Americans' Confidence in the Church Reaching All-Time Low

 

 

Americans' Confidence in the Church Reaching All-Time Low

Audrey Barrick

Americans' confidence in organized religion and other institutions is down across the board compared to last year, a recent Gallup poll found.

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Americans' Confidence in the Church Reaching All-Time Low By

Audrey Barrick

Christian Post Reporter

Wed, Jun. 27 2007 05:06 AM ET

Americans' confidence in organized religion and other institutions is down across the board compared to last year, a recent Gallup poll found.

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(Photo: AP / Canadian Press, John Woods)

Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, speaks to the delegates at the Anglican Church of Canada's General Synod 2007 in Winnipeg,Canada Monday, June 25, 2007. Jefferts Schori is the only female national bishop in the Anglican communion.

Only 46 percent of Americans have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in church/organized religion which is one percentage point of being the lowest in Gallup's history since 1973.

Confidence in the church dropped in the wake of the television evangelism scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It then fell significantly in the wake of revelations surrounding the Catholic priest abuse scandal in 2002.

The Gallup poll found that Protestants are more likely to express confidence in the church compared to Catholics. Confidence in the church or organized religion has dropped from 53 percent in 2004 to 39 percent today among Catholics. Among Protestants, confidence increased from 60 percent in 2004 to 63 percent in 2006 and then dropped to 57 percent today.

Americans express the most confidence in the military with 69 percent saying they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence. Americans are also more likely to have confidence in small business (59 percent) and the police (54 percent) than the church.

The largest drops in confidence between 2006 and 2007 are seen in ratings for banks (41 percent), the presidency (25 percent), television news (23 percent) and newspapers (22 percent). Americans show the least confidence in Congress with only 14 percent – the lowest in Gallup's history – expressing confidence.

"These low ratings reflect the generally sour mood of the public at this time," stated the Gallup report.

Results from the Gallup poll are based on interviews with 1,007 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted June 11-14.