Taking the Temperature
Falling Figures for British Belief
By Dwight Longenecker
Why did the Berlin Wall came down and Communism crumple? Secular analysts blamed moribund politics, a poor economy, lack of investment and an inability to keep up with modern technology. A friend of mine who travelled and worked in Russia said that the real reason was an epidemic of atheism. The problem was simple: people didn’t believe in God. They had no religion. Millions of Russians had no essential meaning to their lives. They had nothing to live for, and so drifted into despair. Nothing was worth doing, so their nation crumbled from the inner decay of apathy.
Are Britain and Western Europe heading the same way? For some time polls have reported the decline in religious belief and church attendance. Just before Christmas London’s Daily Telegraph commissioned a poll on religious belief in the nation. The British poll reflects the same downward trend across Europe. The results make grim reading.
The evidence indicates that the British are now overwhelmingly an irreligious people. Only a minority believe God exists and practically everyone admits that Britain is increasingly a secular nation. People aren’t hostile to religion; they just don’t care. Indifference and apathy rules the day. Most people conclude that religion is simply a curious past time for antiquarians and those who appreciate eccentric hobbies. A majority of the British population have neither hopes nor fears for the afterlife. Only a third believe in heaven and even fewer believe in Hell or the Devil.
The pollsters asked some questions that Britons had been asked back in 1968. The first question was whether people believed in God. In 1968 more than three quarters said they did. Now the number has dropped to less than 44%. Those who were prepared to admit disbelief in God’s existence has nearly trebled from just 11% in 1968 to 35% today. This parallels a report by the BBC five years ago. They found that 48% of people in the UK claim to belong to a religion, compared with 86% of people in the US and 92% of Italians."
The fall in religious belief has trickled down to behaviour. In 1968 nearly everyone would have chosen to be married in a church of religious building. Now just 34% said they would like to be wed in church. 63% preferred not to be married in a church at all or shrugged their shoulders and said it didn’t matter. Religious ignorance and apathy is widespread. In data revealed in a Mori poll from August of 2003, only 55% of the English population could name one of the four Christian gospels.
Church attendance has slumped accordingly. Of the 44% who professed belief in God hardly any were frequent worshippers. Only a small minority attended church even once a week. The vast majority of believers, like their non believing counterparts, simply stay at home on Sunday morning. Again, this co-incides with the BBC report in the year 2000. At that point half of all adults aged 18 and over who belonged to a religion have never attended a religious service. The same report shows that British church attendance in 1999 was just 7.5% of the population on an average Sunday. That fell from 10% in 1989 and 12% in 1979."
Out of those who do attend church the Anglicans fare the worst. Grace Davie in Religion in Britain since 1945 observed, ‘It is not exaggerated to conclude that between 1960 and 1985 the Church of England ... was effectively reduced to not much more than half its previous size". The recent survey showed that non Anglican Protestants and Catholics are holding their own a bit better. Statistics and surveys are never as accurate as we would like. Things might be even worse than the pollsters suggest. In her book on the Church of England, Monica Furlong observes that in surveys people overestimate their commitment to church. ‘people questioned about how much they go to church, give figures which, if true, would add up to twice those given by the churches."
Christianity in Britain is fading fast, and the church officials seem impotent to do anything about it. Many of the church leaders are in denial. They dispute every new finding and accuse the poll takers of bias or inaccuracy. Sometimes they do their own polls and come up with suspiciously encouraging results due to different rules for counting. Usually well meaning bishops and church leaders downplay the plummeting attendances. They like to point to the increase in ‘spirituality’ as a positive sign. In fact, the only real growth points for Christianity in Britain are the Pentecostals within both the independent church movement and a minority strand of the Anglican Church.
What are the causes of the spiritual decay in Britain? Some people point to the rise of materialism and increased personal wealth, but the United States is a wealthier country, and church attendance there remains high. One of the reasons is the clash between individualism and the establishment. In the United States where there is no formally established religion, faith is understood as a personal matter that requires strong personal commitment.
In contrast, to belong to an established religion in Britain is to express faith in the establishment. In the modern ‘me-centered’ society people distrust the old authorities. Established churches seem corrupt, irrelevant and out of touch. People simply don’t connect and don’t want to.
Despite its many weaknesses, the strength of Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism is that the Christian faith is presented as personal, relevant and radical. As we engage in the New Evangelisation we must keep in mind the transforming power of the gospel for individuals. Then out of the ashes of the old church a Christianity will arise that is ancient yet new, vibrant, and relevant for the pressures of the twenty first century.
Dwight Longenecker writes from Chippenham, England. Log onto his website at: HYPERLINK "http://www.dwightlongenecker.com" www.dwightlongenecker.com
Sidebar
Catholic Statistics in Britain
Catholic Population
1982 – 4,269,019
1992 – 4,280,180
2002 - 4,053,827
Priests
1982 – 6995
1992 – 6210
2002 - 4080
Mass Attendance
1982 – 1,600,000
1992 – 1,292,312
2002 – 1,071,975
Baptisms and Receptions into the Church
1982 – 80,121
1992 – 83,565
2002 – 60,557
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