In the lead-up to this month’s Australian census, many Christian Right organisations were churning out the mantra that Australia was ‘68% Christian’. This figure had apparently been set in stone by the 2001 census and wouldn’t it be awfully nice if that statistic could be maintained or even increased this year?

Participants in our Discussion Forum have pointed out some major problems with the 68% estimate and it’s interesting that virtually no comparable survey yields any figure approaching it. The latest of these comes out of a three-year national study (entitled ‘The Spirit of Generation Y’) by Monash University, the Australian Catholic University and the Christian Research Association (Sarah Price and Susanna Kass ‘Generation Y turning away from religion’, Melbourne Age, 6 Aug. 2006 - see also http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/ccls/spir/sppub/sppub.htm

The associated survey found that only 48% of those born between 1976 and 1990 believed in a god (note: ‘a god’, not necessarily the Christian one, or ones). 20% did not believe in a god with a further 32% unsure. Only 19% ‘of those who identify themselves as Christian’ were actively involved in a church, 17% had an ‘eclectic spirituality’ (’New Age’, esoteric or eastern beliefs) while fully 31% could be classified as humanists.

Robert Forsyth, Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, grumbled that, ‘This is the first generation to have nothing to do with Sunday school’. Careful, Robert, I went to Sunday school and a Christian secondary school, too, and look what happened!

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