NEWS STORY: Poll shows few choosing clergy for spiritual support in facing death

c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Many Americans long for spiritual support as they reach the end of their lives, but few say they would choose clergy to provide it, a newly released Gallup survey shows.”A lot of people have deep spiritual needs that are not being met,”said pollster George H. Gallup Jr., chairman […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Many Americans long for spiritual support as they reach the end of their lives, but few say they would choose clergy to provide it, a newly released Gallup survey shows.”A lot of people have deep spiritual needs that are not being met,”said pollster George H. Gallup Jr., chairman of the George H. Gallup International Institute in Princeton, N.J.”That is being said over and over again in the results.” The poll, however, raises questions about how much spiritual leaders are attending to issues of death and dying throughout their congregants’ lives.

The survey found 50 percent of Americans consider prayer important at life’s end and 44 percent said they would like to receive counseling to reach spiritual peace in their dying days.


But only 36 percent said a member of the clergy would be the most comforting person to them at that time. Family and friends were far more likely to be cited as the most trusted comforters. Eighty-one percent of respondents chose family and 61 percent chose close friends.

Gallup, in an interview with Religion News Service, said it is”not terribly surprising”people would chose family and friends.”Nevertheless, I think the point remains that clergy are pretty low on the list,”he added.

Clergy did not get the lowest ranking as chief sources of spiritual comfort. Thirty percent of those responding to the survey said they would seek comfort from a doctor and 21 percent said they would trust a nurse. The survey found that respondents’ feelings of confidence in a layperson with religious experience fell in between their trust of doctors and nurses _ with 27 percent citing such a person as a key source of support.

Gallup said he attributes the responses about clergy to a trend in American society of people separating their spiritual development from an organized religious congregation.”There’s been a lot of decoupling the faith and church,”he said.”The majority of Americans believe that it’s possible to be a good Christian or Jew without going to church or synagogue.” He said the latest survey seems to reflect a feeling that spirituality is”a private matter between me and my God and I don’t need the clergy.” Gallup expects the poll will generate discussion about the role of clergy in dealing with issues related to death.”I do think it raises some questions,”he said.”Are death and dying issues being discussed? Are seminarians being trained in these areas? And are death and dying issues being discussed throughout one’s life by clergy?” Rather than a topic to be brought up at the end of a congregant’s life, Gallup said the survey results indicate death should instead be a”lifetime discussion.”They also point to a need for clergy in general to work on fostering ongoing pastoral relationships with the members of their congregations, he said.

The survey was commissioned by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, a New York-based private foundation focused on health, environmental, Jewish life and arts issues, and the Fetzer Institute, a nonprofit research and education organization in Kalamazoo, Mich., whose work deals with the unity of the mind, body and spirit. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

The survey also found 56 percent of those polled were worried about a lack of medical technology to save their lives, not reconciling with other people and not being forgiven by God.”People are just as worried about spiritual matters as they are medical technology,”Gallup said.

The survey also indicated spiritual concerns related to the end of life were troubling to those under 35 as well as older respondents.”Young people have the same deep concerns,”said Gallup.”They may not be dying but they see death all around them.” (adv for rls in Friday am’s)


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