What are the differences between the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church? Anglican Church of Australia. 2012. http://archive.anglican.org.au/index.cfm?SID=2&SSID=4&PID=19 (accessed April 2, 2012).
This is a useful site explaining very clearly the differences between the Church of England and the Catholic Church. It provides a good review of different theological and organizational differences.
ANNOTATED DOC #28 - 3/30/12
BBC News. 2007. 'One in 10' attends church weekly. April 3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6520463.stm (accessed March 28, 2012).
This is an accompanying article to a survey conducted by the Christian charity known as Tearfund. It found that in the UK, attendance is about 14 percent of the population, and, as the article points out, more and more UK citizens are unfamiliar with religious services. The study, as a Christian funded survey, is a good balance to some of the other surveys I have found that were generally conducted by more scientific or even openly secular organizations.
ANNOTATED DOC #27 - 3/28/12
Geoghegan, Tom. 2011. Census: How religious is the UK? BBC News Magazine, February 21. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12507319 (accessed March 28, 2012).
This article is one of the first to directly address the problems in measurements of British religiosity between the British Social Attitudes Survey and the UK Census. There is a discussion of wording in the Census that seems to presuppose religious belief, as well as a very useful discussion of different methods that have been used to measures religiosity.
ANNOTATED DOC #26 - 3/26/12
Schafer, Heinrich. 2004. The Janus face of religion: On the religious factor in “new wars”. Numen 51, no. 4: 407-31.
An article addressing how religion has influenced the outbreak of war across the globe. This is a good source to look at because genocide and ethnic conflict is often based on religious grounds.
ANNOTATED DOC #25 - 3/23/12
Addison, Neil. Religion Law Blog. Crosses Turbans and Hijabs. http://religionlaw.blogspot.com/2012/03/crosses-turbans-and-hijabs.html (accessed March 23, 2012)
This is a really interesting religious blog written by a law professor from Liverpool. This particular article addresses the ruling made by a British court that it is acceptable to ban the wearing of the cross by Christians because Christianity does not proscribe the use of the cross. Addison criticizes this ruling because it removes the express right to manifest religion in Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
ANNOTATED DOC #24 - 3/21/12
Uecker, Jeremy E, Mark D Regnerus and Margaret L, Vaaler. 2007. Losing my religion: The social sources of religious decline in early adulthood. Social Forces 85, no. 4: 1667-92.
This is a very good source that I found while doing research for my last design assignment for PL SC 200. It's an academic look at what causes younger adults (late 20s and 30s) to stop being religious, and includes some very interesting correlations between decisions such as marriage, cohabitation, college attendance, and drug and alcohol use to levels of religiosity. (The first and third of these four increase religiosity, and the second and fourth decrease levels of religiosity).
ANNOTATED DOC #23 - 3/18/12
Chandler, Andrew. 1997. Faith in the nation? The Church of England in the 20th century. History Today 47, no. 5:9-15.
This is a wonderfully thorough article written in 1997 about the unique relationship between the Church of England, the British government, and public affairs during the 20th century. It addresses the relationship of the Church of England as the "establishment" religion and how the power of the state over the church has been responded to by members of the church, by church leadership, and by members of the church. Chandler pays careful attention to how the church has responded to movements in the country, and addresses growing secularization in the country during the last few decades of the twentieth century. Chandler notes that "today the membership of all the churches comprises something like 14 per cent of the adult population. There are more Roman Catholic churchgoers than Anglican." So, although the Church of England has had a moderating and helpful influence on the nation, as Chandler argues, it nevertheless is having a hard time convincing people to turn out and participate in recent years.
ANNOTATED DOC #22 - 3/16/12
God. The Goodplanet Foundation. 7 Billion Others. http://www.7billionothers.org/thematic_voices/god (accessed March 16, 2012).
This is a very interesting 26 minute video that shows the incredible diversity of opinions and views that exist in the world about religion. I thought that, since the purpose of my study will be to gather and record different viewpoints about religion and Christianity in particular, I should expose myself to as many diverse opinions about religion as possible. It was amazing to watch people express their feelings about something so deep and personal as a belief (or non belief) in God.
ANNOTATED DOC #21 - 3/14/12
Webster, Peter. 2007. Review of religion and society in twentieth-century Britain, by Callum Brown. Reviews in History. http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/611(accessed March 14, 2012).
This is a very interesting book review of Review of Religion and Society in Twentieth-century Britain, by Callum Brown. I was surprised by the depth of Peter Webster's analysis, and by how clearly he was able to identify the many nuances and subtle assumptions in the book's text. Although Webster points out that Brown's work is inherently biased against established religions and clearly favored the trend away from organized religion that has been felt in Britain since the 1960's, Webster commends the book for being very descriptive and helpful for all who seek to understand the complicated changes that have taken place in the United Kingdom with respect to religion in the last 50 years.
ANNOTATED DOC #20 - 3/12/12
Office For National Statistics. 2004. Focus on Religion, 2004 Supplementary Maps: Community background. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-50856 (accessed March 12, 2012).
This is a great collection of maps illustrating data taken from the 2001 Census in the United Kingdom. Maps are given for no religion and other religion, as well as population maps of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs.
ANNOTATED DOC #19 - 3/9/12
Fink, Arlene. 1998. How to conduct surveys: A step by step guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
I just ordered this book and I think it will be very helpful for the survey I'll be conducting. After talking to Dr. Ken Stiles yesterday about survey taking I realize that doing it right is going to be very difficult if I want my data to be at all relevant. I think I'm going to be using phone calls. And I liked Ariana's idea of doing a combination of both street work and phone calls. I will need at least 500 in my sample though - and even with that many I'll have a margin of error of probably 6-7 percent. It's okay though. I think that's still enough. And in any case this short book will give me a good idea of how realistically I can do this survey.
ANNOTATED DOC #18 - 3/7/12
"Hitchens Debates Transcripts." : Hitchens vs. Blair, Roy Thomson Hall. 27 Nov. 2010. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.
Full transcript of a very interesting debate between Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair about religion and whether or not it is a force for good in the world. Especially good for the way that Hitchens explains the rationality of the materialistic and nonreligious point of view and how individuals of these convictions make sense of the world, their existence, and moral principles.
ANNOTATED DOC #17 - 3/6/12
Issenberg, Sasha. "Searching for the Mormon Haters." Ongo. 5 Dec. 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2012.
This is the original newspaper article (talking about Mormons, as it happens) where the type of survey that I will be using was used to identify a hidden bias against Mormons. In my case, I'll be using the list-survey method to identify the true feeling of people in England about decreasing levels of religiosity.
ANNOTATED DOC #16 - 3/2/12
The Changing Religious Population of Prisons in England and Wales, 1997-2008. Justice. http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/docs/offender-management-caseload-statistics-2008-2.pdf (accessed March 2, 2012).
This is a very interesting source that shows the changing religious demographics of prisoners in England and Wales over time. Between 1997 and 2008, the percentage of prisoners identifying themselves as christians has fallen to fifty percent from sixty three percent. The percentage of nonreligious has increased from twenty seven percent to thirty three percent. The percentage of Muslims has increased from six percent to eleven percent.
ANNOTATED DOC #15 - 2/29/12
Hayes, Stephan. Book Review: Alison McGrath's 'Why God won't go away'. Christian Science Movement. http://www.csm.org.uk/news.php?viewmessage=169 (accessed February 29, 2012).
This is an interesting source not only because it is a review of a book written by a christian about the 'New Atheist' movement, but it also lists several other pieces of literature written by religious and atheist authors. The book itself is a history and an evaluation of the New Atheist movement, and it also compares the movement to other opinions expressed by atheists who disagree with Richard Dawkins and other prominent atheists. It's clearly biased, but the book review itself lists a lot of good sources that would be good to take a look at in evaluating the debate about religion going on in the United Kingdom. Also, since current trends show that the United Kingdom is becoming less and less religious, the premise of the book argues for why this disappearance of religious belief is unlikely to ever occur.
ANNOTATED DOC #14 - 2/27/12
Eskin, Mehmet. 2003. The effects of religious versus secular education on suicide ideation and suicidal attitudes in adolescents in Turkey. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 39:536-42.
This is one of those papers that is not only interesting but written clearly. It explains the various rationales for religious people having lower rates of suicide and then conducts a test of suicide rates among 206 students undergoing religious education and 214 students undergoing secular education. The results of the study found that students in religious education committed suicide less frequently than students in secular education and also found that religious students were more accepting of friends who committed suicide than students with a secular education.
ANNOTATED DOC #13 - 2/24/12
"Joint Vatican, British Declaration Stresses Commitment to Religious Freedom." Catholic Culture. 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
This is another very interesting article that underscores the support of the current government in the United Kingdom's for the role of religion in society. On Feb 15, 2012, MP Baroness Warsi of the UK met led the British Delegation to the Vatican and met personally with Pope Benedict XVI. The Catholic leaders emphasized the influence of government policies in the United Kingdom to strengthen or weaken safeguards for the family, marriage, and religious freedom.
Even more interesting was the response by the website humanism.org.uk (whose page rank score is 7/10 by the way) to a speech delivered by Warsi on the occasion. That response can be found here: http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/987
ANNOTATED DOC #12 - 2/22/12
"London." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.
This is information is actually taken from the 2001 UK Census that shows the percentages of certain religions in the city of London, although the UK Census webpage has got to be one of the most poorly designed websites that I've ever seen, and I was unable to locate the data sheet for London on the website. However, Wikipedia does a very clean job of representing the data on their webpage. According to the census, "the majority of Londoners – 58.2 per cent – identify themselves as Christians. This is followed by those of no religion (15.8 per cent), Muslims (8.5 per cent), Hindus (4.1 per cent), Jews (2.1 per cent), Sikhs (1.5 per cent), Buddhists (0.8 per cent) and other (0.2 per cent), though 8.7 per cent of people did not answer this question in the 2001 Census."
ANNOTATED DOC #11 - 2/21/12
Ysseldyk, Renate, S. Alexander Haslam, Kimberly Matheson and Hymie Anisman. 2011. Love thine enemy? Evidence that (ir)religious identification can promote outgroup tolerance under threat. Group Processes Intergroup Relations 15:105-17.
This is a very interesting scholarly article that reports on two studies of atheists in group relations. In the context of the widening gap between supporters of secular humanism and those who favor traditional religion, these two studies looked at what factors increased and decreased group hostility between these groups, and found that atheists have the lowest "in-group identification" and felt generally negative about all religious groups. Likewise, religious groups felt negatively about atheists. However, atheists were more open to out groups than other groups.
ANNOTATED DOC #10 - 2/17/12
"Christian News, UK Christian News Stories from The Way." The Way, Christianity without Walls, Christian Topics, News, Views, Comments. 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.
This article comes from a very well-designed and informative nondenominational British Christian website called The Way. The article reports on recent moves by a Roman Catholic bishop urging members of Parliament to oppose laws allowing gay marriage. I also took a look around the website, and it has sections for every age group with articles answering common questions, and with links to Youtube videos explaining Christian Doctrine. It's a good resource that seems fairly representative of what heartfelt Christians in the UK believe and how they live, and is very appealing.
ANNOTATED DOC #9 - 2/16/12
"Ipsos MORI | Poll | Religious and Social Attitudes of UK Christians in 2011." Ipsos MORI | A Leading Market Research Company in the UK and Ireland. 14 Feb. 2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.
This was a fascinating source of a large poll that was conducted in 2011 about a lot of the same things in the British Social Attitudes survey. The only people included in the survey were those who considered themselves Christians in the latest census. It covers a wide range of opinions about religion from attendance, beliefs about Christianity, motives for identifying themselves as Christian, beliefs about God, etc.
ANNOTATED DOC #8 - 2/13/12
Warsi, Sayeeda. "Sayeeda Warsi Delivers 2011 University of Leicester Sir Sigmund Sternberg Lecture — University of Leicester." University of Leicester. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.
This source is the transcript of a well-known speech given my Sayeeda Warsi, a Muslim who is a part of the current government, where she defends her previous speech that declared that the British government "does" God and adds that the British government also "gets God", or understands religion. She lays out a defense of fair religious debate in their society and condemns religious bigotry, especially Islamaphobia and continued discrimination against Catholics that continues to exist. One interesting point was her acknowledgement of the views of atheist and anti-religious societies such as the New Humanist Magazine, which put her at #5 on the list of "most dangerous enemies to reason". Clearly, views about religion are polarized in the country.
ANNOTATED DOC #7 - 2/10/12
Scheepers, Peer, Merove Gijsberts, and Evelyn Hello. "Religiosity and Prejudice against Ethnic Minorities in Europe: Cross-National Tests on a Controversial Relationship." Review of Religious Research 43.3 (2002): 242-65. JSTOR. Web. 10 Feb. 2012.
This was an interesting article that discussed the possible negative effects that come from religion. Those who oppose religion often point to prejudice as a reason why religion is harmful to society, and this article provides a fair analysis of when how different dimensions of religiosity can negatively or positively affect prejudice against minority groups. The study concludes that when an individual's religious particularism (loyalty or connection to a particular religious group), prejudice is also high. However, the more spirituality individuals experience, as well as how strong their doctrinal belief is, the more these individuals dissociate from prejudice.
ANNOTATED DOC #6 - 2/8/12
Jeynes, William H. "A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Attending Religious Schools and Religiosity on Black and Hispanic Academic Achievement." Education and Urban Society. Sage Publications. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
This is a very interesting article that studies the effect of religiosity of minority groups (Blacks and Hispanics) in religious schools on academic performance. They found that religiosity was positively correlated with academic performance, and particularly with academic behavior (good study habits, etc). In addition to being an interesting article, it begins with a thorough review of past research evaluating the effects of religious behavior on physical activity, stress, family unity, drug use, premarital sexual activity, etc. It's a very useful place to find other articles to research.
ANNOTATED DOC #5 - 2/6/12
Updated:, Ed West Religion Last. "Religion for Atheists Is like Alcohol-free Lager – Telegraph Blogs." Telegraph Blogs. 03 Feb. 2012. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
This is an interesting article talking about the new "atheist temple" that a man named Alain de Botton wants to make. The article is particularly interesting in it's demonstration of what many English people don't like about religion. This author of the article asks a question that reveals a feeling that may be common among those that are either atheists or don't affiliate with any particular religion:
Why can't atheists take all the good bits of religion without the unfashionable sexual morality, the strict rules, the occasional intolerance and, most of all, the actual core beliefs?
ANNOTATED DOC #4 - 2/3/12
Churchill, Larry R. "The Dangers of Looking for the Health Benefits of Religion.
ScienceDirect.com | Search through over 10 Million Science, Health, Medical Journal Full Text Articles and Books. The Lancet, 11 May 2007. Web. 03 Feb. 2012.
This source is actually a review of a book called Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine, by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D. I read this source intentionally as a way to understand contrasting points of view toward religion (i.e. biases different than mine). Interestingly, the reviewer of the book is a Presbyterian minister, and he gives Sloan's book a fair evaluation, commending him for his strong arguments about the media that seems to be attracted to stories concerning religion with health. Sloan's argument is that it many aspects of religious belief are scientifically meaningless, and attempting to measure metaphysical phenomena using scientific processes is useless. He also points out specific errors in various studies that show how religious behavior positively correlates with good health. Abuse of statistics and flaws in research design make, in Sloan's view, many of these arguments very weak. As a result, Sloan warns against the encouragement of religious practice by doctors in their physical evaluations of patients, pointing out that not only are studies correlating physical health benefits with religion questionable, religious participation as recommended by doctors may turn professional service into proselytizing. A closer look at Sloan's findings would be helpful, but I suppose I'll have to read the book to really check them out.
ANNOTATED DOC #3 - 2/1/12
"Bible Society Influence of the Bible Survey." Rev. of The Influence of the Bible, ComRes for the Bible Society. ComRes Poll Digest 20011: 1-14. ComRes. 13 May 2011. Web. 1 Feb. 2012.
This is a survey that was made by the organization ComRes in the UK in 2008 concerning how well people in the country understand, value, and recognize the Bible. The survey identified how well individuals were able to recognize phrases that were taken from the Bible. The article reports that 46 percent of people thought the Bible was an important book, but only 8 percent read it regularly.
ANNOTATED DOC #2, 1/30/11
"What Religious Freedom Means." LDS News | Mormon News - Official Newsroom of the Church. 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
This article was recently published on the LDS church website and gives a descriptive argument for the right of religious freedom. The argument supports the assertions made by David Cameron in his recent speech emphasizing the rights of religious institutions to have a voice in public affairs when they concern moral issues. It also supports the concept of religion, although a matter of private belief and practice, does and should affect all parts of a person's life, including their decisions in public life. The article cites two other sources, a survey measuring American understanding of religious freedom and an article addressing the way religion divides and unites Americans.
ANNOTATED DOC #1 - 1/27/12
"Christian foster couple lose 'homosexuality views' case." BBC News. N.p., 2011. Web. 26 Jan 2012.
This article reports the story of a black Christian couple in their sixties from Derby, England who were unable to become foster parents because of complaints made that they would not teach the children they would take care of that homosexual relationships were acceptable. Not only were they blocked by the City Council, but the High Court upheld the ruling. The article told that the judge supported laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation "should take precedence" over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds. This decision was made despite the couple's successful aiding of fifteen different children since the 1990s.
SOURCE DOC #5 - 1/25/12
Fagan , Patrick. "Why religion matters: The impact of religious practice on social stability." The Heritage Foundation (1996), http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1996/01/bg1064nbsp-why-religion-matters (accessed January 23, 2012).
This was a very highly cited article that summarizes the findings of past research on the positive effects of religiosity on society. It proposes specific policies that should be pursued by the President of the United States and Congress to increase public support for religious activity as a way to improve the general welfare of the nation.
Patrick Fagan does a good job of citing data from surveys and studies that have directly proven the relationship between religiosity and positive social behavior. This data is a result of a myriad of studies done by many different organizations, and his points are strengthened by the variety of the sources confirming his points. It's a useful study to cite because it is so comprehensive and addresses many different ways that religion positively influence families and individuals. This is exactly the data I need for the surveys and questions that I plan to pose to individuals in London, England this summer.
SOURCE DOC #4 - 1/23/12
Cameron, David. "Prime Minister's King James Bible Speech." number10.gov.uk. http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/king-james-bible/ (accessed January 27, 2012).
David Cameron declares the importance of the King James Bible to society, language, and standards of moral virtue. David Cameron is obviously a very well informed individual, and he cites information from studies about the Bible and about influences the Bible has had, as well as some of his own insights about passages of the Bible and the influence they have had on him. As a leader of the government, he openly and frankly call for a reaffirmation that the United Kingdom is a Christian nation based on Christian values. This is a fascinating speech with respect to my research because I am studying how religiosity is changing in England, and why people suppose that these changes are occuring. I had not found, until now, a good article or speech that supported christian beliefs until I found this one. Especially because he is the Prime Minister, Cameron's words have great influence, and I may well use some of his words when I talk to people in England this summer.
SOURCE DOC #3 - 1/20/12
Mukanga, Chola. "In the Defense of a Christian Nation." Zambian Economist (2011), http://www.scribd.com/Zambian-Economist/d/46199533-In-Defence-of-a-Christian-Nation (accessed January 19, 2012).
The document is a defense of the statement in the preamble in the Zambian Constitution that acknowledges the supremacy of God and declares the country a “Christian Nation”. This is a great source for me because it shows the kind of active resistance to secularization that is occuring in other countries experiencing anti-religious movements like those found in England. These are the kind of movements that I have not, so far, been about to find published by Britons.
My research is not to argue a point but to discover how people feel, but I can use documents liket his to show what might be done by those who support religion in the UK to increase awareness and fight against growing secularization in their country. The question is, would they support this kind of measure or not?
SOURCE DOC #2 - 1/18/12
McAndrew , Siohhan. "Religious Faith and Contemporary Attitudes ." British Social Attitudes 26 (2009), http://site.ebrary.com/lib/byuprovo/docDetail.action?docID=10392744 (accessed January 27, 2012).
From the data collected from the survey, MacAndrew makes these conclusions: The partly and highly religious are more likely to be "pro-life" and to have less support for abortion and voluntary euthanasia. They have more traditional views about gender roles and are especially less liberal in their attitudes toward homosexuality. In political engagement in Britain, however, religiosity finds no correlation to a specific party. Although this paper was also published in the British Social Attitudes report, this article appeared in the 2009 edition of the Survey and focuses specifically on how religiosity influences social attitudes and beliefs. The last source mentioned these influences only in passing. The research is very revealing about what most British citizens actually believe. For example, although it was found that more religious citizens felt that sex before marriage was wrong than the “fuzzy faithful” and nonreligious, the total percentage of this group that felt this way was only 29 percent. This indicates that on some issues, the great majority of the population, religious or not, express a point of view. That is very interesting to me and hits closer to what I am going to be studying. One possible topic I could study is how people who are not religious percieve those who are religious. There is a trend of decreasing religiosity among the British, and how much of that could be attributed to generally negative views about people who are religious? Or about the religious institutions themselves? Or is it simply a concern that a religion would impose limits on permissible behavior? My project would go deeper into explaining why many people are moving away from religion.
SOURCE DOC #1 - 1/16/12
Lee, Alison. "Losing faith?." British Social Attitudes 28 (2011), http://ir2.flife.de/data/natcen-social-research/igb_html/pdf/1000001_e.pdf (accessed January 17, 2012).
This was the first data source on religion in Great Britain that I looked at, and it is perhaps the most professional and useful source that I have encountered in my research so far. In it, survey data is presented in graphs and charts, and show the following data:
