11. Clergy
% of people who ranked them low on honesty and ethics: 13%
Apart from the growing skepticism towards religion in general which has reduced general affinity towards organized religion, the reports of child abuse scandals within the Church and the subsequent attempt to cover up the offenses has sparked public outrage and eroded trust that the people used to have within religious institutions. The much-lauded Hollywood movie, Spotlight, tells the true story of how a group of journalists in Boston uncovered a grand scheme to protect clergymen who were engaged in illicit and unspeakable activities with young children. Sinead O’Connor’s defiant and iconoclastic act of ripping apart a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live to protest against the child abuse scandals within the Catholic Church is still vivid in many people’s memory.
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