Dave Pack's Selective Use of Statistics

LCG apologist Bob Thiel has revealed some of the dishonest tactics used by Dave Pack to lure people into his group in his News of Those Once Affiliated with the Global Church of God page.

From the January 26 update:

If RCG had the fruits, RCG would publicly list its income for each year since it formed, its members for each year since it formed, and other statistics. Instead, David Pack has demonstrated a pattern of pointing to one or two statistics one year, then others in other years, while at the same time not revealing publicly his membership.

This selective use of statistics seems to have worked for him, but this is not proof of fruits.

And from the January 27 update:

RCG's David Pack has a history of selectively focusing on certain statistics to give the impression that RCG has phenomenal growth or is highly successful in some area.

Yet, he tends to be inconsistent in the fact that David Pack has to change what particular area he is reporting about. For example, for nearly a year he has been focused on the number of what he calls "church inquiries" that RCG gets and how that has increased. In 2010, that total number of inquiries was 4,790. Now the fact that the Living Church of God has often received more responses to its telecast in a single week than RCG's record high "church inquiries" is discounted by David Pack.

But there is more. David Pack historically has made a big deal about his internet reach. He even asked his membership to take out mortgages on their homes and cash out their retirements a few years back so that, amongst other things, RCG would improve its internet reach.

Yet, David Pack has no longer been making such a big deal of his internet reach.

Why?

Well, perhaps because RCG does not do that well with it right now.

For example, as of this morning, according to Alexa (an independent internet rating company), RCG's thercg.org website had an internet ranking of 185,503. This means that 185,502 websites are more popular than RCG's. And while 185,503 is not a bad ranking, the COGwriter website had an Alexa internet ranking of 154,255 this morning.

This means that the COGwriter website, which has never spent any money on advertising itself, is significantly more popular than RCG's, despite the fact that RCG does spend advertising money to promote its website.

So if you ever find his group alluring and you hear the siren song to join with Pack and Co. just remember that he selectively use only the statistics that make RCG look successful.

It is a cunning slight of hand.