Americans’ views of the “honesty and ethics” of clergy have hit a 32-year low, with just half rating their moral caliber as high or very high, according to Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics Ratings of Professions survey.
The reason for the decline from 56 percent last year to 50 percent in 2009 is “unclear,” according to a Gallup news release, which also noted that “now the clergy’s ratings are below where they were earlier this decade” at the height of the Catholic Church’s clergy abuse scandal.
Barbara Dorris, outreach coordinator for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, attributed the drop to ripple effects from seven years of negative press surrounding predatory priests.
Thanks to some discussions I’ve had in the last week with some Christian friends, I can see another thread in that some evangelicals are continuing to see a disconnect between Jesus and the Church, and their anger with the Church is focussed on clergy.