Story by Leonardo Blair.
The public perception of the honesty and ethical standards of clergy reached a record low over the last 50 years, according to Gallup’s annual honesty and ethics survey.
Just 27% of the American public ranked clergy as high or very high on the scale.
Six other professions reached record lows in their honesty and ethical standards rankings over the period, including pharmacists (53%), high school teachers (50%), police officers (37%), business executives (10%), stockbrokers (9%) and telemarketers (5%).
Gallup, which has been gauging the public’s views of the honesty and ethical standards of a variety of occupations since 1976, collected data for its latest poll from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15, 2025. In 2025, the Gallup poll found that 30% of respondents rated clergy as highly honest and ethical. Before 1999, pharmacists and clergy members consistently ranked as “the most highly rated professions for their ethics,” researchers note.
Of the seven professions reaching record lows in their honesty and ethical standards rankings, only high school teachers, pharmacists, police officers and clergy have had more than 50% of the public ranking them high or very high on the honesty and ethical standards scale at different stages over the period.
The share of the public ranking clergy as high or very high fell below 50% for the first time in 2013, when 47% of Americans ranked clergy as high or very high on the honesty and ethical standards scale. Since then, it has shown a steady decline.
The share of high school teachers rated as high or very high on the honesty and ethical standards scale has also declined steadily, from 64% in 2002 to 50% 24 years later. Pharmacists reached a high of 75% in 2012 but have fluctuated while remaining above 50% since 1981. The share of the public ranking police officers as high or very high reached 50% for the first time in 1993, but then fell below 50% again until 1999, when it reached 52%. Their ranking on the honesty and ethical standards scale has been trending downward steadily since 2015.
Business executives, stockbrokers and telemarketers have never been ranked as high or very high on the honesty and ethical standards scale by a majority of the public.
Only four professions in the survey — nurses, veterans, medical doctors, and pharmacists — are perceived as generally having high ethical standards by most Americans.
Data released by Barna in 2022 found that fewer than half of American adults see pastors as “very reliable” in handling spiritual matters, with less than a quarter (23%) of all adult Americans agreeing that pastors are “definitely” a “trustworthy source of wisdom.” Among Christians, the figure rises to 31%, but among non-Christians it drops to 4%.
In Barna’s February 2025 State of the Church release, created in partnership with personal growth platform Gloo, the Evangelical polling firm looked at “Discipleship Across Generations” and found that “social insecurities and anxieties with ‘church people’” are one of the big stumbling blocks for younger generations.
Barna also found that when seeking answers about faith and spirituality, a little over a quarter of Gen Zers (28%) trust their pastors, priests, or ministers the most. Bible (39%) was the most frequent answer, followed by their moms (34%).
Among Gen Z teenagers (13-17), the research showed greater trust in family members for spiritual guidance, with 53% turning to their mothers.
“This trend extends to other authority figures, with teens being more likely than their older peers to trust pastors, their fathers or grandparents with spiritual questions,” researchers said.
As they get older, many Gen Zers also lean toward self-directed spiritual searching and are more likely to trust their own judgment on matters of faith.
