THE PROBLEM WITH STATISTICS

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ . . . (Ephesians 4:15).

The problem with statistics is that they often do not tell the truth.  This is what prompted Benjamin Disraeli to say, "there are three kinds of lies, lies, damned lies and statistics."  Very often statistic are only  factoids, meaning that they look factual, they sound factual because the researchers have some credibility behind them, but the research is flawed so that what appears to be a fact is not a fact, it is only a factoid.  So, question the research!

A conversation I had recently with a pastor who fell into the trap of statistics that all of us fall into is what precipitates this "bullet."  He repeated this statistic that Christians divorce at the same rate as non Christians. That stat has been out there for 15 years--I remember dealing with it in grad school.  First, it must be noted that there are some reasons why Christians should divorce, there are circumstances when there is no other choice.  Having said that, I am going to mention a blurb by Gary Foster in the Christian Counseling Connection that reports some of the most recent research that more likely fits reality:

The research actually showed couples who are active in their faith are much less likely to divorce.  Catholic couples were 31% less likely.  Protestant couples 35% and Jewish couples 97%. (Foster quoted Ed Stetzer's Church Report).

If one wants to question this research, that's okay, but from my experience, it fits reality much better.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom