The political concerns of Evangelical Christians in the UK

1. The political concerns of Evangelical Christians in the UK Greg Smith William Temple Foundation, and Evangelical Alliance Email g.smith@eauk.org & Mathew Guest University of Durham m.j.guest@durham.ac.uk

2. Jimmy Carter President of USA 1976-1980 1976 the ‘year of the evangelicals’ Ronald Reagan President of the USA 1980-1988 Values of the New Christian Right expressed most forcibly in cultural and economic, rather than theological, terms...

3. Jerry Falwell has Ronald Reagan's ear during a campaign stop in October 1980.

4. The Evangelical ‘Left’? Jim Walllis (1948-) Sojourners Tony Campolo (1935-) ‘Red Letter Christian’ Rob Bell (1970-) Mars Hill Bible Church, MI Nooma DVDs Reclaiming social justice to Christianity and critiquing claims of New Christian Right for confusing Gospel message with values of consumer capitalism.

6. British Evangelical campaign groups that affirm values commensurate with traditionally right-wing causes?

7. 3 Key Questions How far are evangelicals within the UK engaged with politics? How does this play out in terms of party political support? What are the political issues for evangelicals and how do these fit with the traditional political spectrum (left-right), or do they reflect a more complex set of identities?

8. Our Surveys Baseline survey 17,000 respondents 12,500 of them defined themselves as Evangelical Christians (only these cases analysed here) Follow up panel surveys – 3 waves 1150 – 1219 respondents Opportunity sample so cannot say if it is representative

9. Do Evangelicals Vote? In panel survey Easter 2011 91% said they were voting in the Referendum

10. In a study of data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, asking about the 2005 general election. Siobhan McAndrew found those who were religious or “fuzzy faithful” were markedly more likely to vote than the unreligious. That is, even partial engagement with religion, appears to be associated with a tendency to engage with the national political process, although the same analysis suggests this may have more to do with religious upbringing than current levels of religious commitment (McAndrew, 2010: 100-101).

11. Who do Evangelicals vote for General Election 2010? UK ELECTORATE

12. Comparison with Electorate

13. Evangelicals in Black Majority Churches n= 646

14. Northern Ireland Evangelicals n= 764 N.I. Electorate May 2010 General Election

15. NI Evangelicals v Electorate

16. GB Evangelicals vote by Gender

17. By Age group

18. Voting by newspapers read

19. Evangelical Issues What panel survey members contacted politicians about

20. Attitudes on diversity% “agree a lot” As reported by BRIN on 18 February 2012, 56% of adults think that Britain is a Christian country and 61% that it should be,

21. Attitudes on society % “agree a lot”

22. Attitudes - life issues and sex% “agree a lot”

23. Attitudes – Theology by party% “agree a lot”

24. Attitudes International (panel n= 1048)

25. References Andersen, A., Tilley, J. and Heath, A.F. (2005), ‘Political Knowledge and Enlightened Preferences: Party Choice through the Electoral Cycle’, British Journal of PoliticalScience, 35: 285–302. Bruce, Steve (2007) Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland, Oxford: OUP. Kotler-Berkowitz, L.A. (2001), ‘Religion and Voting Behaviour in Great Britain: A Reassessment’, British Journal of Political Science, 31(3): 523–555. McAndrew, Siobhan (2010) “Religious Faith and Contemporary Attitudes”, in A. Park et al (eds) British Social Attitudes: the 16th Report, London: Sage, pp. 87-113. Mitchell, Claire (2006). Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland. Aldershot: Ashgate. Putnam, Robert D. and David E. Parker (2010) American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, New York: Simon and Schuster.