A student in my statistics class had come to my office for help. He was plenty capable, but since he was very active in student government and in his fraternity, he hadn’t put in the time needed to master the material. After we had worked together for some time, he became frustrated and impatient, wanting understanding to come a little easier; he wondered why he even had to take the course, which was required for his major. Finally, he said, “I don’t need to know anything. I’m going to be a lawyer!”

After being shocked and then suppressing a chuckle, I acknowledged his frustration and then gave an explanation of the importance of the material. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but in such situations I usually said that I felt it was a valuable tool for every citizen. In newspapers, television and now on the internet, we are constantly told about new medical studies, political polls, or scientific discoveries, and all are couched in statistical terms. We need to be able to evaluate the validity and importance of these. When making personal medical decisions, voting decisions, policy decisions, and in forming opinions we need to understand what the statistics are telling us. In the course in question, we spent a lot of time talking about sources of bias, which should have been important to a potential lawyer. Ironically I later received a manuscript from a former student. He was in the third year of law school and was taking an elective course on Statistics and the Law. The manuscript was for a book his professor was writing on the subject.

In our religious lives we often hear frustration about the Christian church; people point to sexual abuse, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, insularity, rigid involvement in politics, and ignoring the needs of the unfortunate by the Church and its members. How do we address these criticisms? Our natural tendency is to be defensive, but this sort of implies that we believe the Gospel is weak and needs our help. Our goal should be to show how it is meaningful and valuable. We need to be honest and acknowledge that many criticisms of the Church, full of sinners as it is, are valid, but note that God’s grace is given to all, including us. I have to confess that I sometimes find it easier to explain the importance of statistics than that of the Christian faith. It shouldn’t be that way. It should be easy to talk about a God that loves us all unconditionally.

Jim