Australians with Anglican affiliation have been advised to tick the Anglican box in next week’s census and ignore a misleading campaign mimicking official advice.
The Bishop of South Sydney, Michael Stead, says the religion question in the census measures identity and affiliation, not church attendance, as he warns against skewed advice circulating on social media platforms.
“There is a survey on social media purporting to provide census guidance so that you can discover your religious or spiritual identity,” Dr Stead says.
“What it's actually doing is distorting the purpose of the Census question. The census question on religion is not a measure of religious performance, it is in the same area as cultural heritage. So in the same way as my background might be where I came from, not how I think of myself right now.”
This is not a test of piety or church attendance. This is a test of religious category in its broadest affiliated sense .. Mark McCrindle
Bishop Stead’s comments were supported by social demographer Mark McCrindle on The Pastor’s Heart podcast, who emphasized that the question is designed to measure broad cultural belonging rather than personal devoutness.
“This is not a test of piety or church attendance,” Mr McCrindle said. “This is a test of religious category in its broadest affiliated sense.”
He pointed out that the steady decline shown in recent Census figures fails to match the growing footprint of Christian institutions across the nation.
“You know, the fact that faith is declining in Australia according to these numbers doesn't make sense,” he told the podcast.
“When you look [closer], independent faith-based schools are growing and millions of Australians are served every week with faith-based aged care, social services and health care… yet we're seeing this Christianity [Census] box drop because we've narrowed the scope too much, we've forgotten what that affiliation is and that's all of those other services we're connected with. That ought to be recognised.”
Addressing confusion over how non-attenders should complete the form, Bishop Stead stressed that filling out the document should be straightforward for everyday Australians.
“So if people identify as Anglican, if they think of the Anglican Church as their church, they should tick the Anglican box,” Dr Stead explained. “If they think of themselves as Catholics, they should tick the Catholic box, even if they're not regular attenders.”
He also pointed to previous Census data showing that many Australians misinterpret the intent of the question out of a misplaced fear of hypocrisy.
“One of the interesting stats was that, at the last Census, one-third of the people who ticked the box ‘No Religion’ actually had active religious practice. That is, they pray but because they don't feel like they go to church regularly, they thought it would be hypocritical to tick the box and so they've ticked ‘No Religion’. Yet they clearly are people who've not just been shaped by religious belief, they continue to practice it.”
Finally, Dr Stead offered specific advice for Anglicans who might otherwise write down “Christian” instead of specifying their denomination on the form.
“We've encouraged people to think of their primary identity as in Christ, not as Anglican,” he said. “That's true, but when it comes to the Census, it's important to know how many Anglican Christians there are, because that headline number is used by the government, as it thinks about things like hospital chaplaincy funding and school ministries and aged care provision and things like that.
“So to have an accurate measure of the number of people who identify as Anglican Christians, it is important for people to tick the Anglican box.”
