Gallup Recommends Resurgence of Faith : U.S. Is Undergoing ‘Spiritual Malaise,’ Pollster Finds

The United States faces a “moral and ethical crisis of the first dimension,” pollster George Gallup Jr. said, and it demands a resurgence of faith.

A Gallup survey also shows indications that confidence in TV evangelists has plunged sharply.

Most Americans consider the electronic preachers dishonest, insincere, lacking any special relationship to God and especially untrustworthy with money, according to the survey.

Among the big-name figures, only Billy Graham still holds predominant esteem, Gallup said.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Ben Armstrong, executive director of the National Religious Broadcasters, said religious broadcasting has suffered its “worst public disaster” in the sex scandal involving former PTL star Jim Bakker.

“The credibility crisis for religious broadcasting is real, and wishful thinking will not make it simply go away,” Armstrong editorialized in the broadcasters’ journal.

“The general public is now demanding greater accountability for their donations,” he said, adding that his organization is developing standards for implementation Aug. 1. “We must set our own house in order.”

Gallup, whose surveys keeps extensive tab on the nation’s spiritual health, said at a recent Minnesota Prayer Breakfast in St. Paul, attended by 1,100 people, that a “deep spiritual malaise” is abroad in the land.

“At all levels of society we are seeing the corrupting power of money and material success.”

He cited widespread cheating on taxes, extramarital affairs of “epidemic proportions,” fraudulent telephone charges, pilferage costing department stores $4 billion a year and the defaulting on education loans by many students.

Gallup, an Episcopal layman, said people need to learn how to bring biblical principles into their lives, to pray and to speak out about the values of faith to others.

He said the most “hopeful trend in America today” is the growth of interest in Bible study and prayer fellowship groups. “People are discovering that faith grows best in the presence of faith,” he said.

In some other developments, specifically the increased interest of college students in religion courses, he sees signs of “renewed search for depth in our spiritual lives arising out of the frustration with the material world.”

A report of the recent survey on TV evangelists appeared in “Emerging Trends,” a newsletter published by the Gallup organization’s Religion Research Center in Princeton, N.J.