Gallup: Confidence in organized religion reaches all-time low

[Arugula Latte]

Things like this give me a glimmer of hope ...

Confidence in organized religion has been in a downward spiral since at least the 1970s. It’s still more popular than Congress, but that’s not saying much.

According to a recent Gallup poll, confidence in organized religion reached an all-time low of 42 percent this year. The decline became noticeably steep in the ’80s, with the biggest drop off in the early 2000s, when news of the Catholic Church’s widespread child rape and cover up broke, according to Gallup. A dramatic 15 percentage point drop – from 60 to 45 – can be seen on Gallup’s graph around the years 2001 and 2002.

The consequence?

“The church and organized religion is losing its footing as a pillar of moral leadership in the nation’s culture,” according to Gallup. It once was one of the most reliable points of public confidence, but now has fallen below the military, small business and the police. Congress, the media and the medical industry are among the institutions with lower rankings.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/confidence-in-organized-religion-reaches-all-time-low-gallup/