A BBC poll of 1,045 people questioned by ComRes, a member of the British Polling Council whose opinion polls are regularly published or broadcast in media in the United Kingdom, suggested that 62% of people were in favour of religion and the values derived from it to play an important role in British public life.
In the same poll, 63% said that British traditional religious values should be respected and be influential on the laws of the country. Such report clearly shows that the majority of British people do not wish a secularist Britain.
The poll undermines the credibility of the well publicised viewsof some politicians and secularist groups suggesting that the United Kingdom is a secular state, which must release itself from the yoke of religion and exclude faith from the public life.
Robert Piggott, the BBC Religious Affairs correspondent, says that a ‘significantly greater proportion of the Muslims and Hindus polled (albeit in relatively small numbers) supported a strong role in public life for the UK's essentially Christian traditional religious values’. He suggests that traditionalist Christians and Muslims have found common ground in a number of debates, for example, in resisting any loosening of the restrictions on abortion and euthanasia, and issues concerning pro-homosexual laws.
A previous ComRes study, conducted between 31 August and 2 September 2007, showed that 62% of people said religion had a key role to play in guiding the nation's morals.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6982805.stm)
Another BBC research, conducted earlier, shows that the proportion of people who claim to be atheists has not grown from its low base.
Church leaders have warned that recent legislation has elevated goals such as freedom from discrimination for those who claim to be homosexual, above the freedom of religion. Current events and debates indicate that the secularist agenda seems to be lost in a fog of relativism and intent to destroy many of the Christian values of society that made the country great. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warned that the government was using legislation to control people's morals as well as their behaviour. In addition to that, secularists, including an increasingly militant atheist movement, have stepped up their campaign to ‘rescue’ the public from what they see as the burden of a lingering attachment to religious belief.
The ComRes Poll suggests that despite the claims that people are leaving churches, people do not wish to cast God out of public life and recognise the fundamental importance of Christian values in the law and public policy.
At CCFON and the Christian Legal Centre we have the privilege of communicating with thousands of people who are willing to live according to God’s will and base their lives on Christian values. Despite polls and studies, God and His love never change. We thank Him for the wonderful opportunities to serve Him in these difficult and uncertain times for our nation.
BBC News:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7906595.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7783563.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7875834.stm
Daily Mail:
Christian Today:
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/poll.shows.most.people.want.religion.in.public.life/22615.htm
Daily Telegraph: