% of those aged 18-34 and 58% of those of 35 and over oppose legal recognition of same-sex relationships (BSA 26%).

Regarding the position of Muslims on religion in politics and society, 60% agree that religion is a private matter which should be kept out of public debates on socio-political issues (compared with 71% in the BSA). 54% disagree that it is proper for religious leaders to influence voting of individuals (BSA 73%). 45% report that religion is very or somewhat important in making decisions on politics (BSA 19%).

With regard to religious diversity, two-thirds acknowledge basic truths in many religions, compared with 74% of respondents to the 2008 BSA survey. 38% agree, while 32% disagree, that Britain is deeply divided along religious lines (compared with 52% and 16% in the BSA).

With regard to national identity, 58% reported that they “very strongly” belong to Britain and 29% “fairly strongly”. 57% support a greater role for Sharia courts. 22% of those aged 18-34 and 14% of those aged 35 and over reported experiencing Islamophobia during the two years before the survey period. However, 87% reported that they were broadly satisfied with their lives as a whole (BSA 83%). These findings are interesting and deserve further research (although the sample size will prohibit very detailed breakdowns). Clive also called for further, methodologically-enhanced survey research to build the evidence base, and provided some thoughts on prospects for integration and accommodation.

When discussion was opened to the floor, seminar participants were keen to probe how far negative attitudes among non-Muslims to Muslims were driven by generalised prejudice rather than something specific to Islam; how far they reflected antipathy to the tenets of Islam but not Muslims themselves; and how far they reflected antipathy to the highly religious and religiously-distinctive. The reliability of media-commissioned opinion polls seeking to create stories as well as reflect public attitudes was also discussed more deeply. It was a lively discussion, indicating appetite and scope for further research.

Clive has published on Islamophobia elsewhere:

C. Field (2007), ‘Islamophobia in contemporary Britain: the evidence of the opinion polls, 1988-2006’, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 18: 447-77.

C. Field (forthcoming), ‘Young British Muslims since 9/11: a composite attitudinal profile’, Religion, State and Society.

C. Field (forthcoming), ‘Revisiting Islamophobia in contemporary Britain: opinion poll findings for 2007-10’, Islamophobia in Western Europe and North America, ed. Marc Helbling, London: Routledge.

Accordingly, he is not planning to develop an academic article from this research but is happy for the slidepack to be available here at BRIN. For the full set of slides presented at the seminar, please visit this link: http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/muslims-attitudes-and-attitudes-towards-muslims/

 
 

 

 

Posted in Measuring religion, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Religion in the Press | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

ET

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Clive D. Field

It seems a fair bet that Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster 1982 film ET will be on the television schedules this Christmas, but how many of us actually believe in extra-terrestrials?

Some answers to the question can be found in a newly-released YouGov poll commissioned by the Royal Society as it nears the end of its 350th anniversary celebrations. The survey was conducted online on 1-4 October 2010, among a representative sample of 2,179 UK adults aged 18 and over, to gauge public attitudes to science.

Asked whether they believed extra-terrestrial life exists, 44% replied in the affirmative and 28% in the negative, with 28% uncertain. Believers were more numerous among men (55%) than women (34%). These figures actually constituted the two extremes of belief and disbelief. The next high was 51% for the 35-44s and the next low 39% in Northern Ireland.

Somewhat fewer (36%) considered that scientists should be actively searching for, and attempting to make contact with, extra-terrestrial life. Gender was again the main differentiator, the proportion rising to 46% among men and falling to 27% among women, although the lowest figure (24%) was in Northern Ireland. 46% of the whole sample disagreed with the proposition and 18% did not know.

A rather more nuanced picture of belief can be found in another YouGov study, for The Sun in July 2008. On that occasion, 42% of Britons said that there was definitely or possibly life beyond earth in our solar system, 68% in our galaxy, and 79% in the rest of the universe. Also relevant in this context is our earlier post on aliens at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=167

The full data tables for the Royal Society poll are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG_Archives_Life_ColmanGetty_RoyalSoc_Science_041010.pdf

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Christmas Present

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Further to our recent post on the religious meaning of Christmas in contemporary Britain, as recorded by GfK NOP/The Children’s Society (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=744), additional insights are provided in a poll released by the theological think-tank Theos on 8 December. The study was undertaken by ComRes by telephone among a representative sample of 1,005 adult Britons aged 18 and over between 3 and 5 December.

46% of respondents said that the birth of Jesus would be irrelevant to their Christmas, whereas 51% disagreed with the statement and 3% did not know what to think. These results were similar to those obtained in a previous ComRes/Theos poll in November 2008, in which 52% agreed that the birth of Jesus was significant to them personally.

There were fewer than expected variations by demographic sub-groups in this year’s survey, surprisingly, even by age cohort. The major exception was that Scots were especially prone to disagree that Jesus would be irrelevant to their Christmas (65%). Women (56%) also dissented more than men (47%).

36% stated that they would be attending a Christmas church service this year, women (43%) far more than men (29%). Adults aged under 55 were below-average attenders (especially the 35-44s), with the over-65s most dutiful (44%).

Social class also made a difference, with 44% of the AB social group planning to worship and manual workers being least inclined to turn out. 62% of all adults did not expect to go to a church service, with 2% unsure.

The 36% figure for anticipated attendance represented a drop of 8% on the ComRes/Theos 2008 statistic. However, as demonstrated by previous Christmas research, the good intentions of the majority of these would-be congregants are likely to evaporate before Christmas actually comes.

These data should therefore be taken more to illustrate the proportion thinking that they ought to go to church over Christmas rather than as a guide to those who will actually do so on the day.

Other questions not touching directly on the religious aspects of Christmas were: a) 41% intended to spend less on Christmas presents than in 2009, 41% the same and just 14% more; b) 13% were prepared to borrow money to buy decent Christmas presents and 86% not; c) 93% expected to pass Christmas Day in the company of family and/or friends and 6% to be on their own; d) 18% of people dreaded Christmas but 81% disagreed; e) 54% believed Christmas is overrated and 44% not; and f) 61% considered Christmas is mainly for children and 38% not.

The Theos press release for this poll can be found at:

http://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/What_does_Christmas_mean_to_people_in_Britain.aspx?ArticleID=4414&PageID=11&RefPageID=5

The full data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/Theoschristmaspolldecember2010.aspx

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Hate Crimes

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Data on the number of hate crimes reported to and recorded by the police across England, Wales and Northern Ireland were published for the first time on 30 November, partly with the intention of encouraging people to come forward with details of such crimes, which are widely believed to have been under-reported in the past.

The statistics relate to the calendar year 2009 and were collated by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), an independent and professionally-led strategic body with a membership of 338 Chief Police Officers.

During the year the police services noted 52,028 crimes where the victim, or any other person, perceived the offence to be motivated by hostility on the grounds of race, religious conviction, sexual orientation, disability or because a person was transgender.

83.5% of these crimes involved race hatred, 4.0% religion or faith, 9.2% sexual orientation, 0.6% transgender, and 2.7% disability. At 2,083, religious hate crimes were up by more than a fifth on 2008, although better reporting may account for some or perhaps even all of this increase. The boundaries between race and religion/faith hate crimes are presumably quite blurred on occasion.

Religious hate crimes were spatially concentrated. Indeed, 20 of 44 police forces recorded fewer than 10 cases and Sussex none at all. The largest numbers of such crimes were in London (36.4%), Greater Manchester (17.2%), Lancashire (6.0%), West Midlands (5.1%), and Thames Valley (4.9%). This distribution might lead one to suspect that the crimes were preponderantly Islamophobic, but this can be mere speculation.

It should be noted that the figures for anti-Semitic hate crimes were apparently included in the race rather than religion/faith category, although they were also separately enumerated. There were 703 anti-Semitic crimes in 2009, 54.8% of them in London, 28.2% in Greater Manchester, and 7.3% in Hertfordshire – all areas of Jewish concentration. 24 police forces had no anti-Semitic hate crimes.

This anti-Semitic total was 221 less than the 924 cases previously reported by the Community Security Trust (CST) for 2009. The discrepancy mainly reflects the fact that data for non-crime incidents are excluded from ACPO’s statistics, being only held locally, whereas they are included in the CST’s review. Also, the latter covered 30 cases in Scotland, a home nation not within the purview of ACPO.

The data table showing breakdowns by police force will be found at:

http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/policies/Data/084a_Recorded_Hate_Crime_-_January_to_December_2009.pdf

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Religious Meaning of Christmas

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Clive D. Field

A new poll, published by The Children’s Society on 1 December, suggests that the religious side of Christmas is struggling to get a hearing as Britons prepare for the festive season. The survey was conducted online by GfK NOP among a representative sample of 972 UK adults aged 16 and over on 18-23 November 2010.

Asked (Q.1) what was the most important thing about Christmas, only 10% of respondents overall said that its religious meaning was paramount for them personally. There was a marked contrast by age, with the under-55s all recording less than the mean and the 55-64s (13%) and the over-65s (20%) attaching most significance to Christmas as a religious festival. Regional highs were in London (20%), the South-West (18%) and Ulster (17%), but the sub-samples were small.

Spending time with family and friends was the priority for 67%, with all other aspects barely rating a mention: having a holiday or time off work (5%), giving or receiving presents (3%), eating, drinking or partying (2%). Just 4% said that they did not celebrate Christmas at all – much the same as in YouGov’s recent study, discussed at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=709.

The proportion of one-tenth who regarded the religious meaning of Christmas as important was smaller than the number who identified Christmas as a primarily religious festival in a series of Gallup Polls between 1964 and 1998. In the late 1990s it stood at about one-fifth compared with one-half who thought the opportunity to meet family and friends and to enjoy oneself was the defining feature of Christmas. See Clive Field, ‘When a Child is Born: The Christian Dimension of Christmas in Britain since the 1960s’, Modern Believing, Vol. 40, No. 3, July 1999, pp. 29-40, especially tables 1 and 2.

However, replies to The Children’s Society’s Q.3[b], which asked whether people in general in 2010 still associated Christmas with its religious meaning, painted a somewhat rosier picture: 44% agreed with the suggestion against 46% who disagreed. Demographic variations were mostly relatively slight, apart from a concentration of ‘optimists’ in London (62%) and Ulster (53%) and among those working part-time (53%).

Other questions included in this GfK NOP poll were: Q.2 ‘How likely or unlikely are you to make cutbacks in your overall spending this Christmas?’ – 52% said likely and 34% unlikely; Q.3[a] ‘Christmas has become too commercialised’ – 86% agreed and 8% disagreed; and Q.3[c] ‘I am prepared to go into debt this Christmas so that my family enjoys and makes the most of the festive season’ – 10% agreed and 84% disagreed. It should be noted that these questions, as well as Q.3[b], were only put to those intending to celebrate Christmas.

The above post is partly based upon The Children’s Society’s press release and partly on the full unpublished data tables which the Society has very generously made available to the author, and which are quoted with its permission. The Society’s help is gratefully acknowledged. The press release will be found at:

http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/whats_happening/media_office/latest_news/22582_pr.html

The poll findings were published as The Children’s Society’s annual Christingle campaign commenced across the country, with the hope of raising more than £1 million to help vulnerable young people. Christingle is a custom of the Moravian Church and originated in 1747. It was introduced to the Anglican Church by The Children’s Society in 1968. Over half a million children take part in the celebration during the traditional period – November to February.

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Gender Balance in the Methodist Ministry

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Free Churches have been pioneers of women’s ministry in this country, as can be seen in the collection of essays This is our Story, edited by Janet Wootton (Epworth Press, 2007).

The Methodist Church of Great Britain has been ordaining women clergy since 1974, but there was a long pre-history, with two of its predecessor bodies (the Primitive Methodists and the Bible Christians) making extensive use of female itinerant preachers in the early nineteenth century.

The current (ministerial) President of the Methodist Conference (an annual office) is, in fact, a woman (Rev Alison Tomlin, supported by a female Vice-President, Deacon Eunice Attwood). There have also been two previous female Presidents.

However, according to statistics in today’s Methodist Recorder (and obtained from the Methodist Connexional Team), women are still under-represented in the Church’s senior ministerial positions.

Although women account for 50% of probationer ministers and 33% of presbyters in an establishment post, they hold only 20% of circuit superintendencies and 16% of District Chairs.

Various spokespersons for the Methodist Church are quoted in the newspaper as applauding the progress which has been made in achieving a better gender balance in the ministry but as acknowledging that more needs to be done.

This year’s Methodist Conference established a network of Equality and Diversity Forums, including a Gender Stakeholder Forum, which is tackling the issue of gender inclusivity more generally. Some two-thirds of Methodist members and worshippers are women.

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YouGov’s Advent Calendar

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Last Sunday, 28 November, marked the start of Advent and thus the beginning of the ecclesiastical year in Western Christianity. Derived from the Latin Adventus, meaning coming, Advent has for Christians traditionally been a penitential season leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day.

Perhaps one of the best-known manifestations of Advent today is the Advent calendar, in which doors, windows or drawers, often with a sweet (or even a toy) behind them, are opened day by day to build up the anticipation for Christmas. You might think this is a quintessentially British invention but, like many of our Christmas traditions, this practice originated in German-speaking Europe in the nineteenth century.

Initially, German Lutherans physically counted off the days until Christmas by drawing lines in chalk on their doors, lighting a candle or hanging religious images on the walls of their homes. Then came the public Advent wreath, hung for the first time in Hamburg in 1839, followed by the first hand-made Advent calendar in 1851 and by printed calendars from the 1900s. Advent calendars seem to have become common in Britain only since the Second World War.

According to today’s Daily Telegraph, ‘sales of Advent calendars have surged this year as parents try to inject a bit of tradition into Christmas’. John Lewis, one of Britain’s major retailers, reports that purchases of calendars in its stores have jumped by 150%. While some have religious themes, many are overtly secular, with a focus on excitement and pleasure.

However, the Advent calendar is being increasingly used (some might say hijacked) for other ends, including in the shape of virtual calendars on the internet. The Labour Party, for example, has just launched an Advent calendar in which each window opens to reveal what it calls a Coalition Government ‘broken promise’. Similarly, Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit has produced a calendar in which each door leads to a fact relating to domestic abuse, which increases markedly over the festive period.

Appropriately for an online opinion polling company, YouGov has now initiated its own virtual Advent calendar for 2010, in which each daily Christmas stocking clicks through to a new piece of YouGov research into some aspect or other of Christmas. The first two stockings are now officially ‘opened’. The calendar can be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/advent-calendar

The research for day 1 (fieldwork on 30 November and 1 December among 1,686 adult Britons) asked respondents whether they planned to have an Advent calendar this year. 34% said they did, 60% that they did not, with 6% uncertain. Calendars are more popular with women (41%) than men (27%). Peak interest by age is with the 25-39s (46%), perhaps because many will be parents of young children, with the over-60s (20%) being least inclined to have a calendar. For more detail, see:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-YouGov-Life-Christmas-Day1AdventCalendar-011210.pdf

Day 2’s question (1,934 adults interviewed on 1 and 2 December) enquired about favourite Christmas songs. Preferences were greatly influenced by age. Thus, while Fairytale of New York by Pogues topped the list with 20%, it was most popular with the 18-24s (30%) and least with the over-60s (9%). The latter were bigger fans of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas (16%), which was in second place, with 9%, overall. Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody came third, with 8%. Cliff Richard was the best-known religious artiste, scoring 2% each with Saviour’s Day and Mistletoe and Wine. For the full list of songs, see:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-YouGov-Life-Christmas-Day2ChristmasSong-021210.pdf

Although we will not be covering each day’s question(s), we will try to post about any which are particularly pertinent to the religious aspects of Christmas.

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