These days, Americans have a harder time trusting anyone, including pastors.
The perception of the clergy in the country has reached a new low in recent Gallup pollwith less than a third of Americans rating clergy as very honest and ethical.
People are more likely to believe in the moral standards of nurses, police officers, and chiropractors than of their religious leaders. Clergy are still more trusted than politicians, lawyers and journalists.
The continued decline in pastors’ reputations—from 40 percent to 32 percent over the past four years—corresponds to greater skepticism of the professions (and establishments) at all levels.
Americans are also less likely than ever to know a pastor, less than half belong to a church and a growing cohort that I don’t identify with any faith at all..
“As American culture becomes increasingly pluralistic and post-Christian, we cannot assume that Americans in general have a positive view of the clergy,” said Nathan Finn, executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership from North Greenville University. “Ministers must work harder to earn public trust than just a generation ago. »
Finn also highlighted how scandals such as clergy sexual abuse, growing political polarization, and evangelicals’ countercultural moral positions can contribute to declining credibility among clergy, “particularly among those who have had bad experiences in the Church or whose worldview assumptions are already at odds. with historical Christian beliefs.
THE most dramatic decline in clergy confidence came during the sexual abuse crisis by Catholic priests in the early 2000s, when positivity rates fell from 64 percent to 52 percent. Since then, they have continued to decrease.
Gallup found that white, high-income, college-educated Americans had a good opinion of pastors. Ratings were about the same across political parties, with 38 percent of Republicans and 36 percent of Democrats finding high levels of honesty and ethical standards among clergy.
Pastors’ opinions varied across generations. Older millennials and Generation X were the most cynical; less than a quarter of people ages 35 to 54 have a positive view of clergy ethics, compared with 38 percent of older Americans and 30 percent of those under 35. The positive perception of the clergy among young people jumped 10 percentage points compared to 2022.
Previous polls have shown that people tend to trust their own pastor more than pastors overall. According to Barna Nearly two-thirds of Americans have a “very positive” opinion of a pastor with whom they have a personal connection, compared with a quarter who say the same about pastors in general, according to one study.
But even this gap can potentially erode trust at the local church level.
“People may think, ‘I trust my pastor but not the one I see on social media.’ However, sooner or later this decline will influence local decisions. For example, if a senior pastor has a conflict with the board, people can more quickly say, ‘Well, our pastor is like other pastors,'” said David Fletcher, founder of XPasseura resource for executive pastors.
“Changes in societal views can influence church members and leaders profoundly: it’s like the tide, carrying us along for a while before we realize we’ve moved. »
Even though public trust is declining across all professions — groups like doctors, pharmacists and bankers have seen slightly larger declines than clergy — Christians still want pastors to be held to higher standards.
“Scripture commands Christians in general and pastors in particular to be concerned about their reputation with the outside world,” said Pastor Aaron Menikoff, author of Character mattersa book focused on the fruit of the Spirit in church leadership.
Menikoff cited 1 Timothy 3:7, where qualifications for an elder include “a good reputation with strangers,” and 1 Peter 2:12, which exhorts Christians to live a “good life” so that those who are in outside the Church notice their “good deeds”. .”
Evangelical leaders agreed that some church positions and doctrines could cause pastors to lose credibility in today’s culture, but that pastors should take their character and public witness seriously.
“The pastors will not be up to the task, these are also works in progress. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, they should strive for that holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14),” said Menikoff, whose Atlanta-area church hosts an annual pastors’ conference called Feed my sheep.
Glenn Packiam emphasized the need for pastoral humility and a rethinking of authority as he explored Barna Research on Declining Trust in Pastors in his 2022 book The resilient pastor. He wrote:
I’m less interested in finding ways to regain credibility than in taking responsibility for why we lost it. … From small country churches to megachurches, many pastors have proven themselves to be tyrants and hypocrites, alcoholics and womanizers. The credibility crisis is a symptom of this. Abuse of authority is the root cause.
In the wake of public scandals involving pastors, ministries are developing accountability and discipleship training for pastors. For example, a free workshop via XPastor (involving CT partner publication Church Law & Tax) focused on legal, financial, and sexual standards as well as challenges related to Sabbath rest, in hopes that putting in place “guardrails” integrity of the Church can keep leaders on the right track.
It’s also important, Finn said, to know how pastors respond when things go wrong: “It is in the power of church leaders to rebuild at least some trust if we respond faithfully to our own moral failures.” »
