EA encourages evangelicals to vote

THE EVANGELICAL Alliance is helping people scrutinise politicians by organising hustings with churches across the county after their ‘Faith in Politics?’ report found that 94 per cent of evangelical Christians will vote in the General Election.

Of the 88 per cent of selfdefined evangelicals of the 2,362 people surveyed, 80 per cent said they are certain to vote, with a further 14 per cent saying they are likely. The survey says that evangelicals’ propensity to vote is higher than the national average, and highest among men.

Of participants, one in three said that their Church ‘explicitly encouraged’ them to vote while 30 per cent of churches had asked congregations to vote against certain policies. A further two per cent said their church ‘explicitly encouraged them’ to oppose or support a particular candidate.

According to the survey, evangelicals are more politically active than the general population. Some 57 per cent of men, which the survey describes as ‘men, church leaders, those intending to vote UKIP, older’ have actively contacted a local councillor or MP, compared to the eight per cent of the UK populace (according to Hansard 2013).

Seventy eight per cent of evangelicals had signed an epetition, compared to nine per cent of the UK average and 39 per cent of evangelicals described as ‘female, middle aged, voting left of centre’ have boycotted certain products for ethical, political or environmental reasons.

Thirty two per cent said that being a Christian is the most important factor affecting their vote and 35 per cent of evangelicals said that they vote according to the party most aligned to Christian or biblical values.