The bottom line is this ”“ Jayne Ozanne’s questionnaire tells us absolutely nothing about the opinion of the Anglicans who sit in the pews week after week and actually make up the core membership of the Church of England, who support it financially and are worshipping and praying in their local parishes as a witnessing community. A staggering 95% of her “Anglicans” don’t actually attend church regularly, if at all. The opinion poll is just a puff piece to support a political agenda and it specifically avoids asking the one key question which might tell us something about what Church attenders actually think on the subject of same-sex marriage.
Perhaps in addition to the problems with this poll identified by Peter and Paul, there may be a couple of more subtle points related to the demographics of the Church of England.
Most polls including this one, will ensure that the sample is representative of the general population in age, gender and so on. That is a real problem.
Firstly, the average age of CofE congregants is said to be 62, whereas the average age of the population is 40. This means that when the YouGov Poll claims that a higher percentage of younger CofE members are more relaxed about same sex marriage, any figures on which this is based will be slanted because the actual demographic of the CofE means that the number holding this view among the young compared with the old will be overstated.
Secondly, there is no reason to think that this situation will change as these young people age and become elderly. This is for two reasons:
– that the demographic has always been so – often people explore Christianity as they get older, as they realise they are not going to live for ever and the search becomes more imperative as well as older people returning to church after they have retired and their children have grown up leaving them with more time. That is why I am more sanguine about our ageing population of congregants and that is because our recruitment, outside of the young in London, tends to be from the middle aged.
– that there is a tendency for people to become more conservative as they age, so those younger congregants will not necessarily carry their views with them unchanged.
So for those reasons, I am far from convinced that the way this poll has been structured provides much useful information. The reality is that we in the church are predominantly past the first flush of youth, and that includes members like Jane Ozanne who engage in advocacy for this and that. These advocates, like the rest of us are no spring chickens, however right on, relevant and trendy we may like to think ourselves to be.
Of course there is one factor which may change opinions, and that is failure to preach biblically on this matter, and there we have a real problem, right from the top.
Proper prior polling promotes point of view desired. Stir. Repeat. Do it at a Primates gathering. Stir. Repeat. Do it in CoE. Stir. Repeat. Do it in Australia. Stir. Repeat.
Hmmm. Where have I seen this before? EcUsa and AcCanada. Triumphally failing and exporting madly.