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Americans trust each other less these days than they did 40 years ago. That's the general conclusion of a poll conducted last month by AP-GfK. Specifically, only about a third of Americans say most people can be trusted, compared to about half of Americans who said that in a 1972 poll.
Now, a record high of nearly two-thirds say "you can't be too careful" when dealing with people.
Some political and social scientists say this loss of trust in one's fellow citizens is a loss for the society. They say that distrust:
• makes it more difficult to compromise or make a deal.
• encourages corruption.
• requires greater expenditure of energy and money for protection -- drawing up lengthy legal documents and building gated communities.
• makes for rancor in politics.
• breeds a drop in civility.
Observers suggest several reasons for the drop in trust levels. Among them:
• staying home to watch TV rather than participation in group events, clubs and social gatherings.
• increasing economic inequality and the resulting loss of shared fate.
• the perception that Wall Street executives and other super-high earners don't care about common people.
• decline in moral values, with people acting more on their greed.
• 24-hour news coverage of distant violence that skews our perception of crime and our likelihood of becoming a victim.
• hackers, viruses and hate-filled posts online.
Other possible contributing factors include:
• the perception that politicians care mainly for themselves and their own power and wealth rather than for people in general.
• increased ethnic diversity, which has been shown to increase distrust both between and within ethnic groups.
• increased focus by news media, government and educational institutions on differences between people rather than on common ground.
• the multiplication of rules and regulations, which stifle and limit people working together.
• the shift from voluntary market interactions (exchanges where each person involved must believe they benefit) to a restricted economy where people have to obey the rules emplaced by those not involved.
• the perception that others are thin-skinned and will react negatively to attempts at social interactions.
Thomas Sander, executive director of the Saguaro Seminar, a Harvard University program that studies the value of social networks, believes the trust loss is "eminently fixable" if we work to rebuild community and civic life.
More on this story can be found at these links:
Poll: Americans Don't Trust One Another. USA Today
In God We Trust, Maybe, But Not Each Other. AP-GfK
The Downside of Diversity. Boston Globe
The Big Questions
1. Do you feel more trusting or less trusting of people in general than you did earlier in your adult years? Why? Is trust always a good thing? If you answer "no," when is it bad, and when is it good? If you answer "yes," how do you think about people whose trust has been abused, such as by becoming the victim of a scam artist?
2. What groups or categories of people do you tend to trust more? Christians? Members of your own congregation? People from your ethnic group? Public officials? People who share your interests? Other groups (specify)? What is your basis for trusting any of these groups more than others? Is it logical? Similarly, whom do you tend to distrust, and why?
3. Can you respect someone you do not trust, and can you trust someone you do not respect? Explain your answer.
4. What is the relationship between your willingness to trust others and your own sense of vulnerability? What effect does your Christian faith have on your willingness to trust others? Is it more important to trust people or to be trustworthy yourself? Explain your answer.
5. What promises do you live by today? What promises do you count on others keeping?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Proverbs 20:6
Many proclaim themselves loyal, but who can find one worthy of trust? (No context needed.)
This bit of advice is posed as a rhetorical question, perhaps to suggest that true loyalty is a rare commodity.
Questions: This verse conflates trust and trustworthiness. Is the percentage of Americans willing to trust others related to the percentage of trustworthy people in the world? Or is it more a matter of perception than reality? Explain your answer. Most mentions of "trust" in the Bible are about trusting in the Lord. Is there a link between trusting in God and trusting other people? If so, what is that link? Does trusting other people mean making the best assumption about them, or are these different? Explain your answer.
Matthew 2:8
Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." (For context, read 2:1-18.)
The Bible includes many examples of people deceiving other people, and this verse is one of the more well known of them. Here King Herod disguises his true motives for wanting to know where the infant Jesus is. Herod tells the wise men he wants to "go and pay [Jesus] homage," but he really wants to kill him. Fortunately, God intervenes directly, warning the wise men in a dream about the king's evil plans (v. 12).
Question: Even without the dream, what else might have caused the wise men to be suspicious of King Herod's motives?
Mark 10:18
Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone." (For context, read 10:17-22.)
This is Jesus' response to the the rich man who came to him seeking advice about how to "inherit eternal life" (v. 17). In posing his question, however, the rich man addressed Jesus as "Good Teacher," leading Jesus to make the disclaimer above. In so saying, Jesus switched the focus of the conversation from himself and the rich man to God.
Jesus was not saying that he was not good or that he was not to be trusted. Nor was he saying that the man was wrong about his goodness. But Jesus was saying that the term "good" in the absolute sense should be reserved for God. The rich man would not have thought of Jesus as God at this point, so to use the term for him was unacceptable. Jesus may have also perceived the term as flattery, and wanted to nip that in the bud. Additionally, Jesus' comment can be understood as saying that no human rises to God's level.
Question: Given that none of us possesses complete goodness, what can we do to convince others of our trustworthiness?
Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity. (No context needed.)
This verse suggests that the true character of love is revealed by its constancy over time and especially by its conduct during troubles.
Question: If constancy over time and conduct during troubles are good ways to measure someone's trustworthiness, how can we decide whether to trust someone we've just met and whom we've not had the opportunity to observe during troubles?
2 Timothy 2:13
... if we are faithless, he remains faithful -- for he cannot deny himself. (For context, read 2:8-13.)
This verse makes the distinction between God's trustworthiness and human faithlessness. It's not saying that we are always faithless, but it does indicate that faithfulness (trustworthiness) is a characteristic of God himself.
Questions: When we are being trustworthy, keeping our promises, doing what we have agreed to do and standing by those to whom we have committed ourselves, are we being "godly"? Why or why not?
For Further Discussion
1. Comment on this, heard in a sermon: "We live in an age when promises are not doing very well. By their very nature, promises commit us to behaving in certain ways in the future. But since we can't know what the future will bring, we cannot tell now what keeping a promise will actually cost us -- when it will become inconvenient to keep it. Thus, as a society, we try to build escape clauses into our contracts, look for loopholes in our agreements, insert weasel words into our guarantees or hold out for renegotiation. Getting stuck in an old promise, we think, is only for those not nimble at sidestepping. Thus we have manufacturers who refuse to honor their product warranties, politicians who renege on their campaign promises, corporations that shuck their pension obligations and ordinary people who make exceptions to their promises to one another."
2. Discuss this: When the 19th-century historian and social critic Thomas Carlyle wrote his three-volume history of the French Revolution, he offered the observation that the revolution failed not because of great errors in the higher echelons of power, but because ordinary people in minor posts of everyday responsibility stopped keeping their promises.
3. Respond to this: Michael Josephson, president of the Character Counts! Coalition, has said, "Let's face it: honest citizens pay more taxes than dishonest ones. Business people who keep their word even when it's disadvantageous sometimes pay a heavy price for their integrity. And coaches who refuse to violate recruiting rules or play ineligible athletes may lose more games than their less scrupulous opponents. These costs are just the dues we pay to maintain integrity and build a reputation. Unfortunately, many people are unwilling to pay the price."
4. Comment on this: Thomas More, whose story has been dramatized in the movie and stage play A Man for All Seasons, was the Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII and was a personal advisor to the king. He fell out of favor with Henry when he refused to support Henry's move to divorce Catherine of Aragon in defiance of the pope. The king resented More's attitude and eventually dealt with his resistance by having More beheaded. At one point during his final days, More could have saved his life by renouncing an oath he had made. His daughter, Meg, begged him to do so. But More refused. In the play, he explains his refusal this way: "When a man takes an oath, Meg, he is holding his own self in his hand, like water. And if he opens his fingers, then he needn't hope to find himself again."
Responding to the News
This is a good time to consider how we can ensure that we are becoming the kind of people others (and God) would view as trustworthy. Can God rely on us to keep our promises to him?
Closing Prayer
Trustworthy Lord, help us to be trustworthy people, whom others can rely upon. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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