But to start the article by claiming that the 72% are “churchgoers” (as opposed to the actual 32% of those who are so) is an outright misrepresentation of the survey findings – which says no such thing. And nowhere does it use the term “devout” as in the newspaper headline.

Of course, this does not alter the fact that the survey reports that nominal Christians appear to be less “active” than those of other religions – which comes as no great surprise. However, of course, they have fallen into the classic trap of not comparing like with like….. forgetting that if you ask people for their religion then they will just tick the box “christian” because they happen to live within a traditionally christian culture, despite the fact that the majority do not have a clue what “religion” or “christian” really means! If, instead of asking the question “do you have a religion” they asked “are you religious?”, I guess it would produce a very different result – and then you would be justified in asking if they “actively practice” it.