UK Christians' big worry for the future is climate change, poll shows
Christians believe environment and climate change problems are the main issues facing the world over the next 10 years, according to a new ComRes poll commissioned by Tearfund.
Asked to identify the main social and political issues they believe the world will have to face over the next 10 years, practising Christians in the UK are most likely to say climate change or the environment (28 per cent).
Next came social justice (27 per cent), then secularism (18 per cent), migration (14 per cent) and poverty (12 per cent).
The research was released just before a mass lobby of Parliament tomorrow calling on parliamentarians to tackle climate change. Campaigners want MPs to support a climate change agreement aimed at limiting temperature rises to two per cent of pre-industrial levels, and to work towards ending pollution from coal in the UK.
The online survey of 1,507 practising Christians also asked how they voted at the last General Election. Overall, 28 per cent of Christians voted Conservative and 24 per cent Labour. However, the Liberal Democrats took 15 per cent of the Christian vote, double their national share. The Greens came fourth, with UKIP fifth on eight per cent.
By denomination and churchmanship, Methodists are now the only denomination with the largest vote for Labour (32 per cent). Charismatic Christians drew 22 per cent of the Labour vote and evangelicals 16 per cent, while 30 per cent of charismatics and 31 per cent of evangelicals voted Conservative.
"We're in churches every Sunday and at lots of times throughout the week, meeting with our supporters, and we know they're passionate about the environment and see it as a justice issue," said Paul Cook, Tearfund's advocacy director.
"We asked Christians what they care about today, which future challenges they believe we face, and which issues were top of their minds when deciding how to vote in the recent General Election, because we're keen to understand how UK Christians engage with public policy and to work with our supporters to develop campaigns which excite them."
