THE MOST RESPECTED PROFESSIONS

Out of curiosity, I compiled the responses found in eight recent (2021-2022) polls to questions regarding the respect with which people held professionals in various fields. As expected, there was some degree of variation in the results, probably due to the particular population sampled and the exact way the question was worded. Thus, one poll appeared to be a world-wide sampling while most of the others dealt only with the United States. Also, one poll simply asked which profession was the most trustworthy; another one asked about the professions they would or would not like their children to follow; and a third poll ranked careers on multiple criteria such as honesty, job qualifications, and usefulness to the community.

Despite these differences, there was a fairly good consensus resulting from the various studies.

At the top of most polls were professions such as firefighter and military personnel, medical professional, teacher, scientist, farmer, architect, engineer, and lawyer. Other than the last profession, I would have to agree with such an assessment. These professions are at the top for the technical expertise and hard work necessary to enter into such fields, their overall trustworthiness, and/or the selfless commitment needed to practice their careers while fighting the tendency to burn-out.

At the very bottom were social media influencers, call center workers, politicians (especially elected members of Congress) and their accompanying lobbyists, reality TV stars, ad men, real estate agents, and the perennial favorite of car salespeople. Personally, I think that car salesmen are getting a bad rap by being lumped in with the rest of that group.

I would imagine that such average results do not necessarily reflect the views of everyone. For example, I personally know people who have a rabid distrust of any sort of opinion coming from a trained professional with a college degree. They would much rather have their views shaped by some nobody on the internet (such as myself) as long as it is someone who happens to spout out their own preconceived notions on a subject.

It is always interesting to speculate on findings such as these and wonder what was in people's minds as they answered the various questionnaires. And it is also of interest to look at the selection of categories of professions that the pollsters chose to include and to exclude from consideration. Considering the latter question, I have paid attention to these polls for years just to see where my own profession of scientist fell in the scheme of things. I have noted that most polls would include “engineer” but not “scientist.” Others would do the reverse, and once I saw both professions given as choices. It is very probable that in the minds of the pollsters and those participating in the polls, there is no distinction between the two categories. Both scientists and engineers would highly dispute that generality.

But what about the all-important profession of the clergy? Gallup polls noted that they received a 60%+ approval rating in the 70's and 80's. However, since 2018 it has been below 40%. Their current poll gave them only a 36% approval rating. By comparison, Maru Group ranked them as #17 out of 28 categories with a 68% overall approval from those polled. The Zety 2022 poll gave the clergy a 55% approval compared to 74% for garbage collectors. MoneyWise ranked the ethics and trustworthiness of the clergy just below those of psychiatrists.

To some extent, I am sure that these relatively low ratings are caused by a few high profile examples of megachurch pastors who have taken advantage of their position to accumulate money at the expense of their parishioners. And as to sexual scandals, Protestants can no longer take comfort in pointing to the Roman Catholic Church for widespread sexual abuse followed by the inevitable attempts at cover-up. The recent revelations from the Southern Baptist Convention will probably drive these approval numbers even lower in the future.

And then, there is the political aspect to consider also. It is easy to believe that members of the public, whether leaning to the left or right politically, can always cite examples of clergy who supported the other side of a key issue, causing them to lower the approval rating of the profession as a whole. And the same applies to those who are angry with pastors who may actually agree with them politically but feel that they either speak up too much on the subject or not enough. Pastors today are not in an enviable position, and we in the pews should do all we can to support them financially and emotionally.

At first I was a little shocked to see how high garbage personnel were ranked in one poll. But upon reflection, I realized that the particular poll showing that result had as one of its main criteria the usefulness of the profession to the community. I was reminded of a utopian novel I read years ago in which an enlightened future society determined salaries using a sort of reverse stock exchange. In other words, the more people who wanted to enter a particular field, the lower the salary would drop. And conversely, the fewer people who were willing to do a certain job, the higher the pay would rise. It was an interesting, but probably unworkable, concept.

However, it did prompt me to send off a text message to our pastor. I shared a few of the pollsters' findings and assured him that, for what it was worth, I personally held him in very high esteem. But I concluded, “Just don't ask me to chose between you and my garbage collector.”

Finally, just to bring home some of the concepts below, what if people who know you were asked to rank you in terms of criteria such as your demonstration of God's love to others, your personal adherence to the principles you claim to live by, your knowledge of God's written word, and your worth to society? What sort of approval rating would you, or any of us believers, receive?