Mainstreaming British Paganism
Another "Pagans in our midst" article, this one from The Guardian, a generally left-of-center British newspaper.
Writer Cole Morton advances the "fastest-growing religion" meme, promoted also by the Pagan Federation:
The Pagan Federation, which aims to represent all "followers of a polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion", claims the number of adherents has trebled at least. That would mean there were 360,000 committed, practising pagans, putting them ahead of the Sikhs (329,000) and fourth behind Hindus (552,000), Muslims (1.5 million) and Christians (42 million, according to the census).
Writer Cole Morton advances the "fastest-growing religion" meme, promoted also by the Pagan Federation:
The Pagan Federation, which aims to represent all "followers of a polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshipping religion", claims the number of adherents has trebled at least. That would mean there were 360,000 committed, practising pagans, putting them ahead of the Sikhs (329,000) and fourth behind Hindus (552,000), Muslims (1.5 million) and Christians (42 million, according to the census).
posted by Chas S. Clifton at 10:41 AM Permalink
2 Comments:
Considering the number of Brits I have met over the years who dislike the term pagan and therefore reject it (the whole anti-southern, pro-northern European thing) but otherwise consider themselves such, may make this number a bit of a poor example compared to the number of actual pagans in the British Isles
I think all Pagan-population numbers are to be taken with several grains of salt.
One round-up of the issue is James R. Lewis, "The Pagan Explosion: An Overview of Select Census and Survey Data," in Hannah Johnston and Peg Aloi, eds, The New Generation Witches (Ashgate, 2007), 13-40.
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