Apatheism has arrived

Who do you trust?  If I was to ask a believer that question, I am sure most would respond with, “God!”.  After all, Proverbs 3:5-6 exhorts us to: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  Psalm 91:2 is also a favourite verse for many: I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.” 

Next question: who don’t you trust?  Between December 2-18, 2024, Gallup ran a poll of the most trusted professionals in America.  The question was:  “Please tell me how you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields - very high, high, average, low or very low?”  Nurses achieved the highest result with 76% of people rating them very highly/highly.  They were followed by grade-school teachers (61%), military officers (59%), pharmacists (57%) and medical doctors (53%).  Lobbyists (4%), members of Congress (8%) and TV reporters (13%) all ranked the worst!  

Unfortunately, trust in “clergy” continues to decline with only 30% rating their honesty and ethical standards very highly/highly, 42% rating them as average and 20% rating them as low/very low.  This represents a loss of six points since 2021, continuing the long-term downward trend in trust in ministry leaders.  However, more alarming is the fact that since Gallup started rating 23 professions in the early 2000s, there has been a 26-point decline in the perceived honesty and ethics of ministry leaders – the largest decline of any group.  So, what explains the loss of trust?  According to Gallup: “The decline in Americans’ religiosity over this period contributes to the loss of trust in clergy, as the growing proportion of nonreligious adults express lower trust than religious adults. However, the Catholic Church’s child sexual abuse scandals also appear to have contributed to downticks in trust in clergy, including in 2002 and 2018.” 

In my home country of Australia, an Ipsos poll conducted in 2024 revealed that doctors are the most trustworthy profession (66%), followed by teachers (60%) and scientists (58%). They are followed by serving staff at a restaurant (49%), the police (48%), and armed forces (47%).  The professions most likely to be considered untrustworthy were social media influencers (61%), politicians generally (56%), advertising executives (49%), Government ministers (48%), journalists (40%), bankers and clergy/priests (38%), and business leaders (36%). 

In focusing on our young people, the Australia Talks National Survey in 2021 found that although 41% of Australians don’t trust religious leaders “at all”, the distrust is even more significant amongst 18–24-year-olds with 47% showing a complete lack of trust in religious leaders – a jump of 15 percentage points since the corresponding survey two years prior.  In fact, Dr Ibrahim Abraham, a religious researcher from the Australian National University, used the term “apatheists” (a combination of apathy and atheism) to describe most young Australians.   

Research from the Macquarie University in Australia conducted in 2022, specifically targeting trust of religion among women revealed equally startling results:-

• Around one third of all Australian voting women have “no trust at all” in organised religion and religious leaders.

• Distrust is highest among younger women: almost half of all women aged 18-29 have “no trust at all” in religious leaders.

• Among religious women, around 10 percent have “no trust at all” in organised religion and religious leaders, while around half have “not very much trust” in either.

• Religious child abuse scandals have affected trust. Women are sceptical about the capacity of religious leaders to protect the children in their care, particularly following the revelations in the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

At this point it is good to acknowledge something that is not accounted for in the surveys – not every pulpit is occupied by a man who has been called there by God.  In fact, I have no doubt that some ministry leaders are not even saved.  Adrian Rogers used to say that whenever you look for Satan, never fail to look for him in the pulpit.  All of us would love to think that every church was led by a godly man who has been called and consecrated to the Lord’s service.  However, I think it is apparent to all of us that there are many counterfeits who parade as godly men.  

The enemy has cleverly devised a dual strategy to counter the influence of the church in the modern day.  In many pulpits, he has introduced deceptive doctrine, designed to subtly draw people away from the truth.  Simultaneously, he has fomented distrust of ministry leaders throughout our communities, with the intention of turning people away from God.  Sadly, his strategies have been incredibly successful.  Leonard Ravenhill once said that if Jesus came back today, He wouldn’t be cleansing the Temple, He would be cleansing the pulpits.  If the surveys are anything to go by, most people would agree.