17% of the UK believe you have to be a Christian to be British

New research published by the think tank Theos has found that 8% of the public strongly agree with the statement “you need to be Christian to be truly British” while 9% slightly agree.

Theos have been conducting research into the state of Christian nationalism within the UK, including a survey of 1,765 UK adults. While 17% agreed in some way that you need to be Christian to be British, when pressed only 1% thought that being a Christian was the most important factor. When asked if people who do not hold ‘Christian values’ truly belonged to the nation, 16% agreed that they did not (7% strongly, 9% slightly). However, 37% of those surveyed agreed with the idea that the government should formally state that Britain is a Christian country.

The survey shows that the state of Christian nationalism in the UK is complex. Theos say that depending on “how you ask the question – how demanding your
criteria – you can therefore get figures of anywhere between 1% to
upwards of 20%” for those who are ‘Christian nationalist’, with the most credible figure around 10%.

“But unless every single practising Christian holds these views – an improbable scenario – something strange is going on,” states the report, “because the
entire practising Christian population in the UK is not far from 10%. Presumably, these views are held by people who don’t go to church, just as we know many churchgoers don’t hold these views.”

Theos have broken down the data into five groups: Committed Separatists, and Cultural Separatists, who both don’t want Christianity and Britishness to mix but have different views of national identity, and Values Integrationists, Identity Integrationists, and Belief Integrationists, who all want to see Christianity and Britishness to be linked, but in different ways.

The groups most likely to be labelled as ‘Christian nationalist’ were also the smallest: Identity Integrationists at 11%, and Belief Integrationists at 13%. However, there is a distinct difference between these two groups. Belief Integrationists are “more likely to be motivated in their views by an active, practised Christian faith than by a deeply-felt cultural attachment.” Their aims are to promote Christianity rather than preserve it from perceived threats.

Identity Integrationists, however, have much more intense views. Most (99%) agree that “the law in Britain should be based on Christian values” and “Christianity should continue to play an important role in shaping national identity”. 98% agree that “the government should formally state that
Britain is a Christian country” while 91% believe that “It is important for the political leader of my country to be a Christian”.

As the report notes, “this group are, for all intents and purposes, Christian nationalist, but they show a particular ‘flavour’ of Christian nationalism.” Crucially, this group would identify as Christian, and be deeply culturally Christian, but not practising Christians. Not one person in this group answered “Being an active member of a church” as the most important factor when it comes to being a Christian. Only 13% of the group said that they attend a church weekly.

The report concludes that “‘Christian nationalism’ is not really a cohesive movement but part of a shifting landscape of different attitudes to the right relationship between Christianity (and religion more general) and national identity.”