UK Evangelicals in the 21st Century

1

• UK Evangelicals in the 21st Century
• Social and political engagement
• Greg Smith...
• Research Manager Evangelical Alliance
• and
• Associate Research Fellow, William Temple
  Foundation
• gregcity3_at_yahoo.co.uk
• Paper for Socrel Conference
• High Leigh
• July 2015

2
The research and the book

• baseline survey of 12,000 in 2010
• quarterly panel surveys since then
• samples range from 1,150 to 2,200
• various topics, religious and social
• popular glossy reports
• all available online at
• http//www.eauk.org/church/resources/snapshot/

Book published March 2015 Analysis and
sociological or theological reflection by various
academic colleagues
3
Some limitations?

• Opportunity sample of volunteers therefore we
  cannot claim it is representative we have a
  portrait of keen evangelicals who are in
  contact with the Alliance
• Although without an enumeration of British
  Evangelicals (who as a constituency have fuzzy
  boundaries) it is difficult to see how it could
  be.
• Being an online survey there are biases
• digitally excluded people are missing
• Women are under-represented especially in the
  older generation while churches often have large
  numbers of older women
• BME groups are probably under-represented
• 4. We have limited comparative data with other
  types of Christians and the general population

4
Who are British Evangelicals?
Across Protestant denominations Anglican
30 Baptist   20 Charismatic - New
Churches 18 Other evangelicals ... (this is
independents.. brethren etc) 13 Free Church
denomination (eg Methodist, URC, Salvation Army)
  7 Pentecostal 6Church of
Scotland or other Presbyterian   4 Are
found in almost all regions and social groups but
tend above the average for the population to be
Middle class, affluent, Educated in (or retired
from) professional work, White British, living
in southern England in stable marriages and
conventional families Possibly 2 million in
Number and a third of British Churchgoers.. (Tear
Fund)
5
What are their core beliefs?
Unique Incarnation 97 agree that Jesus is the
only way to God. Resurrection 91 agreed or
strongly agreed with the statement that Jesus
rose from the tomb with a physical body 78
strongly agreed with the statement I am
confident that when I die I will enjoy
everlasting life God is at work in them 76
agree or strongly agree that they can see God at
work in my life on a daily basis 98 agree or
strongly agree that they can see God at work in
their life over the long term World view at odds
with secular culture
6

• 4 distinctives of Evangelicals (Bebbington)
• High view of Scripture
• 93 see the Bible as the inspired word of God
• 82 read it at least a few times a week
  (baseline survey)
• Conversion and Personal faith commitment
• 94 agree that everyone needs to be born again
• 72 made a decision to follow Christ before the
  age of 20 (Confidently sharing the gospel?)
• Focus on the Cross, atonement and forgiveness of
  sins
• 89 agree the central message is that on the
  cross Jesus bore the punishment for my sins
• Activism in mission

7
Evangelical social activism
Evangelism But 48 say they are too scared
to talk about faith to non-Christians More
likely to think in terms of showing Gods love
hoping it will win souls Volunteering 58
actively involved in a social action project but
within the cocoon of the church.. (huge numbers
involved in food banks..) Only 21 involved in a
secular community or voluntary organisation Votin
g. More than 95 of our panellists say they
voted in the genral election 2015 91 in 2011
said they would vote in the referendum on AV
(national turnout was 42)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
VOTING AND POLITICAL VIEWS As divided as the
country.. There is no Evangelical block
vote And their social class and location
concentrated in Southern England should make
them natural Tories.
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
What are their core social values?

• conservative on sexuality and life issues
• religious liberty
• economically liberal pro welfare
• individualistic
• internationalist
• Is this a contradiction?
• Or signs of a shiftwith more liberal
  evangelicals becoming less religious?...
• or a coherent Christian world view?

20
Emerging identity and cultural shifts
Age shifts. The Fuzzy fringe The Toxic E
word.. Women and younger people More liberal
politically and morally Sexuality issues
21
The Toxic E word FROM the One people Commission
survey of under 35s 2015
22
Christians who are not (quite?) Evangelical
Voting
23
Voting intentions by gender and age politics
survey September 2014 Left Labour, Green, Lib
Dem, SNP etc Right Tory, UKIP, DUP, UUP etc.
24
(No Transcript)
25
Evangelicals by age on a key moral issue
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
There is a gender difference but it is not
statistically significant
29
Further areas of research

• UK Data archive. All data sets have been
  deposited and will be available with
  documentation in next month or so.
• Some possible research projects for your students
• Qualitative data there is a plethora of textual
  data in open ended comments
• Multivariate analysis So far we have only
  reported on simple cross tabulations by gender,
  age group, denomination etc. Possibility of
  regression models and factor analysis on attitude
  scales.
• Panel survey linkage We have proved the concept
  but it seems to lose over 40 of cases in two
  contiguous waves of the panel
• Forthcoming topics British values / health
  wellbeing /
• Possibly thenfresh expressions churches/
  environment creation mega survey..