Over the last 50 years, trust in the federal government has declined dramatically. About 77% of Americans once said they trusted the government. Today, that number has fallen to roughly 18%.
Events this week on Capitol Hill provided fresh examples of why trust in the federal government has eroded.
In the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the alleged architect of America’s draconian COVID-19 policies, Anthony Fauci, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times. He refused to answer questions about the origins of the pandemic, efforts to suppress those who pointed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the likely source of the virus, funding for gain-of-function research, and COVID policies that closed businesses, schools, and churches while mandating vaccines. Fauci invoked the Fifth even though former President Joe Biden granted him a preemptive pardon, a fact that raises questions of its own.
On the House side, even though members were out of session, the Ethics Committee was busy reviewing allegations involving members ranging from inappropriate conduct with female staffers and domestic abuse to illegal drug use and campaign finance violations. One member even abandoned his reelection campaign as he faces a rare bipartisan censure vote. Since 1789, only 28 members of the House have been censured.
But the erosion of trust is not confined to Washington. Government is only one of many institutions that Americans increasingly doubt. The media and Big Business are swimming at the bottom of public confidence after tying themselves to DEI initiatives and radical transgender ideology. While not as low, trust in religious institutions has also declined by nearly half.
The problem extends beyond institutions. Social trust, our willingness to trust one another, which is essential for a healthy and cohesive society, has also steadily declined. Scholars do not point to a single cause. In his book “Coming Apart,” Charles Murray identifies several contributing factors, including declining church participation, fewer civic organizations, less neighborhood involvement, reduced volunteerism, and the collapse of marriage and stable families. Those trends help explain what has happened, but they also point to a deeper question: what has changed in the human heart?
Perhaps we’ve become less trusting, and less trustworthy, not merely because our institutions have failed us, but because our trust itself has become misplaced.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 118: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.”
When we expect government, leaders, institutions, or even ourselves to provide the security, hope, and certainty that only God can give, disappointment is inevitable. Misplaced trust eventually produces broken trust. Laws can restrain evil, but only transformed hearts produce trustworthy people.
Some of you may remember the old Texaco slogan: “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.”
Here’s something worth thinking about. Our ability to be trusted, and to trust others, comes from trusting the One who made the stars.
Perhaps America’s greatest need today isn’t simply more trustworthy leaders. It is a people who once again place their trust in the One who is always trustworthy. When we trust God first, we become the kind of people others can trust as well.
