No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gallup recently released its results of the annual "confidence in institutions" poll. "The church or organized religion" hit an all-time low, with 44% of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gallup recently released its results of the annual "confidence in institutions" poll. "The church or organized religion" hit an all-time low, with 44% of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-17T06:19:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T20:32:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/\",\"name\":\"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-17T06:19:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T20:32:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/62d6e44442f2a635357a90482770f712\"},\"description\":\"Gallup recently released its results of the annual \\\"confidence in institutions\\\" poll. \\\"The church or organized religion\\\" hit an all-time low, with 44% of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/\",\"name\":\"Mark D. Roberts\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/62d6e44442f2a635357a90482770f712\",\"name\":\"Mark D. Roberts\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f811422ff59bfbbc4d6c185240a11129?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f811422ff59bfbbc4d6c185240a11129?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark D. Roberts\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/author\/markdroberts\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point","description":"Gallup recently released its results of the annual \"confidence in institutions\" poll. \"The church or organized religion\" hit an all-time low, with 44% of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point","og_description":"Gallup recently released its results of the annual \"confidence in institutions\" poll. \"The church or organized religion\" hit an all-time low, with 44% of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/","og_site_name":"Mark D. Roberts","article_published_time":"2012-07-17T06:19:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T20:32:07+00:00","author":"Mark D. Roberts","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark D. Roberts","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/","name":"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-17T06:19:31+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T20:32:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/62d6e44442f2a635357a90482770f712"},"description":"Gallup recently released its results of the annual \"confidence in institutions\" poll. \"The church or organized religion\" hit an all-time low, with 44% of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/","name":"Mark D. Roberts","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/62d6e44442f2a635357a90482770f712","name":"Mark D. Roberts","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f811422ff59bfbbc4d6c185240a11129?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f811422ff59bfbbc4d6c185240a11129?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark D. Roberts"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/author\/markdroberts\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":4280,"date":"2012-07-17T01:19:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T06:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=4280"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:32:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:32:07","slug":"no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/07\/17\/no-surprise-here-confidence-in-organized-religion-at-low-point\/","title":{"rendered":"No Surprise Here: Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Gallup recently released<\/a> its results of the annual \u201cconfidence in institutions\u201d poll. \u201cThe church or organized religion\u201d hit an all-time low, with 44% of respondents saying that they have a \u201cgreat deal\u201d or \u201cquite a lot\u201d of confidence in \u201cthe church or organized religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

That organized religion has hit an historic low doesn\u2019t surprise me. Actually, I\u2019m a bit surprised that religion does as well as it does in this survey. It does better than<\/a> \u201cthe medical system\u201d (41%), the presidency (37%), the U.S. Supreme Court (37%), public schools (29%), organized labor (21%), banks (21%), big business (21%), and Congress (13%). The only institutions that do better than organized religion are \u201cthe military\u201d (75%), small business (63%), and the police (56%).<\/p>\n

Protestants continue to have more confidence in organized religion than Catholics (56% to 46%). I would imagine that this has mainly to do with the ongoing sex abuse cases that plague the Catholic church in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Those of us who care about the church should be aware of and concerned about the lagging confidence identified by the Gallup organization. But it would be foolhardy to engage in some sort of PR campaign to improve the church\u2019s reputation. Rather, we need to live out the authentic Gospel in today\u2019s culture with integrity and relevance.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"