Americans rank clergy at record low in honesty and ethics ratings: Gallup

Michie · Sunday at 9:36 AM

The public perception of the honesty and ethical standards of clergy reached a record low over the last 50 years, according to Gallup’s annual honesty and ethics survey. Just 27% of the American public ranked clergy as high or very high on the scale.

Six other professions reached record lows in their honesty and ethical standards rankings over the period, including pharmacists (53%), high school teachers (50%), police officers (37%), business executives (10%), stockbrokers (9%) and telemarketers (5%).

Gallup, which has been gauging the public's views of the honesty and ethical standards of a variety of occupations since 1976, collected data for its latest poll from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15, 2025. In 2025, the Gallup poll found that 30% of respondents rated clergy as highly honest and ethical. Before 1999, pharmacists and clergy members consistently ranked as "the most highly rated professions for their ethics," researchers note.

Continued below.

Americans rank clergy at record low in honesty and ethics ratings: Gallup

The public perception of the honesty and ethical standards of clergy reached a record low over the last 50 years, according to Gallup s annual honesty and ethics survey Just 27 of the American public

www.christianpost.com

FireDragon76 · Sunday at 2:41 PM

Part of that may simply be decline in broader social trust, something that's been noted for the last few decades. This seems to be especilaly true for the white working class, and I'd be curious about the breakdown on responses based on race and socioeconomics.

JustaPewFiller · 2026-02-16T08:14:18-0600

More info on the poll is available on the Gallup site

Nurses Continue to Lead in Honesty and Ethics Ratings

Nurses still rank highest for ethics, yet Americans' ratings of most professions remain historically weak and declining.

news.gallup.com

The graphic below is from the article above. One thing that struck me when looking at the numbers was just that clergy was down, it was the rate at which the perception of it has been going down over the years! It looks like a ski slope it has been dropping so fast..

FireDragon76 · 2026-02-16T11:22:12-0600

JustaPewFiller said:
More info on the poll is available on the Gallup site

Nurses Continue to Lead in Honesty and Ethics Ratings

Nurses still rank highest for ethics, yet Americans' ratings of most professions remain historically weak and declining.

news.gallup.com

The graphic below is from the article above. One thing that struck me when looking at the numbers was just that clergy was down, it was the rate at which the perception of it has been going down over the years! It looks like a ski slope it has been dropping so fast..

View attachment 376575

Social media seems to be responsible for this trend, if you look at the dates. It seems to correspond to some extent with church attendance cratering also among more institutional forms of religion. Americans imaginations are increasingly captured by the algorithms.

seeking.IAM · 2026-02-16T11:29:46-0600

I think it is likely an accurate reflection of current sentiment. I think we can't underestimate the effects of sexual abuse scandals, financial irregularities, and some of the tripe being spoken from the pulpits that seems not aligned with Jesus. It's disappointing to Christians and must be counterproductive to attracting seekers to the faith.

Tuur · 2026-02-16T11:37:36-0600

Having heard jokes about Reverend Ike and Oral Roberts, I’m surprised it was ever higher. The term clergy covers a large territory. Trust on a case by case basis is cynical, but maybe the best policy.

Tom8907 · 2026-02-16T12:06:43-0600

Probably ties to lots of awful "progressive" theology at the moment.

FireDragon76 · 2026-02-16T13:21:39-0600

Tom8907 said:
Probably ties to lots of awful "progressive" theology at the moment.

Progressive theologians and pastors have nearly zero media influence in the US.

JustaPewFiller · 2026-02-16T14:29:55-0600

This bugs me.. It really does. I count several clergy members as friends, and they are the among most ethical, trustworthy people I know!

Being that it bugs me, I went digging a little deeper. I'm not really any closer to figuring out why the drop, but I did find another article that goes into a breakdown of the demographics.

NOTE: - the gallup poll specified "clergy". This article uses the term "pastor" instead. However, I checked and they are using "clergy" numbers just using the term "pastor" instead. Possibly the use of "pastor" instead of "clergy" is a Baptist or SBC thing as it is a Lifeway article? As someone said above, "clergy" covers more ground than "pastor".

Anyway.. here is the article and breakdown..

Americans' Trust in Pastors Hits Historic Low - Lifeway Research

Trust in pastors continues to decline, with only 27% of Americans rating clergy's honesty and ethics highly, according to Gallup.

research.lifeway.com

Pastors face lower levels of inherent trust among some segments of the population. Women (26%) are less likely than men (30%) to rate their honesty and ethics as high. Additionally, non-white Americans (18%) are less trusting than white Americans (33%).

Politically, Republicans (36%) have higher levels of trust than Democrats (25%) or Independents (24%). Independents are the most likely to say they rate pastors low or very low—21% compared to 15% of Republicans and 14% of Democrats.

Comparing the Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents who give pastors high marks for honesty (36%) with the Democrats and Democratic leaners who do the same (21%) reveals a 15-point trust gap, the seventh largest partisan gap.

Pastors are also less likely to find trust among younger adults, those with less formal education, and those with lower household incomes.

Almost 2 in 5 Americans 55 and older (38%) have high levels of trust in pastors compared to 24% of 35-45-year-olds and 17% of those 34 and under.

Those who are high school graduates or less (15%) are half as likely to say they have high levels of trust in pastors compared to Americans with some college (30%) or who are college graduates (38%).

Additionally, as household incomes increase, so does the likelihood of higher rankings of pastors’ honesty. Those making less than $50,000 a year (19%) are less trusting of clergy than those making between $50,000 and $100,000 (28%) and those bringing in $100,000 or more annually (34%).

It short, it seems white, Republican-leaning, well educated, well-off, older men are most likely to view clergy favorably.
The view of clergy goes down from there depending on which of the demographic buckets the person falls in.

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Americans rank clergy at record low in honesty and ethics ratings: Gallup

Michie

Well-Known Member