According to the latest Gallup Poll, trust in the ethical standards of almost all identified professional groups in the USA has declined in the four years up to 2023 with trust in the clergy reaching an all-time low at 32 percent of those polled rating their trust in them as very high or high. The clergy now rank alongside chiropractors and psychiatrists in the public perception of their ethical trustworthiness.
All the 5 major professions in the USA fell steadily between 1976 when polling began but the profession which fell furthest and fastest was that of clergy. in 1977, 61 percent of adult Americans polled, gave their trust in clergy as very high or high; this has now fallen to 32 percent, a 29 percentage points decline to almost half what it was in 1977.
And this downward trend has accelerated since 2012, declining by an average of slightly over 1.8 percentage points per year, against an average of just over 0.38 percentage points between 1977 and 2012. This represents about a four-fold increase in the rate of decline which, projected forward, if this rate continues, no-one in America will rate the ethical trustworthiness of clergy as very high or high by mid-2032.
After the grotesque display of the evangelicals coming out so cravenly for the criminal, fraud and rapist with a narcissistic personality disorder, Donald Trump, who has no noticeable ethical standard, no lower level of depravity to which he won't descend, and who represents the antithesis of the decent moral standards that used to be associated with Christians, it's surprising that 32 percent of Americans still think the clergy have high or very high ethical standards. One whiff of political power and any pretense of ethics was discarded without a second's thought. This is entirely consistent with the picture of growing rejection of religion in the USA as shown by the rapid growth in 'Nones' in surveys reflecting religious affiliation, the growth in Atheism, and the accelerating decline in creationism which is now also at an all-time low in the USA.
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