In 1998, a Gallup poll asked American respondents if they thought the state of moral values would be better or worse in 2025. It found that 62 percent predicted it would be worse. The data show they were right.

In 2022, a Gallup poll found that “a record-high 50 percent of Americans rated the overall state of moral values as ‘poor,’ and another 37 percent said it was ‘only fair.’ The public was pessimistic about the future: 78 percent say morals are getting worse.” 

And the results of a 2024 survey by Pew Research Center found that 80 percent of Americans say that religion’s role in American life is shrinking, and most concluded that it was not a good thing. 

This is significant given that this was the highest percentage ever recorded in a Pew survey on this issue. It was also found that 57 percent of Americans expressed a positive view of religion’s influence in American life. 

The public predicted more than a quarter century ago that the moral state of affairs would trend down, and they were right.

Among Americans who have left their childhood religion, the most commonly cited reasons were that they stopped believing in the religion’s teachings (46%). About a third said their religion’s teachings about social and political issues (34%) or scandals involving clergy or religious leaders (32%) were significant reasons for leaving their religion.

Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses moral and health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his........

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