
Trust in pastors continues to fall with only 30% of U.S. adults saying clergy members have high or very high levels of honesty and ethics.
By Aaron Earls
Fewer Americans than ever before say they trust pastors, according to Gallup.
The latest Honesty and Ethics survey finds only 30% of U.S. adults say clergy members have high or very high levels of honesty and ethics—a two percentage point drop from last year.
Around 2 in 5 (42%) say pastors have average levels of honesty and ethical standards. One in 5 (20%) rate their trustworthiness as low or very low, while 7% say they have no opinion.
Despite the decline, pastors still rate among the top half of professions included in Gallup’s study. Clergy ranked 10th among the 23 groups. Nurses (79% rated high or very high), grade-school teachers (61%), military officers (59%), pharmacists (57%), and medical doctors (53%) are the only professions where a majority of Americans give them top marks for their ethics.
Police officers (44%), daycare providers (42%), funeral directors (37%), auto mechanics (33%), clergy (30%), and judges (28%) have a higher percentage who rate them highly versus those who rank them poorly.
Bankers (23%), nursing home operators (21%), local officeholders (20%), lawyers (17%), newspaper reporters (17%), state officeholders (14%), business executives (12%), advertising practitioners (8%), and car salespeople (7%) all have negative ratings that are higher than their positive ratings.
The majority of Americans have negative ratings of the honesty and ethics of TV reporters (13% positive v. 55% negative), members of Congress (8% v. 68%), and lobbyists (4% v. 68%).
Declining trust
Trust levels overall have dropped since Gallup began tracking professional ethics ratings in 1979. Since 1999, 11 professions have been included each year, clergy being one, while others are included periodically.
In the early 2000s, overall trust levels hovered around 40%. That dropped to closer to 35% in the 2010s and has been at 30% for the past two years. Twenty-one of the 22 professions included in both 2024 and 2021 saw a decline in public trust. Only state officeholders increased—two points from 12% to 14%.
From the time Gallup began rating 23 professions in the early 2000s, the honesty rating of clergy has fallen the most—down from an average of 56% in 2000-2009 to 30% today. The 26-point decline exceeds every other profession, with only judges (21-point drop) experiencing a similar fall.
Previously, a broad majority of the U.S. held pastors in the highest regard. In 1985, 67% of Americans rated pastors as high or very high in honesty and ethics. After falling somewhat in the late 1980s, the ratings of pastors remained clearly above 50% for the 90s, even rising back to 64% in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001.
In early 2002, however, The Boston Globe uncovered and reported on a sex abuse scandal involving Roman Catholic priests and subsequent coverups. In the following years, additional sex abuse reports in other denominations and Christian groups were exposed. The public perception of pastors began to sour.
The last time most Americans believed clergy had high or very high honesty and ethical standards was in 2012. With the exception of 2019, the rating of pastors has declined every year since 2012.
Demographic trust
Some segments of the American population have more trust in clergy than others. White Americans are more likely than non-white Americans to highly rate pastors’ honesty and ethics standards (37% v. 20%). Republicans (46%) are more likely than Independents (24%) and Democrats (25%) to give high ratings.
Additionally, older Americans are more likely to be trusting of pastors. One in 5 18-34-year-olds (20%) highly rate clergy compared to 28% of those ages 35-54 and 38% of those 55 and older. Last year, the honesty rating among young adults jumped 10 points from 20% to 30%. With it dropping back down to 20% this year, however, that seems to have been a one-time anomalous blip rather than an indicator of any sustained generational change.
Pastors also face trust issues with lower-income Americans and those with less formal education. Among those with an annual household income of $50,000 or less, 27% rate the honesty and ethics of clergy highly. Those earning between $50-100,000 have similar levels of trust (28%), but those with household income topping $100,000 are more likely to rate pastors highly (40%).
Individuals with a high school diploma or less (20%) are less likely than those with some college (30%) and those who are college graduates (40%) to say pastors have high or very high honesty and ethics standards.
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