Monday, January 17, 2011

Survey reveals diversity of beliefs among British evangelicals


The Church of England Newspaper and Christian Today website reports that according to a new survey of 17,000 evangelicals carried out by the Evangelical Alliance and Christian Research, evangelicals have different views on abortion, homosexuality and the Bible.

A detailed study of the results reveals that attitudes have definitely changed - especially over women in leadership. The survey found that more than 50 per cent of respondents strongly agree that women ought to be eligible for all roles within the church, as men are. Three out of 10 people said that they were unsure about the nature of hell and six out of 10 evangelicals believed that evolution was compatible with Christianity.

Regarding homosexuality, only 13 per cent strongly agreed that it was wrong to have homosexual feelings. However, three-quarters said that it was wrong "in some extent" to translate those feelings into sexual actions.

While evangelicals generally agreed that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, only 54% said they believe the Bible, in its original manuscript, to be without error.

Less than half of evangelicals strongly agreed that assisted suicide was always wrong (42%), while 24% said they were uncertain about what to believe on this issue.

The research was carried out at Christian festivals last summer. The questionnaire was also completed at 35 randomly selected Evangelical Alliance member churches.

To read Christianity Today article, click here.

To read Evangelical Alliance report and results of survey, click here.

Originally posted on EV News.

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