Precious in His Sight Historical and Statistical Sources

Throughout our recent Precious in His Sight series, we used a number of current statistics and historical facts in our sermons and book. In an age of “alternative facts” and millennial skepticism of all things authority, many of us are hesitant to accept stats without researching their source. Which can be a great thing; since so many people are trying to convince you of so many different things for so many different reasons.

As much as any series before, your pastors worked their tails off to research for this series and we are happy to provide you with sources for as many stats and historical references as we could find quickly by scanning back through the sermons and the book. If you notice anything you find questionable in a sermon or book that isn’t sourced here, just shoot us an email at hello@midtowncolumbia.com, and we will get you the source as quickly as possible.

Statistical References from our Sermons:

Week 1 - Red & Yellow, Black & White

Stats included in the sermon:

  • The median white household had $111,146 in wealth holdings (meaning everything you own) in 2011, compared to $7,113 for the median black household and $8,348 for the median Latino household.

  • When you further control for education the disparity grows. College degree headed household $301,300 vs $26,300.

  • Median household income - $71,300 vs $43,300. 40% higher for white americans.

Source: US Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation found here.

Stat included in sermon:

  • African american babies die at a rate over twice the frequency of white babies.

Source: Study done and published in the American Journal of Public Health found here and referenced in Time magazine here.

Stat included in sermon:

  • “Black mothers are almost four times more likely to die in childbirth that white americans.”

Source: Center for Disease Control report found here.

Stat included in sermon:

  • Young african american males are 6 times more likely to be murdered than are young white american males.

Source: Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics found here.


Week 2 - On Earth As It Is In Heaven

  • No social statistics were used in this sermon.


Week 3 - The Privilege of Good Deeds

These stats were re-referenced from week 1:

  • The median white household had $111,146 in wealth holdings (meaning everything you own) in 2011, compared to $7,113 for the median black household and $8,348 for the median Latino household.

  • When you further control for education the disparity grows. College degree headed household $301,300 vs $26,300.

Source: US Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation found here.

Stat included in sermon:

  • Equivalent black-owned homes are valued 18% lower than white-owned homes. Even when you control for income, age, social class, architecture, and geography.

Source: 2001 Brookings Institute Study referenced here in Forbes Magazine.

Stat included in sermon:

  • Sociologists have found that if the percentage of minority people in a neighborhood grows past a 13-15% “tipping point”, white people start to leave the neighborhood.

Source: Study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found here and referenced in the NY Times here.

Week 4 - Gospel Weapons that Disarm

  • No social statistics were used in this sermon.

Week 5 - Today is History (Question and Answer Panel)

Stat included in sermon:

  • In the question about why we focussed this series on black and white relations instead of other minorities in America, we answered that part of the reason is because Columbia’s population is 49.6% white and 41.7% black.

Source: 2010 US Census found here and referenced here.