Sociologist Bradley Wright has a new book out titled Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You've Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths from the Secular and Christian Media. It has been reviewed extensively in recent days by bloggers including Scot McKnight, John Ortberg, and Andy Rowell.

John Ortberg describes the premise of the book well:

Wright is a sociologist from an Ivy League school who brings a peer-review, academic rigor to data-analysis. He notes that we in the evangelical community are notoriously bad about swallowing and repeating alarmist statistics about our society and our movement. He suggests that this is because alarmist statistics create a felt need for churches/books/programs/talks; whereas data that may be accurate but non-alarming does not create a burning platform.

He also notes that we are suckers for statistics; and that distorted statistics from bad methodology get quoted as if they were gospel. Many statistics get virtually plucked from thin air. The odds are fifty-fifty that the next statistic you hear will be true. And there's only a ten percent chance of that.

The cost of blindly repeating erroneous alarmist information is that we disregard truth, we train people to respond to a culture of alarmism, we create a negative self-fulfilling prophecy, and we develop sloppy intellectual habits that undermine the credibility of our message.

I was privileged to write the foreword for the book, which I am providing for you here:

"Why do you evangelicals love to make up and say such bad things about yourselves?" was the question that seemed quite off-topic at the moment. I was at the Washington Post building in D.C. to address a room filled with reporters with the Religion Newswriters Association. My topic was to give my thoughts on the difference between good research and bad research. But the question that came out of what felt like left field was actually quite appropriate.

For some reason, modern American Christians show a strong desire to communicate a certain angst about our circumstances. But the angst is not always founded and our penchant for humorous and healthy self-deprecation. Everywhere I turn, it seems the sky is falling and believers talk about the church like the church is barely worth mentioning. Even knowing that our culture is doubtful of the church, we seem to--at times--take their doubt to extremes, far beyond what real research shows.

In the moment of questioning at the Washington Post, I gave a reasonable answer. Hopefully it was a winsome defense of the church and the Christian's desire for humility. If asked the question today, my response might be a short "I don't know."

Each year, a new soul-seizing factoid that has no basis in truth circulates through the church and then through the culture.

• "Christianity will die out in this generation unless we do something now."
• "Only 4 percent of this generation is Christian."
• "Ninety-four percent of teenagers drop out of church, never to return again."

As Christians, we need to care about our reputation. The Scripture teaches that we will be known by our love. In ancient history, the church often stayed in the places others fled--taking care of the sick and hurting and earning a reputation for doing good and standing for what is right. Throughout the centuries, it has been the church that has cared for the widow, adopted the orphan, and fed the hungry.

In our modern day, it is the church that feeds the homeless after an earthquake in Haiti, digs wells in Africa, and delivers the message of redemption across the globe. Members of the church belonging to Christ should have the best reputation of any people in history.

We should be a people through whom God's glory is reflected, not the world's anger is revealed. But, we all know that our reputation is tarnished--just perhaps not as much as we might think.

Brad Wright is calling us to leave behind the sensational, tabloid rhetoric about ourselves. We all should feel the call to ministry and missions that drives the church to deliver transformation to society. Christians need to reflect the values of God's kingdom everyday and not wait for some impending day to arrive to finally show our "true colors" once Christ comes back.

As the president of LifeWay Research, I deal with statistics almost every day. What I've learned is that 68% of stats are made up on the spot. (That's a joke--just in case you are wondering.) Seriously, I believe that facts are our friends. But a misrepresentation of facts--even for the purpose of motivation--is damaging to our cause. Facts are our friends, but real facts matter--not just ones that motivate us, but the ones that are true.

Rather than wallow in the thought that we are despised, we should live in the truth that we are given the ministry of reconciliation. As believers live as those who have hope to distribute, we will see the work of Christ transform both the culture that puzzles us and the church we love.

Fact is, some people don't like us, but probably not as many as you might have heard. Yes, there are some struggles, but not as many as you might have been led to believe. But, either way, we need to get to work--armed with right information and biblical motivation. Brad Wright provides us with helpful direction to be well informed and to be about kingdom work.

You can purchase Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You've Been Told here.