What they Say about  the Churches: Decline

I’m interested in these as the high profile atheist / secularist organisations in the UK specialise in throwing brickbats at the churches by making the kind of statements below.

From the NSS:

“Church attendance has been in decline for the last six decades to the point that 98% of the population are not in a CofE pew on an average Sunday – yet the bishops claim to speak for us all.” National Secular Society, 2007

From Humanists for Labour:

“The only apparent statistical blip in the relentless decline in church attendance has been children attending.” Humanists for Labour, January 2007

These claims are made by selectively spinning published statistics. They never - for some strange reason - seem to mention statistics which undermine the case.

What they Hide about  the Churches: Growth

One example is the growth in Church of England membership in the Diocese of London from 45,000 to 64,000 between 1990 and 2002. Just for the record, the growth has continued since - the 2006 figure is 69,000.

I wonder why these figures are ignored by the secularists?

NSS Membership Figures?

To get to the point of the post - does anyone have any membership figures for the National Secular Society?

Having perused the NSS national reports, membership figures are strangely absent. I have emailed the NSS on enquiries@secularism.org.uk, and received no reply.

I suspect they have long had a louder voice than their support base justifies. It is time to ascertain some facts and have an open debate. That way we may be able to move forward.

If anyone can help, please get in touch.

Tags: Religion, Church of England, Atheism, National Secular Society, Statistics, Pickled Politics, Humanists for Labour

[tags] Religion, Church of England, Atheism, National Secular Society, Statistics, Pickled Politics, Humanists for Labour [/tags]