According to a new Gallup poll, Americans’ confidence in organized religion is at its lowest point since they began taking such measurements in 1973.

In 1973, “the church or organized religion” was the most highly rated institution in Gallup’s confidence in institutions measure, at 66 percent. It continued to rank first in most years through 1985, outranking the military and the U.S. Supreme Court, among others. The decline then began.

This year, it’s down to a low of 44 percent.

Are you surprised by this? What accounts for our such low and declining confidence in ‘the church or organized religion’?