Skewed Statistics

Tired of articles and headlines bashing Christians? Tired of books forecasting the end of Christianity? I'm reading a fascinating book right now that brightened my day. Bradley R.E. Wright, a sociologist at UConn writes, "Negative statistics about Christianity are more likely to become conventional wisdom. There are various possible explanations for this...But in general, Christians acting like Christians just isn't as interesting as 'Christians gone wild.' As a result, bad news about Christians spreads faster and farther than good news."

The book is entitled, Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told, and it's filled with fascinating statistics that give counterbalance to some of the fear mongering of Barna and the gleeful finger-pointing of Newsweek, etc. It turns out that Evangelical divorce rates are a lot lower than Non-Evangelicals. We're not losing our youth at the panic rate, and, I know this will blow you away, but not every minister is practicing infidelity. Honest!

Furthermore, Christian teens are as committed or more committed than their counterparts from the past handful of generations. Church attendance plays a huge role as well. If you look at the stats of those who go to Church vs. those who don't you find great contrasts in areas of belief and behavior all across the board.

Stick to the stuff, and don't believe everything you hear from the number crunchers!

PS> Thanks to Bill Welti for the book.