I’ve known many pastors in the evangelical world. The reputation is well-deserved though hardly universal. Most the tend to assume “the ends justify the means” which is horrific when you try to measure consequences against eternal damnation.

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission” is also a phrase that is shockingly common.

Like all groups, they’re not homogeneous.

if they were ethical there would be way less pastor boys with trauma

Well, they preach subservience to some abusive god that they can’t prove exists. I’d say that’s about as dishonest as you can get.

The survey this is taken from points out all professions have seen their reputation for honesty decline. Interesting to see it was always pretty low though.

I found it more interesting that almost nobody trusts politicians, advertisers, or lawyers yet in real life it seems most of people believe them just fine. Politicians get millions of votes, people buy products based on the ads they see, and people pay huge sums of money for legal advice.

That number is still too high