Forced to choose, churchgoing Christians in the UK are far more likely to think that secularism rather than Islam is the greater threat to Christianity, according to poll data made available to BRIN by ComRes but not yet posted on the company’s website.
Briefly noted in the Baptist Times and Church of England Newspaper of 12 August, the results derive from the Cpanel survey for Premier Christian Media undertaken by online interview between 6 and 18 July 2011 with 529 Christians aged 18 and over.
46% of respondents identified secularism as the greater threat to Christianity, 13% Islam, and 30% both equally, meaning that, in all, 76% had concerns about secularism and 43% about Islam.
A mere 10% of the sample thought that neither secularism nor Islam posed any threat to Christianity. This rose to 18% among the 18-34s and Baptists, dwindling to 4% for Roman Catholics and 3% for Pentecostals. However, unweighted cell sizes were small.
The number concerned about secularism alone declined with age, falling from 68% for churchgoers aged 18-34 to 45% among the over-65s. Denominationally, Roman Catholics (68%) showed most anxiety about secularism, partly following the Pope’s lead.
Women churchgoers (82%) were more preoccupied with secularism on its own or in combination with Islam than men (71%). In terms of churchmanship, catholics (87%) and low churchpeople (91%) recorded the highest figures on this aggregated measure.
The 18-34s were least worried about Islam alone (3%) or about Islam in parallel with secularism (14%). 55% of over-65s viewed Islam alone or Islam in conjunction with secularism as a threat, as did 73% of Pentecostals, 54% of Independents, and 50% of women.
Other data from the same Cpanel study which have entered the public domain, concerning campaigning issues for Christians, have already mostly been covered by BRIN at:
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