Losing my religion

Religion isn’t becoming extinct, Kiwis are just being more honest in how they define their beliefs, writes MIKE CRUDGE.

I don’t dispute the integrity of the 2018 census data, which revealed that the number of New Zealanders with no religion had for the first time outnumbered Christians.But I do question Listener columnist Bob Brockie’s conclusion that religion in New Zealand is “on the path towards extinction”.It’s important to consider that the census asks people about their “religious affiliation” – not the practice of their faith or the significance their belief system holds in their lives.

In the past, a person might have ticked “Presbyterian” because, when they were a child, their parents took them to Christmas services at the church Nana went to.

Perhaps previous generations identified as Hindu, so they did, too; or maybe they ticked “Sunni” for 40 years, but no longer feel the need to hang onto the religious cultural ties of their family and now tick “no religion”.

This is what I believe the census data is really showing, and it’s a pattern reflected in New Zealand’s religious history.

Regular church attendance peaked on our shores in the 1890s, when about 30% of the population – or 200,000 people – routinely went to church.