St. Andrews in Scotland is known as the home of golf. The game started there, and there is a Golf Museum near the 18th green that commemorates that fact. What you may not know about me is that I once came 3rd in a golf tournament at St. Andrews.
Sounds impressive doesn’t it? Actually, it sounds SUPER impressive. Yes, Pastor John must be a great golf player, right?
But here’s the thing. What I told you is true. No false statement was made. I did come 3rd in a golf tournament at St. Andrews. But that statistic gives a very false impression. Allow me to explain.
On a short preaching tour of 2 weeks in the United Kingdom a couple of decades ago, I had preached at nearby Dundee, Scotland on a Sunday. The following day (Monday), the Pastor of the Church had a day off and asked me to join his wife to go to St. Andrews to see the sights. I visited the golf museum and was then asked if I wanted to play a round of 18 holes. The main course had a 6-8 month waiting list and the price would have been crazy anyway, and so that was out of the question, should a round of golf even had been available. So, we did what we could do… the three of us decided to play the 18 holes of the putting greens adjacent to the main course.
You can perhaps guess what happened. The three of us – the pastor, his wife and me – played the 18 holes, and, I had a horrible round. I bogeyed almost every hole. It got so bad at one point that on a couple of holes, we stopped counting after six strokes. Yes, I did terribly. Three players played and I came third – dead last!
But I could come away from my terrible display by spinning the story to make it sound oh so impressive…. Yes, did you know I once came third at a golf tournament at St. Andrews?
The moral of the story… statistics can be true but can also give a very false impression. It is what was not told that misleads people. This is intentional and happens all the time in our world today.
Why do I write all this?
Well, the New York Times recently wrote an article targeting churches for the spread of COVID-19. As this article (by way of response) explains, it is what we were not told in the NYT statistics that presents a very false narrative: https://www.challies.com/articles/are-churches-a-major-source-of-coronavirus-cases/