Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told

One of the most surprising statistical fallacies that made me sit up and pay attention was the literal fact that the percentage o fyoung people who attend church has held steady over the past 20 years. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have heard, “We’re losing our young people!” Literally, we are not. Divorce between believers is lower than divorce between non-believers. True! I reported on that somewhere in here but can’t seem to find the post.

The fact is, news is not what is normal, but what is unusual. Therefore, we hear more about sexual misconduct of ministers than we do about the right conduct of ministers. We hear more about the bad stuff than the good stuff. It is news when a Christian stumbles and falls because that isn’t the norm for Christians. Which is why it seems  as if the bad stuff is more prevalent than the good. Dr. Wright points this out. All we have to do is mention Jim Bakker or Ted Haggard or even mention the generic term Catholic Priest and instantly sexual misconduct comes to mind.

The General Social Survey is where Wright garners most of his information because it is conducted every one to two years and covers a vast majority of population (more than 50,000). It might surprise you to know that 95 percent of the U.S.. population believes in God. With all the media hype and all the squeaky wheels, I thought we were headed for hell in a handbasket and that God was out of fashion in the 21st Century. That just isn’t true. How fascinating all of this is.

I hightly recommend this book. You should know that it isn’t written in technical language, all the charts are very easy to read, and even though it is all about statistics, it is sharper than a two-edge sword which divides the truth from fiction.

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  1. altfreq11 said:

    Gina, who said that Christians are “hate-filled hypocrites”? Statistically speaking, isn’t it possible that some Christians are hate-filled hypocrites?

    July 29, 2010
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  2. altfreq11 said:

    Gina Burgess said: “One of the most surprising statistical fallacies that made me sit up and pay attention was the literal fact that the percentage o fyoung (sic) people who attend church has held steady over the past 20 years. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have heard, ‘We’re losing our young people!’ Literally, we are not.” Gina, if churches are NOT losing young people as you allege, how is “the percentage o fyoung (sic) people who attend church has held steady over the past 20 years” a statistical fallacy?

    July 29, 2010
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  3. altfreq11 said:

    Gina Burgess said: “The fact is, news is not what is normal, but what is unusual. Therefore, we hear more about sexual misconduct of ministers than we do about the right conduct of ministers. We hear more about the bad stuff than the good stuff. It is news when a Christian stumbles and falls because that isn’t the norm for Christians. Which is why it seems as if the bad stuff is more prevalent than the good. Dr. Wright points this out. All we have to do is mention Jim Bakker or Ted Haggard or even mention the generic term Catholic Priest and instantly sexual misconduct comes to mind.” Actually, sexual misconduct by priests is considered a widespread problem: “Allegations of sexual abuse by clergy have been made in many countries (see Roman Catholic sex abuse cases by country). After the United States, the country with the next highest number of cases is Ireland. A significant number of cases have also been reported in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia. In 2001, major lawsuits emerged in the United States and Ireland, alleging that some priests had sexually abused minors and that their superiors had conspired to conceal and otherwise abet their criminal misconduct.[8] In 2004, the John Jay report tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse have been made. Although the scandals in the U.S. and Ireland unfolded over approximately the same time period, there are some significant differences between them. In the United States, most of the abusers were parish priests under diocesan control. While there were also a significant number of abuse cases involving parish priests in Ireland, another major scandal involved criminal abuse committed by members of religious orders working in Catholic-run institutions such as orphanages and reform schools. In the United States, the abuse was primarily sexual in nature and involved mostly boys between the ages of 11 and 17; in Ireland, the allegations involved both physical and sexual abuse, and children of both sexes were involved, although a large majority were male. In a statement read out by Archbishop Silvano Maria Tomasi in September 2009, the Holy See stated ‘We know now that in the last 50 years somewhere between 1.5% and 5% of the Catholic clergy has been involved in sexual abuse cases,’ adding that this figure was comparable with that of other groups and denominations.[9] Additionally, according to Newsweek magazine, the figure in the Catholic Church is similar to that in the rest of the adult population.[10] In contrast according to the Economist given that 45 of the 850 priests in Malta have been accused of sexual abuse the problem is ‘alarmingly widespread.'” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases#Scope_and_nature

    July 29, 2010
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  4. said:

    Alt, Buy the book and read it. It will answer all your questions. It is by a sociology professor from University of Wisconsin, he is an Evangelical Christian and has many years experience in research and social psychology experimentation reporting. Part of the title of this post got cut off it is by Dr. Bradley R.E. Wright. It is worth the money and it is a keeper.

    July 29, 2010
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  5. altfreq11 said:

    Gina Burgess: “Alt, buy the book and read it. It will answer all your questions.” I’m not questioning the book – I’m questioning you. Why are you making allegations you can’t support with facts?

    July 29, 2010
    Reply
  6. said:

    Alt, I did not make any allegations, all the facts are in the book. In fact all the facts are available if you care to search out all the data that Dr. Wright analyzed. Buy the book.

    July 30, 2010
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  7. said:

    Hmmm… Let’s see, how many different ways can I say that the proof is in the book? This is a book about statistics. This book is written by a Christian Doctor of Sociology who is tenured. This man deals with stats all the time and has poured over many, many surveys for more than a year then summed it up in this book. Buy the book. It will give you many different places to go check the different statistics. Alt, do you actually really and truly read the posts before you comment? I’m just wondering…

    July 31, 2010
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  8. altfreq11 said:

    Gina Burgess said: “Alt, I did not make any allegations, all the facts are in the book. In fact all the facts are available if you care to search out all the data that Dr. Wright analyzed.” But in another thread you said: Gina Burgess said: “The sad thing, Alt, is that you are doing the exact thing that I am lamenting the media does. They go by what someone else says instead of to the original source.” http://www.everydaychristian.com/blogs/post/7810/ So here you are, Gina, using one source, the very thing you’ve criticized others for doing. Why are you practicing a double standard?

    August 2, 2010
    Reply
  9. altfreq11 said:

    Gina Burgess said: “Alt, I did not make any allegations, all the facts are in the book.” Yes you did: “One of the most surprising statistical fallacies that made me sit up and pay attention was the literal fact that the percentage o fyoung people who attend church has held steady over the past 20 years. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have heard, “We’re losing our young people!” Literally, we are not. Divorce between believers is lower than divorce between non-believers. True! I reported on that somewhere in here but can’t seem to find the post.”

    August 2, 2010
    Reply
  10. said:

    This is a Book Review, alt. Buy the book, search all the statistical data that Dr. Wright uses, take as long as you need to analyze the data, then prove me wrong. You won’t be able to prove me wrong, but you can try. When you come up with some statistical facts that do prove me wrong, then we’ll talk.

    August 2, 2010
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