Posted on 08/29/2019 7:09:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
My pastor recently told me that 25 years ago, the first person that people would contact when they faced a marriage crisis was their pastor. Ten years ago, he continued, it was their counselor or psychiatrist. Today, it’s their lawyers.
A recent study conducted by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago concurs. “Doctors, teachers, members of the military,” and scientists are, according to the survey, esteemed “more positively than clergy.” Among infrequent churchgoers, clergy are viewed as negatively as lawyers. (For the record, that last line came from a member of our editorial team who’s been admitted to the bar in two states.)
As my pastor observed, the declining respect for clergy is a trend both in and out of the church, including among those who attend church frequently. While 75 percent of churchgoers “hold clergy in high regard,” they aren’t as positive when it comes to personal attributes and character qualities of their clergy. Barely half consider clergy to be trustworthy, and only slightly more regard them as “honest and intelligent.”
Remember these are people who attend church at least once a month! Among those who seldom or never attend church, the respective numbers on those questions are 23 and 30 percent.
The obvious question is why?
At least a significant part of the answer is cultural. As Religion News Service pointed out, “Historians say public attitudes about clergy have been waning since the 1970s, in tandem with the loss of trust in institutions after the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.”
Actually, the decline in trust and disregard for institutions predates Watergate and the end of the Vietnam War. After all, the 1964 Free Speech movement at Berkeley had a signature saying: “We don’t trust anyone over thirty.” It’s a line that came to sum up the view of many Baby Boomers towards all authority. Governmental, parental, and clerical included.
Institutions like governments and churches were, at best, obstacles, and at worst enemies of personal liberation. Though the VW vans that dotted the Woodstock landscape have long since rusted away, the commitment to personal liberation and autonomy has only intensified in the half-century since then.
Today, many Americans embrace expressions of personal liberation that wouldn’t have even occurred to the people dancing to Santana in the New York mud. It’s one thing to think you’re liberated from “the man.” It’s another to think you’re liberated from observable reality.
But, if we Christians are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that cultural attitudes toward authority and institutions aren’t the only reason for the waning respect when it comes to clergy. Some is the result of self-inflicted wounds.
Scarcely a week goes by without another report of clergy sex-abuse and/or some other horrible conduct. Given the scope and sheer number of these scandals and the fact that they cross denominational lines from Roman Catholic to Protestant to Evangelical, it would be a miracle if regard for the clergy had not diminished.
This is tragic news because so many lives have been devastated, and because so many people personally know someone who’s life has been devastated. I don’t need to tell you that the vast majority of clergy are honest and caring people who have answered the Lord’s call to shepherd His flock and are doing what they do out of love for others. But, their reputation is harmed also.
That’s what makes this such a huge loss—because when done right, clergy can represent, embody, and offer a kind of love that is simply indispensable during the inevitable bad times we face. It’s indispensable to individuals, families, communities, and to our entire nation. Theirs is a role uniquely gifted to the church, and one that cannot be replicated across the spectrum of society. And what they offer is especially missed when it’s needed most.
There is a reason: the sexual abuse scandals.
homo
molest
feminization
Bringing in tons of illegals
Bump
They’ve brought it on themselves. While the majority are fine individuals, the institutions are wobbling leftward, and in the case of the Catholic Church, they’re spiraling down.
Google “pastor charged” every day for a week and you’ll see why respect for the clergy has diminished
I for one, whenever a see a priest or clergyman, wonder how many children he has molested....they brought this on themselves - good riddance.
But that doesn't make it fair or accurate.
I am sure there are many great folks in the clergy—but the problem is there is no way to tell when so many sociopaths have chosen the profession.
It is sort of like walking into a kennel and petting all the dogs—not a great idea—even though most dogs are very friendly.
IMHO they have consigned themselves to irrelevance. Remember learning how important the “Black Robe Regiment” was in it’s contribution to our Revolution? We have as much, if not more, of a need for them to speak out, to lead, today. But they have allowed themselves to be neutered for the sake of “better infrastructure” instead of a better future for fear of losing their tax exemption. Their silence has allowed those with loud voices to infiltrate and subvert.
almost all Jewish Temples now have female Rabbis. And they are not figures of Strength and Morality so I gave up on organized religion. Pray my own way:-) Saves me good $ too:-)
They were talking and lamenting about this issue back in the 1670s in New England. That was when the Puritan church was the government.
I think it really, really matters where one goes to church.
The institution of American “church” for the most part has gone full ‘tard leftist with BS social justice,infanticide and providing comfort to illegals. They have lost their way. It doesn’t help that a great deal of scum of the earth sex predators are hidden within.
Some come to help --- and some to take advantage. Some, most disturbingly, a combination of both.
This is what you get when Hollywood, the MSM, social media influencers, and the education system preach an anti-Christian, anti-western, anti-capitalist, and often just plain anti-reality message 24/7. The common fools eat it right up because doing otherwise would make them look uncool. That’s the main reason for the decline in respect for Christianity which is obviously going to impact how people view clergy.
Take your daughter to Bible day camp? You’re a bigoted moron. Take your boy out to learn survival skills? You’re a sexist hick.
But...
Take your kid to history class where they are taught your kid to drag queen storytime? Good job! You’re obviously woke and cool. Make sure to post it all on Instagram for your fellow fools to see.
As for the love of teachers, good teaching can change one’s life. Unfortunately, so can bad teaching. And there are way more teachers out there filling heads full of leftist propaganda out there than there are predators in positions of power in churches. But facts are inconvenient things.
The writer makes some good points. I think another reason is that this is another part of how our institutions have been rotted out over the past fifty years. I am old enough to have seen it happen.
Think about higher education, or education in general, and how those institutions are almost unrecognizable — and not in a better way— compared with what they were a few decades ago. A lot of it has to be with people going into the profession when they are not cut out for it, or are not really dedicated to it, or enter it for the wrong reasons, often with some kind of agenda. I had teachers in high school whom I referred to as “Vietnam War teachers” because evidently they could get a draft deferment by going into education. A lot of them were poor teachers. One of my uncles was one of them. He made a career as a social studies teacher (and as a football coach), and knowing him, I can’t even imagine him teaching a class. He’s a nice enough guy, but just has no depth or intellectual curiosity. In conversations I have had with him about history, I have come to the conclusion that he just doesn’t know his stuff.
I have known some “Vietnam War clergy” as well.
Indeed. Man = rapist is a tenet of modern feminism. And any attempt to disagree is met with the exact same emotional arguments that one gets from the clergy haters.
Well said! Dittos!
No traditional synagogue has female ‘rabbis’. That’s around 40% of Jewish congregations.
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