This is the Review:

This book is the fruit of very extensive research and analysis and explores a wide variety of backgrounds and faith journeys.

As an academic study, it is remarkably free of jargon and enables the general readers to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals experience their religion over time and of the factors and circumstances which influence expressions of faith.

The authors demonstrate that evangelicals in Northern Ireland are a very diverse group and that the stereotypes which surface from time to time in public debate are far from representative of evangelicalism.

A very important aim of this book is to explore the everyday life of evangelicals and how they are coping with the rapid pace of change in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

They affirm the conclusions of other published sociological studies with regard to the role of religion in providing a sense of identity in uncertain political circumstances and how this can lead to the deepening of division. However, this study shows that there is a wide variety of ways in which evangelicals engage with politics and social and ethical issues. It is a very complex picture.

Thanks to extensive qualitative research – mostly through in-depth interviews – the authors have been able to gain valuable insights into why and how religious beliefs change over time and to identify the factors which impact most significantly on people’s faith journeys.

The fieldwork carried out by Mitchell and Ganiel reveals an important link between political and religious change, but what distinguishes this study from so many carried out during the past generation is that it deals with the changing pattern of religious belief in a post-conflict situation.

This is a well-written book with extensive notes, bibliography and index sections. It will serve as a valuable textbook for those wishing to carry out further research in the complex subject of religion in Northern Ireland.

(George Irwin, Church of Ireland Gazette, 30 September 2011)

The best place to purchase the book is on the UCD Press website, for a reduced price of €22.

Other Resources:

Book Launch at East Belfast Mission (including remarks by Glenn Jordan)

Book Review by Alan in Belfast on Slugger O’Toole

Interview on Sunday Sequence (BBC Radio Ulster)

Glenn is the author of the 2001 book, Not of this World? Evangelical Protestants in Northern Ireland. Claire and I were of course influenced by his book so we were keen to hear what he had to say about our research.

You can listen to Glenn’s remarks in full by clicking the play button below:

I’ve reproduced a selection of Glenn’s remarks here:

The evangelical community which has helped shape me to a large extent … [has] … been picked over and studied by so many people, as the abundance of the studies referenced [in this book] … bear reference to. … Academics … have pinned [evangelicals] wriggling to the page and picked them apart. Many of those studies have done that analysis, fixed them to the formulated phrase, without much by way of sympathy or the understanding of an insider. …

[But] what’s obvious to me … once you reach … the stories of the people … the book really does take off. And what I learned from this … was here were two researchers who had a deep sympathetic understanding of that community … and also an ear for a good story. It’s made up of stories of people who spoke incredibly honestly about their experiences of faith, some of which have been very painful. …

You [Claire and Gladys] are to be commended for what is a first class contribution to the sociology of religion, yes, but also to the understanding of this often much maligned community in Northern Ireland.

You reminded me of the gentle goodness of so much of evangelicalism, but also of the fear that constrains it so often, and also the social awkwardness of the community that sometimes holds it back and expresses itself in anger and disaffection.

… You captured some of the complexity of the evangelical community, demonstrating for me that there is no single coherent narrative that captures the journey of people, of evangelicals. Evangelical expressions of faith are as varied and different as the people that tell those stories. … For people outside that community that is a message that desperately needs to be heard.

… I think above all what you have done in the book is that you have dignified the stories themselves. You have respected those stories. Whilst you have the objectivity of the academic you have not coldly pinned those stories … you have dignified the stories, reminding me as I read of the heroic nature of the ordinary stories of everyday people who have had to face extraordinary events that have been part and parcel of growing up in Northern Ireland through the history of the Troubles. Stories that don’t make the headlines, but nonetheless are extraordinary ones. Extraordinary stories of people who have sought to make sense of faith, through a conflict here, through the framework of their faith.

…[To those of you here who were interviewed for the book, Claire and Gladys] have respected your stories, which is a serious and deep contribution as well.

[You are to be commended for] respecting and dignifying the stories of ordinary people trying to hold on to faith in extraordinary circumstances.

Claire and I are deeply grateful for Glenn’s complimentary remarks.

We thank him and everyone who participated in the production of the book, all those who attended the launch, and Prof Geraldine Smyth, Head of the Irish School of Ecumenics, who helped host the evening on our behalf.

The best way to purchase the book is via the UCD Press website, where you can get it at a reduced rate of €22.

You can read another review of the book, by Blogger Alan in Belfast, here.

(image: Claire Mitchell, Glenn Jordan and Gladys Ganiel at the launch of Evangelical Journeys)

Tea/coffee, nibbles and live traditional music will feature from 6 pm. At around 6.45 Glenn Jordan, Director of EBM’s Skainos project and author of Not of This World: Evangelical Protestants in Northern Ireland (Blackstaff, 2002) will speak about the book. He will be introduced by Prof Geraldine Smyth, Head of the Irish School of Ecumenics.

Please RSVP to me, Gladys Ganiel (gganiel@tcd.ie) by Tues 25 October. You can also RSVP on our Facebook page.

Evangelical Journeys will be available at a special price of £15 at the launch.

It is published by UCD Press.

A review of the book is available here.

A flyer for the launch is available here.

It’s a thorough and generous review, which goes into considerable depth about the content of the book and the stories of the evangelicals who we interviewed.

First, a clarification for Rhodian – the line that you refer to from my post actually reads, ‘I am not one that thinks that the Orange tradition and the Twelfth holiday are hopelessly unredeemable or irrelevant.’ That takes in more than the Orange Order, but obviously includes it.

Second, I concede Rhodian’s point about Steve Stockman’s poem. It might not be about the Orange Order. I suppose that is the beauty of a poem – individual readers can take different messages from it without damaging the integrity of the poem. But it also appeared in a special issue of Lion and Lamb devoted to engaging with the Orange Order, so I assume at least some others shared my interpretation!

I also mentioned the summer school on loyalism that we run for our students at the Irish School of Ecumenics – in it we have speakers who, just to name a few examples, talk about the importance of the musical and historical traditions behind the Lambeg drum and flute bands, as well as traditions of Presbyterian Enlightenment, tolerance and radical democracy, often associated with the period around 1798.

Another commentator on this post, Tanya Jones (who has her own blog called Crystal Bard), reflects on the contrast between the sometimes menacing aspects of the Belfast parade (my original post is undoubtedly dominated by the Twelfth in its Belfast expression) and the Twelfth in Fermanagh.

Her post is not uncritical – like myself, she still highlights some experiences of ‘hurt’ around the Twelfth. But her post also emphasises that for many the parades really are about the music, a point we discussed at length at our summer school, where students gained – I hope – an appreciation of the musicianship of many who participate in the bands. 

Tanya Jones – Redeeming the Twelfth and the Orange Tradition?

I would agree with Gladys’ analysis and the importance of the questions she raises. I’d just like to add a couple of comments from our perspective as English Catholics in County Fermanagh. My husband is in the unusual position of being a member of a local silver band which plays on the Twelfth and at other Orange Order events and so is able to see the day from a few interestingly contrasting points of view.

The first thing to mention is that the Twelfth here doesn’t come with the weight of bitterness and conflict that it carries in Belfast. The main marches change their location from year to year and generally avoid the more Catholic towns and villages. The overall attitude among Catholics is a tolerant ‘live and let live’ one, and most, as in Belfast, simply melt away on holiday or keep a carefully low profile.

I think that there is hurt, though; I certainly feel it myself. Principally this stems from seeing what the marchers are doing in Belfast and the hatred which they are knowingly provoking. But it’s also personal. The Orange Order claim to have no animosity towards individual Catholics, only to the Church. How does that work? “I’ve got nothing against you but your faith is fundamentally in error and your collective prayers misguided (if not worse).”

Can any Christian hear that message without pain?

It’s like walking into a pub and saying to the man beside you at the bar, “I’m sure you’re a good bloke but your mum’s a bit of a slapper,” and being righteously indignant at the punch to your nose.

Fermanagh Catholics don’t do much nose-punching but it’s an odd sensation, especially when, like me, you move in mainly ‘integrated’ circles to have a few friends suddenly celebrating the highlight of their year from which the rest are excluded.

And the exclusion is real, perhaps the more so for not always being spelled out. The local tourist board includes the marches on their website though tellingly with few details. At the moment the events exist in a conveniently ambiguous space, boxed in by conveniently vague and emotive words like ‘tradition’ and ‘heritage’. To move on, they really need to become one thing or the other.

If they are genuine community festivals, then others need not simply to be tolerated but actively to be welcomed, with specific invitations to Catholic and non-Christian participants.

A model for this kind of event would be the very successful Saint Patrick’s Day parade held in Enniskillen this year, which included bands from both ‘sides’ along with the prize-winning float from the multi-ethnic, inter-faith Women of the World. If not, then this should be made clear and tourists advised that they are watching the remnant of a centuries-old grudge.

What is more, leaders of churches which pride themselves upon their fellowship and dialogue with their Catholic brethren should consider their positions – is it really appropriate to be lending credence to an expression so at odds with the inter-church endeavour?

There’s also the question of money. I don’t know how the finances work, but would be very surprised if the Orange Order paid for the policing of these events. And, if they are truly open, free, community celebrations, there is no reason why they should. But if not… As in many things, money probably matters more than we realise.

I was slightly shocked to read in Malachi O’Doherty’s piece that the bandsmen in Belfast can be significantly more sectarian than the Lodge members themselves. In the West, at least among the brass bands, this is emphatically not the case. It takes over five years to become a proficient player of a brass instrument, especially to master the co-ordination and agility required simultaneously to read music, play, march, follow directions and avoid tripping over small children and dogs.

The bands meet every week to practice, all year round, and their commitment is to the music and to one another, not to the Protestant cause. Of course some players are individual members of Lodges, but more and more are seeking out opportunities for cross-community activities and for positive partnerships mirroring those experienced by schools across the county which take part in the extraordinarily successful Shared Education Programme.

Sadly, instruments and uniforms are expensive, and the Orange Order holds the purse strings. Many, probably most, bands could not survive without their financial support. But if the Orange Order were to pay its way, public money might be liberated to support more integrated musical events and relationships.

Personally, I would like to see the inclusive option chosen and ‘Orange Fest’ become a reality. I’d like to see the Lodges follow the example set by local children, parents, schools, musicians, students, clergy, and all those who have been willing to set aside a little of their certainty in love of their neighbour. Perhaps it will happen – stranger things have. And, after all, Ulster could always do with a bit more carnival…

There are plenty of others who have assigned the blame for the violence to one or the other ‘side.’ And others who have protested that the Orange Order itself doesn’t participate in or promote the violence that seems to inevitably accompany the Twelfth. After all, ‘Orange Fest’ is supposed to be a fun day out for all.

But writing in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph, Malachi O’Doherty is spot on in his judgement that what actually happens on the Twelfth sits uncomfortably with the Order’s Christian self-image:

When Orangemen urge us to respect their carnival, they try to turn our attention away from the drunkenness and the sectarian bonfire parties to the serious religious core of it.

…. While they want to be regarded as Christian, they are weak on their commitment to loving their neighbour. For years the lodges have taken the ambiguous position of insisting that they have no part in the sectarian brutishness of some of the bands and the hangers-on.

But the outsider sees only the one big festival and wonders why people who regard themselves as decent Christians don’t distance themselves from the hatemongers who want to join in.

But these are old questions that the Orange Order has had decades to reflect on and provide answers to and their failure suggests they aren’t bothered by them.

They will march and beat their drums through streets, indifferent to the fact that thousands of their neighbours have simply gone away for the week and left them to it.

And they will never ask themselves why they are unloved.

Of course, because that commentary was written by someone with a name that marks him out as from the ‘other side,’ some will question the legitimacy of his attempt to analyse the Twelfth.

But back in the mid-1990s, the group Evangelical Contribution to Northern Ireland (ECONI), now the Centre for Contemporary Christianity, wrote an Open Letter to the Orange Order, raising some of those very same questions.

Others from the Protestant traditions have also asked questions like:

• Would Jesus have insisted on exercising his ‘rights’ if it meant that people were going to get hurt?
• What makes the Orange Order so insecure that to re-route a parade is seen as a major ‘defeat’? Is this a genuinely Christian analysis?
• What message do people get when the biblical motifs of the Orange banners are so strongly associated with the militarism of many of the flute bands that accompany the Orange lodges en route?

You can still read a 1997 edition of ECONI’s magazine Lion and Lamb online which reflects extensively on theologies and the actions of the Orange Order. Depressingly, much of the material in it could have been written this past week.

I am not one that thinks that the Orange tradition and the Twelfth holiday are hopelessly unredeemable or irrelevant; in fact, along with local historian Philip Orr I help to facilitate a summer school on ‘Understanding Loyalism’ for my students on our Master’s in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation. It ran this year the 9-12th July and included hearing from people who are working hard to promote peaceful and non-sectarian expressions of Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist and Orange traditions – especially this time of year.

But that 1997 edition of Lion and Lamb, now 14 years old, contains an apt poem by Steve Stockman (now the minister at Fitzroy Presbyterian but then a chaplain at Queen’s University). I think it’s worth another read in July 2011, and sadly suspect that this will be so come July 2012 (see page 7).

Blessed are the Arrogant

on these charred streets of belfast

there are scars on minds and hearts

the only thing we do together

is to rip one another apart

it’s hard to find the chinks of light

in this god forsaken place

if he don’t send his judgement down

it’s an even more amazing grace.

and cursed are the peace makers

for they might compromise

cursed are those who mourn

for they might apologise

cursed are the poor in spirit

for they might confess and regret

and cursed are the merciful

for they might forgive and forget

and cursed are the meek

for they won’t ride their high horse

but blessed are the arrogant

for they will maintain this curse.

on these broken hearts of belfast

there are spoken open lies

no matter what your fancy dress

the truth can’t be disguised

we belligerently spit in the face of god

and this miraculous peace time space

if god don’t send his judgement down

then it’s an even more amazing grace.

(From Steve Stockman’s poetry collection ‘skeletons’)

(Image of recent violence from BBC website.)

That’s all by way of announcing that my new book, written with Claire Mitchell, will be released in Ireland and the UK on Thursday. It’s called Evangelical Journeys: Choice and Change in a Northern Irish Religious Subculture, and it’s published by UCD Press.

This is UCD Press’ description of the book:

Why do some people become more religiously conservative over time, whilst others moderate their views or abandon faith altogether? Drawing on 95 interviews with evangelicals and ex-evangelicals in Northern Ireland, this book explores how religious journeys are shaped by social structures and by individual choices. It tells the stories of pro-life picketers, liberal peace-campaigning ministers, housewives afraid of the devil, students deconstructing their faith and atheists mortified by their religious past. Through hearing everyday stories about love, family, work and health, as well as politics, this book explores the many different worlds of ordinary evangelicals in Northern Ireland and the surprising ways in which their beliefs and practices can change over time. "Evangelical Journeys" is a well written book in a jargon-free style that will make it of interest to general as well as specialist readers.

I’m also really chuffed by the way the cover looks. The image is by Northern Irish artist Tim Millen.

There will be more about this book on the blog soon. In the meantime, you can pre-order the book on Amazon.

For those of you who have kindles, there is a place to click on the Amazon page, and they will pass on the request for a Kindle Edition to the publisher.

The book will be released in the US in September.

The Centre has posted our conversation on-line, and you can have a listen here.

Our book seeks to identify combinations of factors – ranging from the personal to the social to the political – that have prompted the faith of Northern Irish evangelicals to change in various directions.

In the book, we focus on six types of journeys: converting, deepening (in a conservative direction), maintaining a steady journey, moderating (in a liberal direction), transforming (becoming post-evangelical?), and exiting evangelicalism.

We think our book will be of interest to those beyond academic sociology, and this was confirmed by some of the questions raised during the question and response session.

For instance, one man said that he thought that the book could offer some insights to leaders in the churches, particularly around the reasons why some people choose to stay in church and others choose to go.

We responded that we hoped that the book would help evangelicals to gain a better understanding about why people do take different paths, and that this might inspire empathy for those who had chosen an alternative route from one’s own.

On his blog, BBC religion correspondent William Crawley says that Paisley’s comments,

will grab some headlines precisely because this is the kind of public rhetoric he has resisted in recent years.

Yes, Paisley has refrained from anti-Christ language up until now, showing remarkably more verbal restraint in his opposition to the pope’s visit than, say, atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins.

Indeed, in joining the ever growing chorus against the visit Paisley is not just making common cause with the Orange Order or the Evangelical Protestant Society.

He’s also in the same camp as radical atheists Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, members of the LGBT community offended by the pope’s comments about the UK’s human rights policies, and taxpayers who wonder if the £8 million they are expected to fork out for the visit will be worth it.

Paisley: Friend of Catholic Abuse Victims?

In the interview, Paisley framed much of his opposition to the pope’s visit in terms of the way the Catholic Church has handled the abuse scandals in Ireland. Paisley said,

"We have had a terrible happening in Ireland with the priests and monks and nuns all taking part in acts of disgraceful behaviour with young people, and we haven’t seen the Catholic Church taking a strong stand on this.

A person, like some of the priests we’ve had, destroying the lives of young people and then going out and saying ‘I can forgive sins’, it’s only right that be called what it is. That is anti-Christ in teaching and in doctrine."

This is a much different approach than Paisley might have taken a generation ago, when his language would likely have been more like that used by the Evangelical Protestant Society in their July-September 2010 newsletter, the Ulster Bulwark:

‘It is important to raise our voice, and the visit presents us with opportunities to challenge the false spiritual and temporal claims of Rome and also to proclaim Christa as the only way of salvation. …

The pope is unique among world political and spiritual leaders in that he asserts that he is the temporal and spiritual ruler over all the earth. It is on the basis of such spurious claims that his visit must be opposed.’

I can understand the various perspectives of those who make up the motley crew behind the UK’s ‘no pope here’ campaign.

Their moral and/or religions sensibilities – for an impressive variety of reasons – are offended by the spectacle of the British state welcoming someone who they see as opposing all that they believe to be right and true.

But What do Abuse Victims Want?

That said, those – like Paisley – who are choosing to emphasise concerns about abuse victims as a reason for opposing the pope’s visit would do well to listen to what the victims want.

Back in April, it was reported that victims of abusing priests were seeking an audience with the pope on his visit to the UK. It’s not clear to me at this point if the pope has managed to fit the victims into his busy schedule. His itinerary was reported today to feature meeting the queen in Scotland and the Archbishop of Canterbury in London.

Meeting with abuse victims – if they go ahead – could go some way towards redeeming his visit to the UK. If his visit is all pomp and no apology, I can’t see it being of much benefit to the Catholic Church and its followers in Britain.