NEWS
Churches fear showing their numbers (7 Jul 06)
Gays feel rejected by religions (30 june 06)
Schools should teach not preach (23 Jun 06)
Christians set to convert football fans (16 Jun 06)
Churches fear showing their numbers
(7 July 2006)
MAJOR religions in England are unable to provide information about the number of people that is leaving the church.
Prof Kevin Tingay, Lecturer in Historical and Cultural Studies at Bath Spa
University, says that he has tried to do some research about the number of people who are converting to minor religious groups.
“It’s impossible to obtain this kind of figures. It is always easier to admit success than failure”, claimed Prof Tingay.
In terms of conversions, it would be very interesting to do some research on the effectiveness of programmes such as the alpha course, or movements like the Jehovah’s witnesses.
Prof Tingay said that the figure that it would be interesting to look at is how long do they stay. In some new religious movements, such as the unification church, the average of the people joining could be exaggerated by the publicity: “It seemed larger and more threatening in some cases.”
“I’m sure that may well be a thousand of people being converted but that doesn’t mean that all religious movements are necessarily growing, any study of conversion also needs to look at the figures coming out.
“Many religious bodies are rather reluctant, they are very keen to tell you how many people have joined, but if you ask how many people have left they say that the figures are not available”, said Prof Tingay.