Americans' confidence in organized religion, slowly but steadily declining since the 1970s, slipped to a new low in the latest survey by the Gallup Organization, the Religion News Service reports. Today, only 44 percent of Americans have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in "the church or organized religion," Gallup said, compared to 68 percent in the mid-1970s. Pollsters did not name any church or religion in particular, letting respondents define that as they wished, the organization said. Most Protestants, 56 percent, expressed confidence in the church, but only 46 percent of Catholics did. In 1975, "the church or organized religion" was the highest-rated of 16 institutions Gallup asked about. Today, it ranks fourth, behind the military, small business and the police. The least-trusted institution is Congress, in which only 13 percent of Americans voice "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence.
