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50,000 women abandoning church every year as Buffy the Vampire Slayer turns them on to witchcraft
Last updated at 02:15am on 23.08.08
Christian churches in England have lost at least 50,000 women from their congregations every year since 1989, says a sociologist.
Dr Kristin Aune, from the University of Derby, said many young women are put off going to church because they link it with traditional values.
She also said television icons such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who promote female empowerment, discourage women from attending services.
Kristin Aune (left) claims women are abandoning the church because TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer focus on female empowerment (pictured are actors Anthony Stewart Head and Sarah Michelle Gellar from the series)
Dr Aune added: 'In short, women are abandoning the church. Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
'Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church.'
Dr Aune believes many women find it difficult to attend church as they juggle their working lives with their families.
She also thinks senior clergy remaining silent about sex is driving women away because they feel the church requires them to deny their sexual desires.
Dr Aune said the numbers of women lost to the church come from the English Church Census, which she used in her research for a new book entitled Women and Religion in the West, of which she is a co-author.
Reader views (3)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Ahaha. Come on! That's ridiculous! So it's Buffy's fault if young women change their mind? My opinion is that this women just open their eyes!
Ehi! Maybe war is because of Buffy! In this show there is a lot of action...yeah it may be!
Seriously guys.
- Rebecca, Milano,Italy
Its a whole lot more simple than that. The church lost its way a long time ago so people - men, and the mainstay of yore, women - are leaving in droves. That some might be searching for something still is hardly surprising - just because they are not being ministered to appropriately by the church doesn't mean they have lost their need for faith in their lives.
- Rogan, DFW TX
The problem is tradition-based dogma. When simplicity and humility would make a stronger point, while still embracing all of humanity, its history and hopes for the future.
A Church of Light would meet and meditate upon the Scriptural references to light - e.g. "... to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God", II Corinthians iv, 6 - and the science of light, free of unnecessary "theatre". There are hymns and psalms, too, about light if we like to be in "choirs and places where they sing".
The cost of hiring and licensing of local venues, or missionary-type "at home" meetings as an offering in kind, would be a small order to avoid quarrelsome, argumentative and confused mainstream churches. If only until they find "... the true light which gives itself to every one", John i, 9.
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Muildenhall, Suffolk
