In the past 50 years the “religious” landscape of the United Kingdom underwent a radical transformation. The new profile of British religious affiliation was presented in a research titled “Living with Difference”, published last week by the Woolf Institute, Cambridge University.
The survey shows that almost 50% of the British population no longer identifies with a religious belief. Christians are steadily decreasing. Thirty years ago two thirds of the population would have identified as Christians. Today, that figure is four in ten, while at the same time there has been a shift away from mainstream denominations and a growth in evangelical and Pentecostal churches, with a tough blow on the Anglican Church.
Those who describe themselves as Anglican dropped from 40% to 17% 30 years later.
Roman Catholics register a slight decline. However, a sharp increase was registered in the proportions of people who describe themselves as belonging to a religion but not as Christian. Fifty years ago Judaism was the largest non-Christian religious tradition in the UK. Now it is the fourth largest behind Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.
Although percentages are still low (one in ten), affiliates of faith traditions other than Christian are younger and are therefore growing faster.
The Woolf Institute is concerned that this situation may feed the population’s anxieties over immigration and fear of the ‘other’. For this reason, the survey contains a set of “recommendations”. Researchers believe it is ever more urgent to promote a deeper knowledge (literature) of the religious phenomena in order to counter all forms of negative stereotyping and hyper-simplification of religious phenomena at all levels of society. The pluralist character of modern society should be reflected in all areas of the Country, and in national forums such as the House of Lords.
What is being questioned is the presence of 26 Anglican bishops in one of the two Houses of the British Parliament at a time when the members of the Anglican Church are declining
Criticism of BBC, which was requested to extend contributions to Radio 4’s daily religious program Thought for the Day to include speakers from “non-religious perspectives” such as “humanists”. Fingers are also pointed at faith schools, accused of “selecting” pupils and staff for “religious reasons” and of “indoctrinating” students.
The Church of England was the first to react with a press release conveying “disappointment” over the fact that the Report misunderstands the role of Church of England schools in providing a rounded education to more than a million pupils. The Anglican Church equally criticizes the “view” that traditional religion is declining in importance and that non-adherence to a religion is the same as humanism or secularism. The communiqué states: “overwhelming public support for the Church of England over the Lord’s Prayer cinema advert” shows that
“most public opinion is strongly opposed to the marginalisation of Christianity”.
Also Catholic Herald deputy editor Ed West is critical. First of all he guards against the attempt of replacing a traditional religious faith such as Anglicanism with a kind of “multiculturalism featuring an indistinct celebration of faith traditions”.
He pointed out:
“Plural societies are possible options, provided there is a prevailing cultural norm”.
“Once official religion is dismissed – he said – it is bound to be replaced by another ideology, which in this case is multiculturalism: an awkward celebration of difference”. For Ed West Islam – which in the past 30 years underwent considerable numerical growth – is a major challenge for British society today. “It represented 0.1% of the population when my father was a young man, it accounts for 5% today, and it is projected to represent almost 10% of the British population in my son’s generation. And while Christian Britain is evolving as a socially liberal and secular society, Islamic religious laws become increasingly conservative”. The Woolf Institute research shows that also in the United Kingdom laicity is a distant goal. “The challenge – Edward Kessler points out in the video – is to jointly understand what it means to be British citizens today. I hope this effort may help us identify the kind of society we want for the near future”.
