Secularism Trend in 20th Century Great Britain

Dr. Wendy Stokes spoke last week about secularism in Great Britain during the "Introduction to Great Britain" British Life and Culture lecture. She discussed the rapid loss of religion in this country. After the lecture, the growing secularism of Great Britain kept coming back to me. Great Britain is indeed becoming very secular, very quickly. I could not settle in attributing this rapid trend only to people emigrating from Great Britain. I understand that people may be leaving, but the population as a whole would be declining along with the "religious" population. I believe the young generation is partially accountable, but how can we blame a generation for lost religion? I was not expecting London to be quite as international as I have found it to be, so I can understand that younger people are coming in with different cultures and, thus, religions. But I do not believe that London is a model for the rest of the United Kingdom. I'm understand many factors play an important in secularism, but which factors cause religion to be lost so quickly.

One of my best friend's dad is originally from England. His parents still live a few hours away. I asked Jimmy about his grandparents religious activities, and he said, "They're in the church every time the doors open." This older couple does not fit with Dr. Stokes statement that most people don't ever walk into a church, with the occasional exception of christenings and weddings. Jimmy's dad, however, left for the United States at a young age and has built his life and family in Missouri. He is an example of Dr. Stokes reasoning that people are leaving. I still don't believe that people leaving could cause such a dramatic change. So I decided to research...

I simply typed "religion in the U.K." and discovered an entire Wikipedia article devoted to the subject titled, Religion in the United Kingdom. An entire section of this article is devoted to secularism and tolerance. I found some very interesting information. I know that Wikipedia is not the most reliable source, so I did some double checking. The first sentence of the "Secularism and Tolerance" section reads, "Despite its Christian tradition, the number of churchgoers fell over the last half of the 20th century." This has left the United Kingdom evidently more secular.

Dr. Stokes mentioned that Christian tradition as she remarked that most people "dutifully" record their religious denomination as Church of England. According to the Office for National Statistics Focus on Religion, Christianity is the largest religious population in Great Britain with 71.8% of the total population, while people with no religion make up the next largest group as 15.1% of the population. "Christian and Jewish communities contain predominantly White people who have lived in the UK all their lives or who migrated here before the Second World War, and have an older age structure." (Age and Sex Distribution.)

Also, Dr. Stokes brought up how different religion has been dealt with in politics here in Great Britain, compared to in the United States. I always thought that England would be a religious country. Maybe I thought this because it typically has been in history, but I also assumed that since there is a national religion in place, the country would be more religious. I may have been right in the past, but today I am wrong! The monarchy has been very involved in religion, unlike our government in the United States. Today, Dr. Stokes noted the distinct separation between religion and politics here without any laws requiring that in place. In the United States, however, we constantly have struggles with determining the fine line between how far religion can be included into political dealings.

Religion and the Church of England has indeed had a strong influence and long life in Great Britain. I would be curious to see if religion in America could maintain itself as long as it has here with the separation from government and no national church.

I still do not believe that the younger generation and emigration are absolutely accountable for the loss of religion in Great Britain. With so much history to this country and its religion, we cannot expect to see the outcome of this in our lifetimes. The world is indeed changing, and I can't begin to understand why somethings change faster than others...