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<div class="date">July 12, 2012</div>
<h1><span>U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point</span></h1>
<h2><span>Catholics' confidence remains significantly lower than Protestants'</span></h2>
<div class="authorDisplayLine1">by Lydia Saad</div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p align="center"><img class="imgBorder0" src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/weq6dgaa40wjcnlrh8yqqg.gif" alt="Trend: "Great Deal"/"Quite a Lot" of Confidence in the Church/Organized Religion" style="display: block;" align="" border="0" height="298" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="543"></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The latest results are from Gallup's June 7-10 update of its annual
"Confidence in Institutions" question. The same poll found Americans' <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/155258/Confidence-Public-Schools-New-Low.aspx">confidence in public schools</a>, <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/155357/Americans-Confidence-Banks-Falls-Record-Low.aspx">banks</a>, and <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/155585/Americans-Confidence-Television-News-Drops-New-Low.aspx">television news</a>
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.</p>
<p><strong>Protestants More Confident Than Catholics</strong></p>
<p>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'.</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/27946/Americans-Confidence-Congress-AllTime-Low.aspx">confidence in most U.S. institutions drop that year</a>.</p>
<p align="center"><img class="imgBorder0" src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/7ttbnxakyeuibbikjxbmaa.gif" alt="Confidence in the Church/Organized Religion, by Religious Preference -- 2002-2012" style="display: block;" align="" border="0" height="292" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="546"></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p align="center"><img class="imgBorder0" src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/6ujx84_ipkkaf2ruj03eeq.gif" alt="Confidence in the Church/Organized Religion, by Religious Preference -- 1973-1991" style="display: block;" align="" border="0" height="334" hspace="0" vspace="0" width="557"></p>
<p><strong>Bottom Line</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/145409/Near-Record-High-Religion-Losing-Influence-America.aspx">religion is very important in their lives</a> has held fairly steady since the mid-1970s, after dropping sharply from 1952 levels.</p>
<div style="padding:8px 8px 3px;line-height:0.85em;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(116,118,119);font-size:0.9em"><strong>Survey Methods</strong>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
landline number). 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.</p>
<p>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.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><div style="display:block;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(51,0,51);padding:7px 10px;color:rgb(255,255,255);border:2px solid rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration:none!important;text-align:left;font:13px Arial,Helvetica;border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px;text-transform:none;width:auto;height:auto" id="ghostery-purple-bubble">
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