Census results released today show Christians continue to dominate. This might be surprising to some, considering the continuous decline in most obvious forms of church attendance, but not to Dr Abby Day, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies, who has been studying religious identification on the national census since 2001.
Her book summarising her study was recently published as Believing in Belonging: Belief and Social Identity in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press, 2011).
Dr Day described the findings: ‘Numbers are down, as we would expect – not because of increasing numbers of non-Christians such as Muslims (still a tiny percentage of the population) but because older people, the most religious cohort of society, are dying. Young people are less religious. We know that, but the number is still important because census data are used to inform important political decisions about a range of issues, such as health, welfare, and education. The census helps the government decide about funding religious schools, for example.’
‘For many people, selecting “Christian” is an emotional, defensive choice: when they look down the list and see the options, ranging from Buddhist to Muslims or others, they feel compelled to tick the Christian box as a sign of solidarity.
But census data are used to inform important political decisions about a range of issues, such as health, welfare, and education. The census helps the government decide about funding religious schools, for example. What they may be funding are ‘white schools.’
As Dr Day continues: ‘Importantly, it fuels comments about what the real, perhaps “proper” UK culture or identity is. Ask the English Defence League when their thugs take to the street to claim Islam is threating the UK’s Christian heritage. For that matter, ask David Cameron who defines himself as a cultural Christian. “Culture”, like “tradition”, is often a stick used to beat anyone who doesn’t fit the dominant, powerful status.’
‘Christian, for many people, means English, and often a particularly hard form of English that rejects multi-culturalism. Many of the census Christians are more concerned more about protecting English culture than Christian beliefs. What people really believe, however, is more complex. Many ‘Christians’ don’t worship Jesus or even God, or give religion any thought unless asked to on occasions like census day.
‘My research and review of other national and international studies show a trend in the UK, Europe, Australia, Canada, and of steady decline in traditional, Christian beliefs and behaviours. We know that the same people who say they don’t believe in any religious ideas, will happily say they are Christian if they are asked to make that choice. Those Christians are often labelled as ‘nominal’ or ‘marginal’, but this trivialises the significance of their identities.
‘The “nominal Christians” retain a Christian identity because they relate being Christian to being baptised as a child, or going to Sunday school, or what they feel is a characteristic of their culture, or something they remember about the Ten Commandments. I have categorised these Christians in three ways: “natal” (because it’s about baptism and family); “ethnic” (because it’s about culture and country) and “aspirational, moral” (because being Christian is being good.)’
Abby Day can be contacted at a.f.day@kent.ac.uk