Churchgoers seem far more willing than the general public to vote with their feet when it comes to politicians and journalists found wanting in their personal moral behaviour.
This is according to a third tranche of results from the latest Cpanel survey by ComRes in which 544 practising UK Christians aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 25-31 October 2011. The data tables can be found at:
http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Cpanel_Personal_moral_standards_tables_Nov11_(2).pdf
Whereas 79% of churchgoers claimed they would be prepared to change the party they voted for if that party’s local parliamentary candidate was shown to have low personal moral standards, just 43% of the electorate in an August 2011 ComRes poll contemplated the same course of action.
By way of rationale, 75% of Christians said that marital infidelity by a politician was proof that (s)he could not keep his/her word. At the same time, 54% agreed that most politicians were basically decent and honest, compared with 33% of the wider public. Young Christians (under 35) were more cynical, just 37% agreeing with the proposition.
As for journalists, only 4% of churchgoers considered that their moral standards were generally higher than those of politicians, with 49% dissenting. 31% contended that journalists had lower moral standards than the public, with 33% disagreeing.
74% of Christians claimed they would change their regular newspaper if its journalists were shown to have low moral standards, against 52% of the wider population.
For other published results from this Cpanel study, see our coverage at:
http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1474
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