50,000 women abandoning church every year as Buffy the Vampire Slayer turns them on to witchcraft



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.