I think you might call this, in literary terms, for Christian believers in the UK... a black spot. The point at which things are at their worst.
To elaborate - what has happened is that the Bible Society who basically
said that Christianity in the UK is increasing (after decades of it not doing
so), have suddenly said that their report on the revival is flawed. They, under
pressure, have retracted it. There was an error, according to YouGov,
which they used to gather results. The 2024 YouGov survey (very
strangely only affecting the Bible Society’s commission) was,
seemingly, marred by human error and technical glitches.
The Bible Society said: “The error means that we
can't rely on the YouGov data, but the amount of corroborating evidence
that's emerged during the last year means that we're still confident that there
is a Quiet Revival going on, with more young people open to faith, a greater
warmth towards Christianity, and churches across England and Wales reporting
their own experience of growth.”
Now, against all current convention. I actually carry both
sides of the story. So, let’s look at the other side on this…
Humanists UK said: “This underlines that the real
story of the past decade, and of the 21st century as a whole, has been the
growth of the non-religious. The non-religious now make up a majority in the
United Kingdom. Unfortunately, rather than grapple with what that would mean
for the future of policy-making, we saw that the Quiet Revival report
had much the opposite effect, with at least one council making
long-term planning decisions premised on the predicted explosive growth of
religion among young people. This shows how important it is to have accurate
data about demographics to inform national policy.”
The damage is great indeed, after a council made long-term
planning decisions based on a supposed big rise in believers. How can we believers
live with ourselves after all this destruction?
Seriously though, it’s important - is there a revival in the
UK or not? Goodness knows the far-right are also trying to hijack it. The truth
matters. It’s important. Just because something is disturbing doesn’t make it
true. Why is the truth always seemingly the most disturbing thing? I’m not here
to disturb you, just because I can. I refuse to do it. We need healing. The
country needs healing. You and I need healing. How are we to heal in the middle
of wars and plagues and all of the awful things that are going on? And in the
middle of this, we are attacking each other - taking it all out on each other.
Who is to blame? Is it me and those like me? Is it the Bible Society? Is
it YouGov? God even?... Or something sinister?
This is alternative news. Things are bad. If I have misled you, I am very
sorry. Really, I’m not too proud to apologise to you, like ‘Piggy Nicholas’
with the conch shell in Lord of the Flies. My late brother used to call me
‘piglet’. It was sweet. But there really is a beast. There is an enemy and we
(believers) are not the enemy. I, my friends and family are not, at least. And
neither, by the way, are you.
Either there is a Christian revival going on or there is not. The truth
matters.
Have you ever done YouGov? I have. I did it for a
couple of years and it took that long to earn the £50 reward for countless
surveys and a lot of personal data given away. You don’t get to choose which
surveys you get. So, I question the official explanation. Either way, the Bible
Society has had to retract its report, simply because if they hadn’t done
so, I guess YouTube would have.
So, the Bible Society has retracted the report, all but
apologised for the misleading information, and now I have to consider whether I
will unpublish my book ‘Christian
Revival, UK’, which relies partly on this information. Premier,
the main UK Christian media outlet now ‘regrets’ carrying reports about the
Quiet Revival. The editor is telling us all not to even mention the words
‘Quiet Revival’ again. Humanists UK are, they say ‘vindicated’. They say
there is no Christian revival and (by the way)… no God (obs). But in reality, there
is, at least, a loving God.
I don’t want to support anything misleading. My whole raison d'etre and modus operandi is
to stop misleading things from happening. The pen is mightier than the sword,
yes? I care about the truth. Here is a link
to the Bible Society FAQs of what is going on here. I’m not going to
complicate this - there is either a Christian Revival happening here in the
West or there is not. It’s kind of important. It’s not just the UK. I would
like to know the truth.
What should I do? Should I also unpublish my book because the
Bible Society has retracted its report? Please let me know.
In the meantime, look after yourself.
