Do you trust your church leadership?
Trust in Religious Leaders, Inside and Outside of Church (June 1, 2023)
Few institutions can thrive, or even survive, when it loses the trust of its members and/or clients. I think this would be especially true for churches. But can we determine where and when trust evaporates?
I suggest it is hard to gauge trust levels in a church because of two factors. First, most people just want to be nice and get along with each other. If we don’t truly trust someone, why tell them? All you need to do is adjust your behaviour accordingly (e.g., avoid or do not believe them). Secondly, whether you do or do not trust someone becomes a bit moot when little is at stake, so why even think about it. However, when times become tough and the stakes are higher, evidence of inherent mistrust will become apparent as people mobilize, and perhaps clash, to do difficult work (e.g., make hard decisions about the future).
A fair question would be whether a lowering of trust in church is a factor of generally eroding trust in society, or whether it is a matter of what is going on at the church in question. As with most things, it’s likely a combination of each.
For example, polls indicate that people generally have low trust levels for groups of people that would normally be seen as having some authority over them. In a 2017 Canada-wide poll run by Insight West1, 27 professions were assessed for respect by the public. The two positive answers that could have been selected by respondents (there were negative options as well) were whether they had somewhat of a positive opinion, or a very positive opinion for the profession in question. Personally, I don’t think a response that someone has a somewhat positive opinion about me would be very comforting. So let’s look at how some authority figures (there were others) scored on the ‘very positive’ opinion question.
Teachers 50%
Doctors 45%
Police officers 35%
Military officers 28%
Judges 23%
Priests / ministers 18%
Bankers 13%
Business exec. 10%
Politicians 6%
It appears that respect for and trust of authority figures in Canadian society are not very high. A 2005 Bibby poll2 found that nearly all (95%) respondents indicated that they were taught by their parents to respect people in authority. However, 86% of these same respondents indicated that these people first have to earn their respect.
This seems to show a significant move away from respecting the position of authority, towards a willingness to only respect the person in the position if it is justified. It means that the default-position for many is not to trust someone until they ascertain they can. However, since most people cannot fully know or judge the morality of people they are not close to, this means their trust level is at the whim of media reporting and gossip. Neither of these tend towards fortifying someone’s reputation.
Now let's look a little closer at trust for church leaders. The table above indicates that only 18% of Canadians hold a very high opinion of church leaders. In a couple of Bibby polls3, Canadians were asked whether they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence in religious leaders. The number steadily declined from 60% in 1979 to 29% in 2015, representing a 52% drop. Further, in an American poll by the National Opinion Research Center in 20004, only 42% of Roman Catholics indicated that it is important to obey church teachings even if I don’t understand them. This seems to indicate that a great number of Roman Catholics do not trust their church leaders to be the ones to understand theology on their behalf.
I described in another article a Bibby 2015 poll5 that asked respondents to claim whether they embrace religion, reject religion, or are somewhere in between. I indicated that only 30% of Canadians claimed to embrace religion. This poll also asked whether respondents have high confidence in their church leaders. The good news is that 61% of the people who claim to embrace religion have high confidence, compared to the national average of 29% (for this poll)6. The bad news is that only 61% of the people who claim to embrace religion have high confidence. Now, a lot of the people who claim to embrace religion do not attend services monthly or more often (44%)7. I hope it is these folks who don’t have high confidence in church leaders. Otherwise, there are a lot of people in the pews not trusting their pastors and leadership boards.
Of course, mistrust in religious leaders is usually not driven solely by the goings-on in individual churches. Sex abuse scandals, financial improprieties, polarizing political commentary, cult-like practices, same-sex and gender views, and highly-public falls-from-grace by TV evangelists are likely catalysts. Reporting on such of these just about always involves highlighting the people at the top of a religious organization. It is easy to surmise that if an organization is rotten at the top, the rest of it may also be bad.
The fallout for a loss of trust in church leaders can take on many faces. It might result in a pastor’s messages being drowned out in a cloud of mistrust and disengagement. It might result in the church membership demanding more say in day-to-day church business activities, to the point of making church business too cumbersome. It could lead to stronger negative emotions being expressed at church business meetings. An increase in gossip may result. And, at its worst, it may lead to factions forming, comprising people who trust the leader and those who do not; each battling for control.
Of course, a lowering in trust levels for pastors and other church leaders may go hand-in-hand with a lowering of trust of each other in church. That could ruin relationships and put up communication barriers between people. It would greatly hinder meaningful group work, whether of the administrative or ministry kind. With all of the anecdotal reporting about churches breaking up due to battling factions, it is clear that lack of trust in a major destructive force in the Church.
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1. Insight West, link no longer available
2. Bibby, Reginald W, Resilient Gods: being pro-religious, low religious or no religious in Canada,
UBC Press, 2017, page 26
3. Bibby, page 128
4. Bibby, page 28
5. Bibby, page 72
6. Bibby, page 68
7. Bibby, page 67