Clergy Ratings Hit an All Time Low, But...
Here is the Friendly Atheist's take on this:
This makes me sick:
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.Wait, that’s a good thing, right? Half the people don’t think Catholic Church clergy are honest or ethical — what’s wrong with that?
Only that half the people do see them as honest and ethical.
Let’s put this in context:
Some priests raped children. Many churches covered it up for decades. And yet, more people see priests as ethical and moral… than would vote for an atheist in a presidential election..
Did we fail a PR campaign or is there just something wrong with our society? I’m inclined to say the latter.
Or maybe there’s something wrong with us. This finding from the survey is almost as disturbing as the previous one:Ratings [for priests] dropped year-over-year among Catholics and Protestants, as well as among regular and occasional churchgoers. However, they rose in one category: among those professing “no religion.” Last year, 31% rated clergy honesty high or very high; in 2009, that figure inched up to 34%.Among the nones, the honesty ratings for clergy rose?!
What. The. Hell.
Link.
4 comments:
Maybe the rating rose among non-believers because there was also a surge in non-belief over the last couple years in the US. People who recently abandoned their faith have very different attitudes from those who have been faithless for years and are embittered by the senseless struggle against religious ignorance.
Maybe people would be comfortable with voting for an Atheist if there were openly Atheist candidates running for office!
You know, they may be people like me, shortly after I became a "none", as Ginx posits. (I went through an agnostic phase, which was a just denialist bs.)
Reflexively, after a lifetime of Catholic indoctrination (I went to a Catholic college), I have a deep respect/fear for nuns and priests. If you asked me if I find them to be trustworthy, my initial, without thinking answer is "of course!" with a sign of the cross involuntarily spasming across my heart.
Honestly, I find people who grew up atheist a little weird, but I'm the messed up one.
You're not messed up, just messed with.
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