Public’s Confidence: Gallup’s annual measure of public confidence in institutions reports the military is #1 followed by the police and the church. Banks are #4. While the military’s rating is lower than in ‘02, the church has been slowly recovering from the sharp decline in confidence it experienced two years ago in the wake of the Catholic priest sex scandal. Today, 53% of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church or organized religion. This is up from 50% last year and 45% in ‘02, but below the 56% to 60% level between ‘95 and ‘01. (Gallup 6/1/04)
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