This week I stumbled across a fascinating piece of research conducted last year by IPSOS/MORI, the polling organisation, on behalf of the British Medical Association.
In June 2011, pollsters showed a list of occupations to 1026 people over the age of 15, and asked them whether they would trust them to tell the truth or not.
Top of the list of 'most trusted professions' were doctors. Nearly nine in ten (88%) adults across the United Kingdom said they would trust a doctor to tell them truth.
Unsurprisingly, politicians were the least trusted professions, with just one in seven people (14%) saying they trusted a politician to tell the truth. Rubbing salt into the wound, more people said they trusted journalists (19%) and bankers (29%) than politicians!
The second most trusted profession were teachers: 81% said they would trust a teacher to tell them the truth, with professors, judges and scientists all scoring in the low 70s.
The second most trusted profession were teachers: 81% said they would trust a teacher to tell them the truth, with professors, judges and scientists all scoring in the low 70s.
But what caught my eye was the trust level associated with a 'clergyman/priest'. 68% of people said they would trust a clergyman to tell them the truth.
At first sight this is encouraging. Despite the loss of trust in civic leadership over the last few years, and the growing secularisation of UK society, most people still retain a trust in Christian leaders. Public trust in clergy is greater than trust in the Police or TV news presenters. This residual public respect is something I have experienced as I have become more involved in our local community and as Chair of Govenors at our local primary school. Despite the scandals surrounding allegations of child-abuse in the Catholic Church, there is still a lingering trust in 'men of the cloth'.
However the headline figure hides a less positive underlying trend. Since 1983 (when the poll was first done) trust in clergy has dropped from 85% to 68%, while trust in the 5 professions above them (doctors, teachers, professors, judges and scientists) has steadily grown.
Trust in politicians has never been high: in 1983 it was only 4% higher than it is today. However, the drop of public trust in clergy has been greater than any of the other professions measured in the last 28 years.
It is yet another indication of the underlying trend in UK society towards secularism.
Statistics like this should cause to pray for the current and emerging generations of Christian leaders, that they would be marked out by integrity, honest and transparency. The Apostle Paul's insistence that an Elder should be one who has 'a good reputation with outsiders' (1 Tim 3:7) was never more relevant than it is today!
However, the truth is that the UK will never be reached by professional paid clergy alone. Statistics like this should also remind us that every follower of Jesus is called to be:
'blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.' (Phil 2:15-16)The erosion of trust in clergy is merely a symptom of a greater and deeper erosion of trust in God in our society. Unless those we rub shoulders with every day see the very real difference Jesus makes in our lives - forgiveness for the past, peace for the present, confidence for the future - they will never see the need to turn to him and trust in him and the UK will continue to slide into secularism and ultimately cynicism.
I took comfort from one other fact buried away in the survey... only 39% of people said they trusted pollsters to tell the truth!
If you want to see the survey click HERE.
