Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters M...
According to the media, the church is rapidly shrinking, both in numbers and in effectiveness. But the good news is, much of the bad news is wrong....
read full description
reviews
Jan 08, 2011
Nancy
rated it: 
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 pickin
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 10, 2011
Stephanie
rated it:
Okay, I got an A in my Intro to Statistics class in college, but I've never been a big fan of anything that looks like math. But the title caught my eye, and the reviews I read made me buy the book. I read this book a lot faster than I'd expected. It was fascinating to see Wright dismantle a lot of commonly-held beliefs about how Christianity is going to hell in a handbasket. He is upfront about the fact that he identifies as an Evangelical, so he's not entirely disinterested in the results,
More...
Aug 11, 2010
Cafelilybookreviews
rated it: 
We all know that media tends stretch and exaggerate information and make “mountains out of mole hills”, much of the time. In his latest book, Bradley Wright, PhD, sets out to expose the lies of both secular and Christian media and shatter the hyped up myths about Christians in general.
Does this book accomplish his goal? I’m not sure, but I do sense that a book like this may stir the pot and cause controversy, based on Wright’s research and statements.
Accord More...
Jul 27, 2010
Timothy
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 04, 2010
Lorraine
rated it:
To me, this book came across as having two goals: first, to disprove the stereotypes about Evangelical Christians, second, to measure the "success" of Evangelical Christians (ECs). The audience for the first goal is non-ECs, for the second goal it is ECs. I'm not convinced that Wright fully met either of his two goals completely, and I think his audience/readers will be a smaller group than he'd like.
Yes, some of the stereotypes about ECs are disproved, mainly because tho More...
Yes, some of the stereotypes about ECs are disproved, mainly because tho More...
May 06, 2011
Rachel
rated it: 
For a book filled with sociological data, statistics, and charts on nearly every other page, I found this book to be surprisingly engrossing. To be sure, this book is by no means an easy read, and requires a certain amount of intellect to understand the plethora of data that Wright provides on every conceivable topic related to the image of Christianity - whether it be from the perspective of Christians or non-Christians.
Wright also uses the book to teach the reader not only the correct dat More...
Wright also uses the book to teach the reader not only the correct dat More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 25, 2010
Chad
rated it:
I enjoyed this book. Dr. Wright has defiantly done his research and with so much data he has been able to consolidate it and make some great observations on the collected information. With so many statistics this could have become just one large term paper, but Dr. Wright adds the right amount of humor at the right time throughout the book to keep it light and enjoyable. Although a larger focus was on the Evangelical Christians (Dr. Wright being one of them) there was plenty that a Mainline P
More...
Aug 26, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it: 
I thought this might be an interesting read since the author is a sociologist, and I'm not a big fan of organized religion. But I have to say he did not "shatter" the myths for me, all he did was report statistics, (where they came from, I don't know) and the few he did mention that showed christians in a negative light, he immediately rounded up some lame excuse why that was. He didn't make me any less wary of evangelical christians, not one bit.
Jan 08, 2011
Debi
rated it:
This is a book of statistics, but it is presented in an easy-to-read manner rather than a dry look at a bunch of numbers. With occasional inserts of humor, the author presents data to support his thesis that the current "sky is falling" "Christianity is ending" cry of alarm is unfounded. The book's premise is that the statistics that Christianity is in decline are based on faulty data and in truth, Christianity is maintaining steadily. The young leaving the church has been an
More...
Jan 08, 2011
Kim
rated it:
I won a free copy of this audio cd which I find interesting given that I work in Christian publishing and that we actually published a book called nuChristian: Finding Faith in a New Generation (Russell Rathbun) which was a response to the Barna book unChristian. Bradley Wright actually references Barna and its skewed research in his book. I think the biggest message I got from Wright's book is that all research has to be taken with a grain of salt and with an eye toward the objective of the res
More...
Aug 19, 2011
Adam
rated it:
Full review at http://bookwi.se/christians-are-hate-fil...
Short review: If you ever present statistics with your church based non-profit or from the pulpit, you need to read this book. It is part Freakenomics part Social Science instruction, part church reform book. What is good about the book is the it directly addresses the research of some of the popular Church social science books like UnChristian of the past decade. On the whole, Wright suggests the church is actually doing a l More...
Short review: If you ever present statistics with your church based non-profit or from the pulpit, you need to read this book. It is part Freakenomics part Social Science instruction, part church reform book. What is good about the book is the it directly addresses the research of some of the popular Church social science books like UnChristian of the past decade. On the whole, Wright suggests the church is actually doing a l More...
Dec 14, 2010
Aoife
rated it:
Really dull, obviously slanted, could have been summed up with the nifty charts I ended up just skimming and glancing at instead of finishing the book. I deducted an additional star from the rating for being yet ANOTHER book where "Christian" is defined as "a certain type of evangelical" to the exclusion of all other kinds of Christians and even in competition with them.
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
Keith
rated it:
In some ways, a good "statistics for dummies" primer about the value and limitations of social statistics and demographic data and about the value of thinking clearly and critically.
Nov 12, 2011
Mike
rated it:
Really good in depth statistical analysis of modern surveys about religion, esp Christianity. Should be must reading for anyone who chooses to quote some of the surveys that spread mis-information around.
Apr 11, 2011
Kate
rated it:
I was fascinated with this book. It challenges conventional thinking on the morality of evangelical Christians and presents statistics which are all at once surprising, encouraging, and sometimes a little puzzling. This is no puff-piece; there is ample evidence that believers still have a lot to work on, but the cultural mindset that evangelicals are morally inferior to the general population is staunchly challenged.
Continue reading this review here: http://parchmentgirl.com/2010/09/01/chri... More...
Continue reading this review here: http://parchmentgirl.com/2010/09/01/chri... More...
Jan 08, 2011
Doug
rated it:
This book gives it's reader what I think is a health skepticism when confronted with what seems to be an ever increasing list of statistics about how bad Christians are (usually from studies done by other Christians). There's a lot to learn from some of the 'negative' statistics, but they may not be telling the whole story (for example, Wright adds a lot of analysis based on how long and how much individuals go to church and there is a difference). Worth a read.
Feb 22, 2012
Feb 16, 2012
Feb 13, 2012
Jan 27, 2012
Jan 26, 2012
Jan 17, 2012
Dec 30, 2011
Dec 29, 2011
Dec 23, 2011
Dec 18, 2011
Dec 13, 2011
