Okay, so the book isn’t exactly what you might think based on the title of this post. The full name is Christians Are Hate Filled Hypocrites … and Other Lies You’ve Been Told.

Written by sociologist Bradley R.E. Wright, the book is a study at all those doomsday statistics that are so often tossed around. You know, things like “by 2030 only 4% of teenagers will be attending church” or “Only prostitutes have a worse reputation than Evangelicals.” You know the stuff I’m talking about…we hear it all the time from both those within and without the church.

And according to Wright, a good chunk of that information is false. Or at least widely exaggerated. He especially takes on some of the well known statisticians in the church world, such as George Barna (though he never challenges him directly).

One concern that Wright does bring up is that the church remains very divided along racial lines. And that regard for people of a different color is not a strong suit among church goers in particular. Disappointing.

But most of the information is very upbeat. Church attendance is holding up nicely. Young people are as strong in their faith as ever. Church attendance does correlate nicely with good behavior. The list of good news is quite long, though obviously there is much work to do.

This is a really good book, but I’m afraid it’s going to be ignored. For one thing, as Wright says at the end of his book, there is a world paradigm that is hard for people to change. And one of those paradigms is that Christians are dumber, looked upon negatively, poorer, etc etc. It’s not true at all, but it’s a tough myth to beat.

Another reason that the information in this book will be ignored is that the media and others will never publish “dog bites man” stories. So if the stats clearly show that church attendance can be positively equated with lower drug abuse, physical abuse, and divorce…well, who’s going to focus on that? But if one pastor among a thousand is found passed out in front of a strip club, it’s front page news.

And then there’s the final reason this information isn’t going to be mainstream…because we as church attenders don’t really want it to be. There is a vested interest in crying that the sky is falling. Saying that kids are dropping out of church is a great way to promote the need for your youth conference. Saying that people do not share their faith is a great way to sell your book on how to share your faith. Saying that Christians do not care enough for the poor is a great way to ask Christians to give more to the poor. Get the idea? We use fear, guilt and false information to drive people to the conclusion we want.

It’s a book anybody in Christian service should read. I hope they do.