Religious ministers are less trustworthy than bankers and financial planners but more trustworthy than real estate agents and politicians, according to a nationwide survey released this week.

Clergy recorded a slight increase in public trust from 2013 to 2014, from 38th place to 36th place in the Readers Digest Most Trusted poll, which put them in equal place with lawyers and charity collectors.

Paramedics were the most trusted profession, followed by firefighters, rescue volunteers, nurses, doctors and pilots. Those viewed as the least trustworthy were insurance salespeople, politicians and door-to-door salespeople.

Despite the slight increase in ranking this year, the annual poll reinforces a sharp downward trend in the level of trust that the public has in religious ministers. In 2006 clergy were ranked the 16th most trustworthy profession in the Readers Digest poll.

It follows a Roy Morgan survey in April that recorded the lowest ever ranking of religious ministers for ethics and honesty (37 per cent, down 7 per cent).

“The biggest losers this year were ministers of religion… following several scandals to hit the Catholic Church over the past 12 months,” Roy Morgan Research executive chairman Gary Morgan said.

“This is the lowest ever rating for ministers of religion since being included on the survey for the first time in 1996.”

Churches need to rebuild trust by “massively” lifting professional standards for dealing with sexual abuse, said the Anglican Bishop of South Sydney Robert Forsyth.
He added that the appalling damage done by the predatory behaviour of a few clergy and the church’s failure to respond will take the negative perception of clergy at least a decade from which to recover.

Other factors that contribute to the public’s lack of trust in religious ministers is Australia’s increasing secularism, the spilling over of Islamic religious violence and the fact that the “taken for granted respect is no longer there,” Bishop Forsyth said.

Despite the low ranking of clergy, several prominent Christians ranked highly as trusted people in the Readers Digest survey, which also ranked Australia’s Top 100 trusted people. They include the obstetrician Catherine Hamlin (8th), Tim Costello, chief executive of World Vision Australia (19th) and General David Hurley, chief of the Australian Defence Force (28th).

The public’s low level of trust for clergy is hardly surprising, said Village Church Annandale senior pastor Dominic Steele.

“Those of us who are Protestant ministers operate incognito in the community in many areas – we become like Jews to win the Jews – we play down [our] distinctiveness. So the only distinctiveness we have is when the Catholic minister does the wrong thing.”

Mr Steele said ministers need to tell the true story of how churches are changing lives.

“My hope is that the people will see our community and see the love and the genuine care and depth of relationship in our community and ask where does it come from? Well, it comes from Jesus and the word of Christ being taught,” Mr Steele said.

Last year Shellharbour Anglican Church minister Michael Williamson wore his clergy collar as an experiment to see how the public perceives ministers . He found to his surprise that he was given more respect and people were more willing to engage with him if he wore traditional religious garb.

“Far from being a hindrance, the collar was a help in Bible distribution and a magnet for conversation,” Mr Williamson says.