Time for a Religion Guy Memo that sidesteps the onrushing news of the moment for a broader-brush assessment of America and American religion that the media need to be thinking about.

Last Saturday, CNN host Michael Smerconish asked whether the United States is experiencing “a national nervous breakdown,” and conducted a (non-scientific) online poll in which 78% of 22,000-plus viewers answered “no” to this question: “Are concerns about America’s unraveling overblown?”

Devastating documentation on the situation came the morning after Independence Day from the Gallup Poll’s annual survey on the population’s confidence in the various institutions that lead, bind and shape the nation.

The Gallup organization stands out among pollsters for its data on identical or similar questions across many years. Writers who pursue this will want to examine the year-by-year “confidence in institutions” data, which in many cases date back to 1973.

Since this is GetReligion, we start with how much confidence this year’s 1,015 respondents have in “the church or organized religion.”

The following numbers combine the “a great deal” and “quite a lot” answers to yield a confidence index. (The poll’s other choices were “some,” “very little,” “none” and “no opinion.”) Note that these percentages track opinions among the general public, not just Americans who are personally involved or knowledgeable about religion.

Simply put, the populace’s confidence in organized religion has hit rock bottom in 2022 at 31%, compared with a 52% majority as recently as 2009, and consistent scores of 60% or better from 1973 through 1985. Digging into the internals we find 46% confidence among self-identified Republicans vs. a paltry 26% among Democrats.

What happened? The Guy sees no clear pattern of immediate reactions to, for instance, news eruptions regarding Catholic priestly predators or the abortion or the same-sex marriage disputes, though gradual accumulating impact seems likely. There’s possibly a bit of damage from a Christian faction’s visible conservative politicking, particularly in the Trump years, but even that is debatable.

The Guy proposes an explanation based upon all institutions gauged by the poll. Successful religion fosters — and in turn thrives in — a coherent society that in particular respects traditional sources of authority, and also upholds widely-embraced moral principles, community and charity involvement, and stable marriages that nurture children.

Today, Gallup reports, four institutions rate better than religion. Two of them show consistently high esteem over many years, small business (now at 68%) and the military (64%), followed by two categories hit by recent turmoil, the police (45%) and the medical system (38%). Science enjoyed 64% confidence in a single 2021 poll.

Those rated even lower than religion stand at the center of public life and show significant disintegration since the start of the 21st Century: In descending order: public schools (down from 37% to a current 28%), organized labor (stable at 25% and now 28%), banks (46% to 27%), Supreme Court (47% to 25%), the presidency (42% to 23%) and three perpetually unpopular entities — the criminal justice system (24% to 14%), big business (29% to 14%) and the U.S. Congress (24% to a dismal 7%). In a new category the past three years, big tech’s numbers were 22%, 29% and 26%.

The media must especially contemplate these grim numbers. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has dropped from a troublesome 37% to an embarrassing 16%, and for TV news from 36% to an even sorrier 11%. Past polling about news on the Internet fell from a weak 21% in 1999 to 16% in 2017. The important running data from Pew Research show higher but still unnerving numbers for a democracy.

All the above boils down to a five-letter word — trust.

If thin minorities of citizens feel any longer that they can depend upon what their morning paper or local classrooms are offering, much less their national government, we face a dangerous unraveling of society that accompanies much-discussed polarization in politics. Can your best sources propose any realistic remedies?

Religion writers in particular will want to think about this: Among the varied institutions in Gallup’s surveys only one, religion, has moorings that stretch back 2,000 and 3,000 years rather than to 1776 or the day before yesterday.

Thus, it’s fair to ask: Have faith groups suffered because of the culture’s disintegration otherwise, or contributed to it, or both? And what will be their role if things can be turned around?

FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited photo illustration with “Dear America: It’s Time to Break Up” at the website of the American Institute for Economic Research.