I just finished reading the Grand Jury report concerning the indictment of the former Penn State University coach for multiple instances of the sexual abuse of children. Words cannot describe the feeling that one has when reading explicit descriptions of child sexual abuse: I was sickened, broken-hearted, outraged, revolted at the failure of those in the Penn State Athletic Department to report their observed abuse to Child Protection Services or to law enforcement agencies.

There are, of course, a whole set of moral questions raised by multiple failures of Penn State officials in this tragic affair. One dimension of this that I have not seen anyone mention is the further erosion of social capital in America. A recent New York Times/CBS news poll showed that barely 10% of the public trusts the government to do the right thing. But trust is also at an all-time low in other institutions such as the media, corporations, banks, universities, and even churches.

To take one example, just 30% of Americans have “a high level of trust” in the media compared to a global average of 40%. Even China, where news organizations are state-run, manages to have much higher trust in the media (54.6%) than in America. The same is true in Mexico, where journalists reportedly self-censor to avoid angering drug cartels.

What happens when our connections with each other become more and more frayed? What happens when we as a country feel that we can’t trust anyone?

Here are a few results:

1. People withdraw from all civic participation. They’re less likely to vote, volunteer, help someone in need, or even care about the common good. We’re seeing this withdrawal from civic engagement throughout American life.

2. Unhealthy forms of building social capital proliferate, particularly in the inner-city. Street gangs fill the space that used to be filled by clubs, church groups, sports teams, and extended family.

3. Because we can’t trust each other, there is a massive proliferation of legal structures that now serve in place of private moral restraint. What people’s personal morals used to be relied upon to do (check greed, financial over-reaching, or sexual abuse) now requires layers of bureaucracy, government regulation, criminal background checks, and lengthy written contracts. All of this serves as a massive drag on our economy and creates further distance between the individual and institutions.

4. The loss of social capital means, for many, that the only people that we can really trust are those who we know intimately and deeply. Thus, Americans are becoming cocooned, connecting only with their families and a few close friends. But we are increasingly walled off from people who are outside of our own personal circle, or who are members of different faiths, ethnicities, or social backgrounds.

5. Most troubling to me as a pastor is that the feeling “I can’t trust anyone” is easily transmuted into the feeling that “I can’t trust God” and “I can’t trust the church.” Cynicism poisons everything including our most sacred relationships – namely with God and with the church.

The fallout of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal is not only the tarnishing of the careers of the Penn State coaching staff and its administration. Nor is it the more tragic victimization of children and their families. The Penn State scandal is one more blow to the connections that we, as Americans, have towards trusted institutions and towards people in authority. It is the loss of trust that at the end of the day will prove most destructive to the functioning of our democracy and the social cohesion of our country.

‍