Evangelicals in the 21st Century: Social and Political Engagement

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@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 6%Church 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 God’s 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 Voting…. 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%)

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.

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 shift…with 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.

25. Evangelicals by age… on a “key” moral issue

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 then…fresh expressions churches/ environment & creation… mega survey..