Americans’ Confidence in the Church at All-Time Low

Americans’ Confidence in the Church at All-Time Low

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Americans’ confidence in organized religion is at its lowest in more than three decades, with just 44% having a lot of faith in the church, a new Gallup poll suggests. The results follow a long-term decline in Americans’ confidence in religion since the 1970s, when Americans ranked “the church or organized religion” higher than any other institution in the survey, beating out the military and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Two major findings apparent in Gallup’s confidence in the church and organized religion trend are, first, the long-term decline in Americans’ confidence in this societal institution since 1973, and second, the suppressed confidence among Catholics relative to Protestants starting in 1981, and becoming more pronounced by 2002.