The Bible Society published a fascinating study this week into UK families and the Bible. It was timed to coincide with the launch of their new 'Pass it On' campaign, to encourage parents to read, watch or listen to a Bible story with their child.
Between 10th-13th January this year, pollsters YouGov, on behalf of the Bible Society, surveyed over 1000 parents of British children aged between 3-16, and over 800 children aged 8-15. They asked them whether they read, watched or listened to stories from the Bible and if so how often. They also tested to see if they recognised what Christians might have assumed were well known Bible stories.
The results only serve to underline what we already know: that the UK is now a post-Christian, biblically illiterate society, where we cannot take even basic Bible knowledge for granted.
As a Christian I believe it is the basic human right of every person on the planet to read God's Word. The Bible Society's research suggest that millions of children in the UK are being denied that right.
While Christians have always had a right and proper commitment to taking the good news of the gospel to the whole world, this report reminds us again that we have a massive job to do right on our doorstep.
Initiatives like the Bible Society's 'Open the Book' are great ways in which local Christians can take the Bible into schools. A team from Woodgreen does this regularly in our local primary school. The reports from children and staff alike are that the children engage with this and love hearing Bible read to them. You can find out more about Open the Book HERE.
You can read and download the whole report for free HERE.
But I've pulled out what I felt were the stand out statistics in the infographic below.
If you want to download a higher resolution version of it you can do so HERE.
Direct Links:
http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/uploads/content/projects/Bible-Society-Report_030214_final_.pdf
http://www.openthebook.net/home.php
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0cwa3fucs5fwnt/Pass%20it%20On%20Infographic%20FINAL_HI%20RES.jpg
