Americans Have Lost Faith In Religious Leaders – New Study!

Dear Commons Community,

As reported in an interview with the Huffington Post, Mark Chaves, a professor of sociology, religion and divinity at Duke University, conducted a study on American religious attitudes.  He found that between 1973 and 2008, the percentage of people with “great confidence” in religious leaders declined from 35 percent to less than 25 percent. He also found that two-thirds of Americans say they would prefer religious leaders to stay out of politics.

Using data from the General Social Survey and the National Congregations Study, Chaves looked at developments in American religion since 1972. The General Social Survey, which began that year, is an ongoing look at American attitudes and behaviors by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center, while the National Congregations Study — a project Chaves directed — examined congregations in the United States from several religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

“The American public has lost confidence in leaders of all sorts,” Chaves says. “But the loss of confidence in religious leaders has been more precipitous.”

Here are some other findings by Chaves, who looked at trends in religious diversity, belief, involvement, congregational life, leadership and Protestant decline.

  • In the 1950s, 99 percent of Americans said they believed in God. In 2008, only 92 percent did.
  • In 1991, 30 percent of Americans “strongly agreed” that religious leaders should not take part in politics. By 2008, that number had jumped to 44 percent.
  • The extent of an American’s religious involvement more closely predicts that person’s political leanings today than it did in the past.

“Several decades ago there was not a strong correlation between how religiously active you were and whether you voted Republican or Democrat,” Chaves says. “Now, there is. If you’re religiously active, you’re now more likely to vote Republican.”

There may be important insight here for political hopefuls who tend to use religion to support their political positions.

Tony

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