Associated Baptist Press - Clergy drop in poll rating honesty and ethics of professions

Clergy drop in poll rating honesty and ethics of professions

By Bob Allen

Friday, December 11, 2009

PRINCETON, N.J. (ABP) -- Americans' views of the honesty and ethics of clergypersons has dropped to a three-decade low, according to the latest Gallup poll.

The annual ranking of ethics of various professions found that 50 percent of Americans rated clergy's honesty and ethics as "high" or "very high." That is down 6 percent from last year's poll.

The all-time high rating for clergy in the 32 years the poll has been taken was 67 percent in 1985. As recently as 2001, however, the profession saw a peak of 64 percent. The six-point drop was the largest among any profession, followed by lawyers, who had a five-point drop.

Jeffrey Jones, managing editor of the Gallup Poll, said the reason for the decline isn't clear, but clergy ratings are below where they were earlier in the decade during the priest sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Ratings of clergy dropped from their 2008 levels for both Catholics and Protestants, as well as among regular and non-regular churchgoers.

"Perhaps it results from the overall cultural negativity that permeates our country," he speculated. "Or perhaps in a distorted way, some folk are unfairly taking out their anxiety about the economy on clergy. They are blaming the bad times on clergy -- as the representatives of God."

Parham said that clergy, while remaining one of the highest-rated professions in terms of integrity, "might benefit from exploring with their congregants and community why this drop in credibility."

Gallup conducted its annual "Honesty and Ethics of Professions" poll Nov. 20-22.

Nurses rank the highest, with 83 percent of Americans giving them either high or very high ratings of ethics and honesty. Pharmacists and doctors followed, at 66 percent and 65 percent, respectively. Police officers rose seven points to 63 percent, their highest ranking since shortly after 9/11.

Members of Congress and stockbrokers rank near the bottom of professions, both at 9 percent. Only used-car salesmen ranked lower, at 6 percent.

Bankers also reached a three-decade low, dropping four points to 19 percent.

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Increased skepticism of clergy is safe response
written by christa, December 11, 2009

There was no lack of "high-profile" clergy scandals this past year, including scandals among Baptists and evangelicals -- e.g., David Pierce, Darrell Gilyard, Ted Haggard, Tony Alamo, and Matt Baker. But I wonder if people were perhaps more influenced by the constant drumbeat of "lesser" clergy scandals. Or perhaps they were influenced by the fact that, in the very last days of 2008, TIME magazine listed the failure of the Southern Baptist Convention to institute a clergy predator database as one of the top-10 most significant underreported stories of the year. When the largest Protestant denomination in the land can't even muster the will to responsibly assess clergy abuse reports or to even keep track of them, it provides good reason for people to have increased skepticism of clergy. That's not "distorted" thinking; it's rational. What's more, that sort of skepticism may serve to make kids safer.

Love of Money
written by Gary, December 13, 2009

Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics said that, lacking any high-profile minister scandals that have affected polls in other years, he is "puzzled" by the drop in public opinion about the honesty and ethics of clergy.

Turn on the TV and there is no shortage of televangelists telling you that God will mail you a check for $1000 if you send Him a check for $100. That is the Christianity the unsaved world sees and they know it's a fraud. If only Christians were also smart enough to know that it's a fraud.

Who is the clergy?
written by Slick, December 14, 2009

So-called research such as that described in the article serves little and confuses much. The article does little to clarify the situation. Are television preachers representative of all clergy? Do those surveyed think only of their denomination or do they recall those ministers who somehow were perceived as dishonest and unethical? We have no way of knowing. And what I may think is unethical may be considered okay by others. It's all opinion. The vendettas carried on by some who are bent on ridding the pulpits of those they consider unworthy has no relation to this research or this article. The fact is that the vast majority of our national population only hears about the high-profile scandals and rarely hears about other incidents outside their local news coverage. With the proliferation of 24-hour cable news nets, some more sensational stories are going to be magnified because these networks have to keep talking about something and putting net spin on these stories. There was no story hear but maybe, like the cable news networks, it’s a slow news day for ABP.

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