Well, I Never ...........
Sir Cliff beats Pope as number one Christian!

 

was the headline in a newspaper early in December. It was a time for surveying the state of the nation in various aspects at the turn of the twentieth century and this was the result of a poll of more than 3,600 shoppers in town centres throughout Britain, carried out for Londonbased Premier Christian Radio.

 

Pollsters asked the 1,850 women and 1,800 men from all age groups whom they thought was the bestknown living Christian.

 

Sir Cliff Richard, who was at the time riding high in the music charts with the song "Millennium Prayer" topped the poll, with the Archbishop of Canterbury second and the Prince of Wales in third place. Former hostage Terry Waite took fourth place, the Queen fifth. Bob Geldof sixth and, surprisingly, the Pope only then came in, at seventh place.

 

American evangelist Billy Graham at eighth, boxer Frank Bruno ninth and finally Sir Barry Secombe completed the top ten.

 

Shoppers were also asked if they had a religious faith, to which less than half, 47%, answered yes, 16% saying no and 37% saying they did not know.

 

However, when asked if they believed in Christian values like "Love they neighbour" and "help the poor", an overwhelming 89% voted yes, 2% no and 9% did not know.

 

Peter Kerridge, managing director of the radio station, which broadcasts to more then 200,000 listeners, said, "The survey would seem to indicate that while only about half of us in the U.K. follow a specific religion, the vast majority of us believe in Christian values."

 

He thought that this was probably in no small part to people like Sir Cliff and the other "top ten" who demonstrate a positive Christian lifestyle.

 

Another commentator, a couple of weeks later, was writing about Sir Cliff Richard and his Lord's Prayer set to the music of Auld Lang Syne. "Most radio stations and many journalists are appalled by the idea. I am totally with Sir Cliff. It is good to see that the endless pronouncements of the death of Christianity in Britain are being refuted by the actual behaviour of the British. It is delightfully ironic: for a nation which never goes to church and has apparently lost all interest in religion, we keep on behaving in religious ways."

 

This commentator has no doubt that on the intellectual front, too, 'the argument for faith is winning. Modern science is positively sympathetic to religion, and the category of the 'postmodern' is often used top defend Christianity."