Trust and Distrust

"Religious organizations are the only national entities to garner trust from a majority of respondents (68%) ...The national government garners trust from just 28% of Ethiopians, and the judiciary fares as poorly, eliciting confidence from about one-quarter of respondents. But participatory politics prompt the lowest levels of trust, as only 13% of Ethiopians have confidence in the honesty of elections."

Thus goes another depressing poll conducted by Gallup in 2007. What is interesting is that the church is/ought to be the glue in a society fragmented along ethnic, class, gender, and generation lines. Here then is a great opportunity for the church to build and provide institutional leadership.

To provide leadership based on a decidedly Christian ethics, however, requires that churches work hard to gain the trust of society at large. To gain trust one needs to identify with mores the public relates to; to not get caught up in worldly and alienating cultures, and to live a clearly articulated and ordered life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians can not afford to squander such an opportunity.