Religion
Related: About this forumConfidence in the Church/Organized Religion Declining
Gallups annual Confidence in Institutions survey for this year was conducted 7-10 June 2012, and the results were published last Wednesday. Gallup has been conducting this kind of survey since 1973, and annually since 1993. Participants were asked to tell how much confidence they hadgreat deal/quite a lot, some, or very little/nonein the list of institutions presented. Based on the results, the biggest declines in confidence were for television news, the public schools, and organized religions.
I want to zero in on the results of the survey pertaining to confidence in the church/organized religion. According to the survey results, confidence in the church/organized religion declined 4 percet this year relative to last year. Also, for the sixteen institutions addressed in this years survey, the results were compared to their historical averages as well. For instance, for the church/organized religion, while 44 percent expressed confidence in this institution for this current year, that was 12 percentage points below the historical average of 56 percent. Similarly, public schools, Congress (no surprise here), and television news are all currently at least 10 percent below their historical average ratings.
According to Gallup, The declining confidence seems to be a part of a broader pattern, rather than a product of isolated issues facing individual institutions. The implication is that once the economy improves and Americans begin to feel better about the state of the United States, their confidence in the major institutions will improve.
For the church I think its more complicated than that.
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/poll-confidence-in-the-churchorganized-religion/
Rambis
(7,774 posts)the church was stone, the windows stained glass arches were massive and the parking lot cement immaculate. The houses, trailers and streets were a total disgrace. Stark contrast
cbayer
(146,218 posts)and are disappointed that they are not.
It would be interesting to see results broken down by kinds of churches (or other religious institutions).
rug
(82,333 posts)http://www.gallup.com/poll/155258/Confidence-Public-Schools-New-Low.aspx
Organized religion did better than all the others except the military, police and big business.
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)laconicsax
(14,860 posts)Especially this guy:
rug
(82,333 posts)laconicsax
(14,860 posts)Or these three?
Gore1FL
(20,993 posts)daaron
(763 posts)Big business had only 21% high confidence. It's SMALL biz with 63%.
rug
(82,333 posts)dimbear
(6,271 posts)index. Almost without exception they show a jog down in the last 10 years.
It may be that people are losing confidence in confidence, but that would be a topic for meta.