LONDON – A new survey by the public theology think thank Theos has found that only 12 percent of adults in Britain have detailed knowledge of the Christmas story.
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(Photo: AP Images / Fiona Hanson, PA Wire))Crowds walk along the roadway of Oxford Street, central London where the road was pedestrianised to allow more space for the huge numbers of Christmas shoppers.
The poll asked 1,000 adults questions about the Christmas story as narrated in the Bible and found that the vast majority – 73 percent – were familiar enough with the ”classic elements” of the Christmas story such as the appearance of an angel to Mary or the birth of Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Substantial gaps in knowledge of the Bible story appeared, however, when the questions probed more deeply. While 48 percent of those polled were able to identify John the Baptist as Jesus’ cousin, only 22 percent knew that Jesus, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s massacre of the innocents.
Commenting on the results of the survey, Theos Director Paul Woolley said: "These findings provide us with a good snapshot of our national relationship with Christianity. They show that the Christmas story, in its classic formulation is still very much in our cultural blood stream, as indeed is the Christian story as a whole.
"However, when you probe in any depth, you discover that our knowledge and understanding is rather more shaky.”
The poll also found that knowledge of the Christmas story varied with age. The youngest people questioned (aged 18-24) knew the least about the story of the birth of Jesus, with only 7 percent knowing the correct answers to all the questions asked. Middle aged people (aged 55-64) were found to know the most, with 18 percent answering all questions correctly.
"The fact that younger people are the least knowledgeable about the Christmas story may reflect a decline in the telling of Bible stories in schools and the popularity of Nativity plays,” said Woolley.
Biblical literacy also varied from region to region, with those living in the Midlands emerging as the most knowledgeable in the Bible, followed by Wales and the South West, the South East and Northern England respectively. Scotland knew the least about the Christmas story with the lowest average number of correct answers given.
Unsurprisingly, the poll found that Christian churchgoers knew the story best with 36 percent answering all questions correctly, compared with only 5 percent of atheists.
"No-one seriously thinks that being a Christian or a member of the established Church is the same thing as being British today. But, at the same time, if we are serious about social cohesion we can't afford to ignore the stories that have bound us together as a culture for a thousand years,” said Woolley.
"Any attempts to down-play the Christmas story in order to help social cohesion are likely to be counterproductive."
Earlier in the week, The Times reported the findings of a Saga Populus survey, which found widespread concern among people in Britain over the age of 50 who feel that traditional Christian practices have been downgraded “out of a sensitivity to multi-culturalism.”
Among those polled, 85 percent protested the replacing of “Christmas” lights with “winter” lights by local authorities and the fact that nativity plays were being replaced by non-religious performances, the London-based newspaper reported.
The poll results were announced as Conservative MP Mark Pritchard led a debate in Parliament in which he complained of “Christianophobia” in the United Kingdom, directing his attack at the “politically correct brigade” in particular.
He said that attempts to marginalize Christian traditions in British life had “gone far enough” and spoke of his desire to “recognize and protect the Christian tradition of this nation”.
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The Well Hungarian,
I am aware of that debate, but please note that it is STILL a debate. There are only "what ifs" on both sides. Sadly Wikipedia is VERY biased on such issues, so it would be nice if you could quote your evidence from somewhere else. Nonetheless I read over and the evidence presented is indeed what I have heard before in the debate over Josephus, but it fails completely to include any of the counter-evidence, which is why I said it's biased.
Not to mention, I don't even think you scrolled down the page because only the first few passages were from Josephus, other historians are also recorded in there.
Josh,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus#Testimonium_Flavianum
The Well Hungarian,
http://www.carm.org/bible/extrabiblical_accounts.htm
Does that help any?
Josh, Thanks for the link to the "All about Archaeology" site.
Unfortunately, it provides absolutely no evidence for the existence of Jesus. The fact that Bethlehem exists as a real town, for example, is not evidence of the existence of Christ. This is what the web-site does.
Because Constantine built a Church of Nativity does not prove the nativity happened, and so on with each piece of this alleged "evidence". If you can point out one of their points that should be actually considered evidence, please do.
WiccanTexan,
That is incorrect. You cannot place Joseph and Mary in any census because as of right now we have no evidence of a census which included outer kingdoms, only ones for Roman citizens. There are many, and I mean many, theories as to the exact time period Jesus was born, which census it may have been or evidence that there was actually one. As far as I am concerned there is no solid evidence that proves the point either way.
Therefor, making statements like "Herod had been dead for 30 years before the census that Mary & Joseph would have participated in" is totally subjective.
"only 22 percent knew that Jesus, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s massacre of the innocents."
From what I recall of historical evidence, Herod had been dead for 30 years before the census that Mary & Joseph would have participated in. A long-dead king still manages to order such a massacre; talk about a long reach!
Its not unheard tthat death are not reported. Slaves or conquered nations deaths are either not reported or underreported.
HampsteadPete,
http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/evidence-for-jesus.htm
It looks to me like there's quite a bit of archaeological evidence which supports most of the life of Jesus. That's not even including the several historian excerpts that talk about him.
Maybe you should do some more research next time before making such irrational comments.
Hampstead Pete makes no comments that can be addressed, except perhaps by "is so!' "is not!" types of exchanges. The implication is that he is familiar with the totality of history and archeology. Perhaps the fact that not everyone agrees with him will someday encourage him to consider the data available with an open mind. We can pray so.
HampsteadPete wrote, "No, the "Christmas story" is nothing but that, a poorly cobbled-together collection of myths, some based upon mis-translations of earlier Hebrew texts, none of which have ever been proven to have any basis in fact whatsoever."
With all due respect, this is your opinion, not fact. You have no proof of the veracity of this statement.
I wonder if "HarvestGrain" would be able to actually address the comments of HampsteadPete, rather than merely attacking the individual?
HampsteadPete
I think that you check this site twice a day to comment. You are one of those trolls, pagan, if I may say,quick to comment on anything out of your scope of reality. I feel sorry for you dear. You enjoy God's love, his creation, the very air you breathe and still remain clueless. Right now you are one of the weeds growing among the grain. I fear for you during The Great Harvest. I shall pray for you, sincerely.
"well, if the babies in bethlehem were killed, it was probably a very small slaughter - maybe 10 or so. might not make the headlines... ?"
It might interest you to know that there is no archaeological evidence that Bethlehem even existed in the early first century, and even if it did, there was certainly no census, Roman or otherwise, that required folks to go to their places of ancestral origin. There was a census in 6 CE, but it didn't require any travel, and besides, Herod was long dead by then and unable to kill anything.
No, the "Christmas story" is nothing but that, a poorly cobbled-together collection of myths, some based upon mis-translations of earlier Hebrew texts, none of which have ever been proven to have any basis in fact whatsoever.
I assume it is inappropriate to tell the truth then.......
"Conservative MP Mark Pritchard led a debate in Parliament in which he complained of “Christianophobia” in the United Kingdom, directing his attack at the “politically correct brigade” in particular. He said that attempts to marginalize Christian traditions in British life had “gone far enough” and spoke of his desire to “recognize and protect the Christian tradition of this nation”."
Good for him! I pray he will be able to restore the Christians' heritage to that nation.