10% of Church of England clergy victims of violent anti-Christian hate crime
7602 Mins Read
One in ten members of the Church of England clergy has been the victim of violent behaviour in the last two years, a government-funded survey has found.
The Telegraph reports that the reason respondents most commonly gave for verbal abuse they received – cited in one-quarter of cases – was because they had declined to give money to someone who had asked them for it.
In just over one-sixth of incidents, respondents said the motive was anti-Christian hate crime, and alcohol and drug problems were cited in 13 per cent of incidents.
Where verbal abuse had taken place many times, the reason most commonly given – in 41 per cent of cases – was mental illness.
Almost one-sixth of respondents said they had seen a rise in online hate crime and four per cent of male clergy said they had been threatened online.
Male respondents were more likely to report being threatened while undertaking pastoral work such as home visits, while female clergy were more likely to report being threatened on church premises by a church member.
The proportion of respondents who felt clergy were shown less respect than two years ago increased with age.
Jonathan Gabe, Professor of Sociology at Royal Holloway, said: “The clergy have a difficult job, especially when faced with the risk of violence, as documented in our survey.
