When Ian Wyllie and I published Religious Trends last December, the Director of Christian Research, Benita Hewitt, kindly gave us a Christmas present inscribed with the above words. It is a quotation from a famous 18th Century pro-missionary sermon on Isaiah 54:2-3 by William Carey in which he repeatedly used this epigram that has become his most famous quotation. He later founded, in 1792, a missionary society in Benita's home town of Kettering, which in part explains her fondness for the quote.

Originally, the mission was called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Heathen. Mercifully, it was soon known as the Baptist Missionary Society and since 2000 as BMS World Mission (http://www.bmsworldmission.org ). It is still usually abbreviated to BMS by Baptists such as myself.

What very much interests, and inspires, me in my capacity in Christian Research is the story leading up to the founding of BMS. In addition to his inspiring sermon, Carey published a booklet An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. (http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/enquiry/anenquiry.pdf)

This short manifesto comprises five parts. In the first part, he makes a strong theological argument for Christian missionary activity (Matthew 28:18-20) and then he outlines the history of mission from the early Church to his own time. Part 4 deals with objections to sending missionaries and the last part calls for the missionary society to be formed.

However, it was Part 3 that has caught my attention, as there are 26 pages of tables of statistics for every country in the world, giving the nation's area, population and main religions. This is what Christian Research now offers within Religious Trends (http://www.christian-research.org/world-religion/introduction.html). Ours is, of course, better but Carey did not have the resources such as the internet to undertake this research. I expect he spent much time in correspondence and on visiting sources, whereas I did most of the data gathering on the PC I am using to write this blog. It seems that Carey had compiled these figures during the period 1785-1792 when he was a shoemaker and schoolteacher in the village of Moulton, Northamptonshire, and pastor of its local Particular Baptist church.

What an excellent example is Carey’s Enquiry of an evidence-based strategy! Carey kept a chart of the world on the wall in front of his workbench so that as he made and repaired shoes, he would weep over the millions who were not following Jesus and for the Gospel that could save them.

In our churches, it is clear that those with leadership and clear vision are most likely to grow. Many of the success stories we hear about have as part of their strategy a programme to soak the neighbourhood with prayer. Perhaps we should soak our neighbours with our tears as well.

Today, William Carey would surely and gladly pay his £30 membership to study Religious Trends, but I believe he would still weep.

Written by Michael Hudson

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Do you believe in hell? - if so, it might be affecting your outlook on a wide range of issues, or so suggests a recent paper by Professor Treisman, Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California. In the paper he shows that, at a regional level in Europe and parts of Asia, differences in the level of fear of the consequences of possible future events, such as nuclear war, swine flu, may be partly explicable by the strength of belief in hell held in that region. Commenting on his research Professor Treisman said: 

“Some previous research has found that people who are more afraid of nuclear war are less likely to save. Others have speculated that fearfulness might predispose people to support authoritarian government, but I have not seen any systematic evidence of this. I do find using survey data from Europe that, even controlling for the level of economic development, in countries where people are more fearful the average levels of happiness and life satisfaction are lower.” 

Professor Treisman’s study used existing data from the Eurobarometer series of opinion polls for Europe and the Asia Europe study, which performs a similar function across Asia and Europe to construct his index of fear, which is statistically reasonably robust. However these studies did not ask directly about belief in hell so their results, at a country level had to be associated with the World Values study which, in 2000 did ask about belief in heaven and hell. Because the World Values study used a different set of participants to the other studies, this means that the association between fear and belief in hell can not be explored at the level of individual subjects, and makes the overall findings of the research less certain.

Professor Treisman himself says “I should emphasize that it remains a conjecture that needs to be confirmed by further surveys. Why would belief in hell correlate with a greater predisposition to fearfulness? One possibility is that belief in divine retribution creates a general sense of anxiety that manifests itself with regard to particular dangers. Another is that belief in hell is associated with the belief that people are naturally evil, at least to some extent, and that therefore one should anticipate harm from others.” 

One feature of this research which is important to developing a fuller understanding of the implications would be to know what proportion of people who believe in hell in Europe are actively practicing Christians. If belief in hell is a partly culturally determined phenomenon, then for the purposes of interpreting the findings, it would be important to find out find out whether people who were actively practicing Christians and believed in hell were more or less fearful than those people who had a culturally determined belief in hell, but did not practice Christianity. 

Direct link to NBER's paper download site:  http://www.nber.org/papers/w16838

Download a draft of the paper from Professor  Treisman's site: here

Read the Wall Street Journal's blog on the paper: here 

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In the light of the recent controversy around the question about religious affiliation asked in the 2011 census and the attempts by certain interest groups to actively influence the outcome of the census it seemed pertinent to post an article at greater length than Research Brief permits of the process of selection and validation which National Statistics used to generate the questions asked in the census. 

The 2001 Census was the first time a religion question had been asked in England, Scotland and Wales to learn more about religious affiliation as a variable in its own right, collect data on religious minorities that cut across national and ethnic boundaries and capture data on two ethnic minority groups (Sikhs and Jews), ensuring that obligations under the Race Relations Act could be met.

A variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to test the questions recommended for inclusion in the 2011 Census. Qualitative question testing on religion has primarily been conducted by the data collection methodology (DCM) branch in ONS through a programme of cognitive testing, running since February 2005. Quantitative question testing has been conducted at various intervals since May 2006 using a variety of methodologies.

Measuring ‘religion’ is notoriously complex as there are a number of dimensions to the concept of religion. The key dimensions for survey and census questions about religion are affiliation, practice and belief. Based on the evidence of a lengthy programme of research and consultation, ONS believes that the most appropriate question for the 2011 Census is one that asks about religious affiliation rather than practice of belief. Several different question wordings have been tested, including:

• What is your religion?

• What is your religion or belief?

• What is your religion, even if not currently practising?

• Do you regard yourself as belonging to a religion?

• Which of these best describes you?

Testing found that the question ‘what is your religion?’ best meets the requirement of collecting good quality data on religious affiliation within the space constraints of the census questionnaire. The question will also provide comparability between the 2001 and 2011 Censuses. 

To find out more use this link:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/recommended-questions---religion.pdf 

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Nearly one in three Britons believe they have a guardian angel watching over them, according to research we have just commissioned. Details of the research, conducted for us by ICM, are at the bottom of this blog.

It showed that 31% believed in angels, with 17% saying they are not sure. A further 5% - or one in 20 - told us that they believe they have seen or heard an angel, with 29% saying they think a guardian angel is watching over them.

The research showed the London region has the highest levels of belief in angels at 40%, with the North East scoring the lowest at 17%. People in the London region also scored the highest for belief in a guardian angel watching over them, at 37%, compared to 22% in Scotland and the North East.

More detailed summaries of the results and the data tables are available for download here

These are interesting findings for us, and have made us think about conducting a more comprehensive research study on the subject of angels. We wonder exactly what people believe about angels, and where they get their knowledge from? We're also interested to find out more from the one in twenty who say that they have had an experience of an angel. A few people have started to contact us already to let us know, so we've produced a simple set of questions to help us understand this fascinating subject:

1. When did you experience an angel (year, month, day, time of day – as well as can be remembered)?

2. Where did you experience an angel (location – town/city, but also type of place – church/bedroom/hospital/etc)?

3. What was happening immediately prior to your experience of an angel (what were you doing, how were you feeling)?

4. Please describe the angel as best you can

5 How did you feel when the angel arrived?

6. Describe exactly what happened – did the angel say or do anything, what was your response, etc.

7. How did you feel after encountering the angel?

8. Did anyone else see or hear the angel?

9. Who have you told about this experience, and what was their response?

10. Have you ever seen an angel again?

If you, or anyone you know, has experienced an angel please let us know about your experience - either by email or post. Many thanks.


ICM interviewed a random sample of 1038 adults aged 18+ via online between the 15th – 16th December 2010. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults.ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.(Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk)

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Only one in ten adults in the UK believes that the birth of Jesus is the most important part of Christmas. Even fewer (one in 20) young people aged 25-34 are likely to put the religious significance of Christmas first, which is in contrast to one in five of the over-60s.

These findings come from a survey for the Children’s Society which, paradoxically, found that a substantial majority (86%) think the season has become too commercialised. It is clear from the research that fears of impending Government cuts and more austerity to come are being felt by families this year: a substantial proportion (60%) of people with children in the survey said they were likely to cut back on spending this Christmas. There was further evidence that there may be a move away from materialism as only 3% said that ‘giving and receiving presents’ was of primary importance to them.

To find out more use this link:

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

This item above was included in our December Research Brief. Since writing it, The Children's Society were kind enough to send Christian Research a full copy of the results from this research, and we are able to share some more findings here.

In the research people were given a list to chose from and could only pick one option as the most important thing about Christmas. 67% chose 'spending time with family and friends'. This doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, in some ways it is a surprise that 10% opted for 'its religious meaning' instead. It's also interesting to note that only 3% chose 'giving or receiving presents' and yet so much time, energy and expense goes into this every year. We really ought to be redressing the balance onto the things that are most important to us.

The research shows that 52% are likely to make cutbacks in their overall spending this Christmas. The detail of the research shows that it is the 'middle England families' that are most likely to be feeling the pinch. The respective number for 35-44 year olds was 64%, for C1C2 socio-economic groups was 59%, and those with children 60%.  This sector of the population is often called the 'sandwich' generation - caring for increasingly elderly parents, whilst still supporting adult offspring. The rise in tuition fees will, of course, add to the pressures.

Although only 10% agreed 'I am prepared to go into debt this Christmas so that my family enjoys and makes the most of the festive season, agreement was a little higher with those of lower socioeconomic groups and those with children.

Respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with the statement 'people still associate Christmas with its religious meaning'. 44% agreed. Rather surprisingly, the highest agreement came from 16-24 year olds and single people (both 48%). The region with the highest agreement was London, where 62% agreed.

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This lunchtime I visited the head office of Barclaycard for their annual carol service. The invite came from my friends who run the Christians@Barclacyard fellowship. Given the high profile stories that there have been of persecution in the workplace, I wanted to share this story of Christians who are supported in the workplace.

It's worth knowing a little about the building in Northampton. It houses over 3000 staff and is largely open plan with a central street running the length of the building - 260m long, 9m wide and 3 or 4 stories high. It as at one of this street that the carol service was held. The design of the building means that the carol service was not going on behind closed doors somewhere, it was right out in the open, and could be heard by many staff whether they chose to attend or not. For those not down our end of the street, there were also a total of 8 plasma screens used to relay the live video.  This is the opposite of Christian persecution in the workplace.

A local primary school was involved in the service. There was  a poster competition to design the posters that were used throughout the building to advertise the service. The children sang songs and helped to illustrate the Christmas story. Their headmaster read Matthew 2:7-12. The children were treated to lunch and given goodie bags to take home from the Chrstians@Barclaycard. But the best treats of all for them were seeing themselves on the TV screens, and the novelty of being on a revolving stage!

The carol service was well attended by staff, pensioners and a few people like myself who used to belong to the Christian fellowship. This year there were no spare seats, with standing room only at the back and staff leaning over various balconies to listen to what was going on.  The chair of the pensioners group read Matthew 2:1-6.

The CEO of Barclaycard, Val Soranno Keating, who normally works in London, attended the whole service and read Isaiah 9:6-7. She seemed to be really enjoying it, and spoke to the children and congratulated the Christians@Barclaycard at the end of the service. This is the opposite of Christian persecution in the workplace.

Following the service there was lunch for all, including delicious hot chocolate.

It was a great event - with the love of God being talked about, and demonstrated, in the heart of one of the largest financial institutions in the UK. There was absolutely no hint of persecution in the workplace here, quite the opposite. It wasn't even as if Barclaycard just 'tolerated' the carol service. It was a real celebration, totally supported by the organisation - including the CEO personally. Well done Christians@Barclaycard.

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