LONDON (RNS) — The reputation of the world’s oldest Bible Society and one of the leading international polling organizations has been tarnished in the fallout from a survey that was said to rewrite understanding of Christianity in Britain — and has now been junked for being fraudulent.
Last year, amid huge headlines about a turnaround in Christian fortunes in Britain, the Bible Society unveiled its survey “The Quiet Revival,” which it said showed that the numbers of young people who were attending church had skyrocketed. Specifically, the report found a 12 percentage point spike in monthly churchgoing among 18- to 24-year-olds, from 4% in a 2018 survey to 16% by 2024.
At the time, the Bible Society announced in “The Quiet Revival” that this survey showed a reality that could not be denied. But this declaration turned out to be false.
Leading pollsters and some journalists had questioned the survey’s results, given they were so at odds with other studies of churchgoing and religious belief, but they were constantly rebuffed by the Bible Society, which stood by its report.
And now, almost exactly a year since it was issued, the society has announced that its polling company, YouGov, has acknowledged the data used in the report was flawed. Anti-fraud devices to ensure that the sampling is accurate were erroneously not switched on by YouGov.
It is a major blow for the Bible Society, first founded in 1804 and the origin for the wo …
