Sociological data, charts galore, and religion. All of these components put together make me just giddy. For reasons completely unknown to me even now, I found myself in sociology classes with people that can only be described as "the granola." Discussing survey questions, statistically significance, aggregating and disaggregating data, standard deviations, and best of all, a little book called "How to Lie with Statistics." The experience left me with an affinity for picking apart statistics and a 20 year old sociology degree. The bachelor kind. That gets you hired at JCPenney, doing the same thing the high school graduate does, muttering, "I hate my life."
Filled with charts, engaging explanation, and elbow-patch college professor humor, this book sets out to debunk commonly quoted myths regarding religion, focusing on Christianity and, more specifically, Evangelical Christianity.
Statistics are fascinating things. People tend to believe them when quoted. A few things to keep in mind when seeing a statistic. What is the thesis question, who is gathering the data and for what purpose, what is the N or population for data (the smaller the study size, the less reliable the data and does it represent a fair amount of different groups), and is it statistically significant?
The author addresses, through statistics and surveys, how Christians, and more specifically, evangelical Christians, are doing in regard to Christian lifestyle. For instance, why do we hear so much bad news about Christianity? (It sells stories) Is Christianity on the Brink of Extinction? Are we losing our youth? Are evangelical Christians all poor, uneducated, southern whites? Do Christians think and do Christian things? Do Christians love others? What do non-Christians think of us? What do Christians think of themselves? The author is not attempting to attribute causality but simply report the differences between groups with available statistical data.
I loved it. I really, really did. It was fascinating and read very much like a college lecture series. In order to keep the book spicy, the author included a photo of "the future"; a sullen teenager with disco shirt open to his belly button and gold chains (slightly exaggerating) and big disco hair. In 1980, this was the future. In 2010, he's the author of a book describing statistical data in terms anybody can understand. He gave up the disco shirt, I hope.
The book is easy to read. The graphs are self-explanatory but the commentary is nothing less than engaging. For instance, the author discusses sexual behavior and extramarital sex. He says, "At this point, allow me to interject that there is a crucial distinction between extramarital sex and extra marital sex. One is committing adultery, the other represents a better than average week, and they have very different consequences."
Regarding drug use: "What does this mean? Well, the white powder on the church pew is probably just baby formula."
The book is riddled with this kind of humor and it tickles my funny bone. Because I am a nerd. I know it. I embrace it.
My one complaint is definitions. I happen to be a member of a church the author did not define as necessarily Christian, and this niggled me throughout the book. Not until page 224 does the author explain that he used the word "Christian" to describe Protestants and Catholics. This leaves out the members of a 14 million strong religion, mostly found in Utah, called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. These members were clumped together with Jehovah's Witnesses (who, although I know little about the religion, probably claim Christianity, as well) Muslims, Jewish, and Hindus.
Is it statistically significant to leave out these people? No. It would increase the number of Christians by just under 2%. It simply matters to me, a Mormon and a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
But before I could properly get my panties all in a wad, I had to admit that even using statistics regarding Mormons was validating. So the half star I planned taking off from my review for my own tantrum, I will grudgingly return half of the half back.
Completely enjoyable read. Easy to understand charts and statistics, not dry at all. Funny and a little sad. The man spent his 47th birthday working on his book. A far cry from the scowling, disco-shirt-too-cool-to-care attitude.
