[Vision2020] U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point

[Joe Campbell]

I wonder what the public confidence in surveys and polls is. I'm very
confident that I'm not a Christian fundamentalist and reasonably confident
that I'm not a Protestant or a Catholic. Joe

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 7:07 PM, Donovan Arnold <
donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> It is still three times higher then their confidence in Congress or
> humanity.
>
> Donovan J. Arnold
>
>   *From:* Art Deco <art.deco.studios at gmail.com>
> *To:* vision2020 at moscow.com
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 18, 2012 7:37 PM
> *Subject:* [Vision2020] U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point
>
>      <http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx?ref=logo>
>       July 12, 2012
> U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point Catholics' confidence
> remains significantly lower than Protestants'
> by Lydia Saad
>  PRINCETON, NJ -- Forty-four percent of Americans have a great deal or
> quite a lot of confidence in "the church or organized religion" today, just
> below the low points Gallup has found in recent years, including 45% in
> 2002 and 46% in 2007. This follows a long-term decline in Americans'
> confidence in religion since the 1970s.
> [image: Trend: "Great Deal"/"Quite a Lot" of Confidence in the
> Church/Organized Religion]
> In 1973, "the church or organized religion" was the most highly rated
> institution in Gallup's confidence in institutions measure, and it
> continued to rank first in most years through 1985, outranking the military
> and the U.S. Supreme Court, among others. That began to change in the mid-
> to late 1980s as confidence in organized religion first fell below 60%,
> possibly resulting from scandals during that time involving famed
> televangelist preachers Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. Confidence in
> religion returned to 60% in 2001, only to be rocked the following year by
> charges of child molestation by Catholic priests and cover-up by some in
> the church.
> The latest results are from Gallup's June 7-10 update of its annual
> "Confidence in Institutions" question. The same poll found Americans' confidence
> in public schools<http://www.gallup.com/poll/155258/Confidence-Public-Schools-New-Low.aspx>,
> banks<http://www.gallup.com/poll/155357/Americans-Confidence-Banks-Falls-Record-Low.aspx>,
> and television news<http://www.gallup.com/poll/155585/Americans-Confidence-Television-News-Drops-New-Low.aspx>at their all-time lowest, perhaps reflecting a broader souring of
> Americans' confidence in societal institutions in 2012. Still, the
> church/organized religion ranks fourth this year among the 16 institutions
> tested, on par with the medical system.
> *Protestants More Confident Than Catholics*
> Currently, 56% of Protestants express a great deal or quite a lot of
> confidence in the church/organized religion, compared with 46% of
> Catholics. This is in line with an average 12-percentage-point difference
> in the two groups' confidence, according Gallup polling from 2002 through
> 2012, with Protestants consistently expressing higher confidence. There are
> too few respondents of other specific religions to analyze separately;
> however, confidence among all other Americans combined is 29%, far less
> than either Protestants' or Catholics'.
> Catholics' confidence dipped to a record low in 2002 and again in 2007.
> The 2002 result most likely reflected a high-profile child sex abuse case
> against a Massachusetts priest at the time, as well as charges of a
> cover-up by Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, who ultimately resigned over the
> matter. The drop in 2007 may have been part of a broader trend that saw confidence
> in most U.S. institutions drop that year<http://www.gallup.com/poll/27946/Americans-Confidence-Congress-AllTime-Low.aspx>
> .
> [image: Confidence in the Church/Organized Religion, by Religious
> Preference -- 2002-2012]
> Gallup did not record respondents' religious preference in its Confidence
> in Institutions polls for most of the 1990s. However, religion was
> routinely asked on surveys prior to that, and the earlier trends show that
> Protestants' and Catholics' confidence in religion was fairly similar from
> 1973 through 1979. Then, from 1981 through 1991, Catholics consistently
> expressed less confidence in religion than Protestants did, by an average
> of six points.
> [image: Confidence in the Church/Organized Religion, by Religious
> Preference -- 1973-1991]
> *Bottom Line*
> Two major findings apparent in Gallup's confidence in the church and
> organized religion trend are, first, the long-term decline in Americans'
> confidence in this societal institution since 1973, and second, the
> suppressed confidence among Catholics relative to Protestants starting in
> 1981, and becoming more pronounced by 2002.
> While various sex abuse scandals involving U.S. clerics have likely played
> a role in Americans' growing skepticism about the church and organized
> religion, the decline in confidence does not necessarily indicate a decline
> in Americans' personal attachment to religion. The percentage of Americans
> saying religion is very important in their lives<http://www.gallup.com/poll/145409/Near-Record-High-Religion-Losing-Influence-America.aspx>has held fairly steady since the mid-1970s, after dropping sharply from
> 1952 levels.
> *Survey Methods*
> Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted
> June 7-10, 2012, with a random sample of 1,004 adults, aged 18 and older,
> living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
> For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with
> 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage
> points.
> Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and
> cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who
> are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400
> cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national
> adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents by
> region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed
> telephone numbers. Cell phone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial
> methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household
> on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.
> Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education,
> region, adults in the household, and phone status (cell phone only/
> landline only/both, cell phone mostly, and having an unlisted landlinenumber). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2011 Current
> Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized
> population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of
> sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample
> design.
> In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties
> in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of
> public opinion polls.
>
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>
> --
> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
> art.deco.studios at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
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