Wright, Bradley R. E. Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media. Bethany House, 2010. ISBN: 9780764207464
Meet the Author
Bradley Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. After keeping quiet about his Christian faith early in his career, Wright became more open after gaining tenure. His specialties include religion, social psychology and crime. Wright’s previous publications have been scholarly in nature and include numerous journal articles and teaching materials. For more information, visit his website, view his faculty page, or read his blog.
Book Basics
Most Christians suffer from repeated exposure to statistics that suggest doom and gloom about the present and/or future of American Christianity. Wright seeks to help his readers be more discerning regarding any and all statistics they encounter, but especially those that portray Christianity negatively. In the introduction he compares the work of his book to the television show MythBusters, clarifying that his goal is to write about how Christians are really doing in six key areas: church growth, what we believe, our participation in church activities, family and sexual issues, how we treat others, and how others see us. While the book repeatedly compares how well a variety of groups (Evangelical, Black Protestant, Mainline, Catholic, Jewish, Non-Affiliated, and Other Religions) measure up to the issue being considered, the focus of is on Evangelical Christians.
From helping illustrate why Christian leaders, marketers, and non-profit organizations use flawed data and portray an unrealistically negative view of the present state of American Christianity to showing that there is no data to support the claim that there is an unprecedented loss of young people to establishing a strong statistical link between church attendance and Christian behavior, Wright encourages his readers to picture the American church as it really is and not as myths portray it to be. He validates the work of others including Roger Finke, Rodney Stark, and Robert Wuthnow, while pointing out shortcomings in research done by the Barna Group and other Christian research firms and by people such as Josh McDowell, David Kinnamon, and Gabe Lyons.
In his concluding chapter, Wright summarizes his findings about Evangelical Christianity in America by providing a report card with letter grades for each of the six disciplines. Overall, professor Wright settles on a B for the current state of Evangelical Christianity in this country. The emphasis on the book is providing a realistic understanding of the church as it is today. This is achieved by pointing out that in most cases the current state of affairs is better than the image projected by the media, but also by showing that Christians, especially Evangelicals, have much work do to in some key areas including how we treat others (with the lowest grades in the sub-areas of loving behaviors, attitudes toward blacks, and attitudes toward gays). In short, “It appears that in many ways, here in America, Evangelical Christianity in particular, and Christianity as a whole, is doing a pretty good job of being the church” (p. 213).
So What?
If you are a Christian and live in America, what do you think of the state of American Christianity? What do you think outsiders think of us?
- What sources do you draw from when creating your perspective?
- What kinds of negative statistics have you come across of late and where did you find these (e.g. marketing materials, magazine articles, sermons)?
- Have you sought to test the validity of statistics and other information offering negative portrayals or do you tend to trust it because it comes from an authoritative source?
I encourage you to reconsider the health of American Christianity. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. Learn how things really are and build from there rather than from misperceptions.
Note: For those interested in another solid resource for considering this issue, consider Rodney Stark’s What Americans Really Believe (2008). Click here to read my review of that book.