January 2007

For a moment, step outside of our country, take a look at the world as a whole.

6 billion people live in the world. 

1.2 billion people live on $.23 a day. 

Of the 6 billion people, over half live on less than $2 a day.

The richest billion live on $70 a day or more.

The three richest people in the world are American.  Their combined wealth exceeds the GNP of all of the worlds least developed countries.

12% of the world’s population uses 85% of it’s water.

40% of the world lacks basic sanitation facilitation causing a vicious cycle of sickness.

1 billion people are without safe drinking water.

Americans consume 26 billion litres of bottled water annually.

Every 16 seconds, someone in the world dies of hunger.

2 out of 3 Americans are considered overweight.

America represents 5-6% of the world’s population.  We have somewhere over 21% of it’s total capital.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world does on all goods combined.

Wood consumption per day (paper products included) World:  4 lbs.  America 14 lbs. 

80% of the world lives in housing that is considered substandard.

Average square foot per new home:  Ireland - 930   UK- 815    Japan - 1,000   US - 2,349

2 Billion people in the world have no electricity.

1 Billion people in the world cannot sign their name.

1% of people in the world own a computer.

1% of people in the world have a college education.

4 out of 5 American adults are high school graduates.

1 out of 4 children world wide have to go to work everyday instead of going to school.

8% of people in the world own a car.

One-third of American families have three cars.

U.S. Consumes 20 million barrels of oil…per day.  China is second at 5.6,  then Japan at 5.5.  20 million barrels is the same as cirlcing the globe at the equator 6 times with one gallon cans of oil, 147,000 miles of cans, per day.

The U.S. has 5%  of the world’s population, and we consume 25% of the world’s oil supply.

The U.S. holds 42.8% of the world’s weapons.

In 2002, the U.S. spent more on defense than the next 18 biggest spenders…combined.

The war in Iraq?  Click on cost to check out some sobering numbers.

Cost of general education for everyone in the world?  $6 Billion

Water and sanitation for the whole world?  $9 Billion

Basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world?  $13 Billion

Money spent by American shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving 2006?  $9 Billion

Do we realize how much we have, how much we have the capability to do?  Regardless of how we see ourselves, the world perceives us as a Christian nation.  The world can’t seem to comprehend the confusing message we send.

It’s alot harder to drop a bomb on someone who just fed you.  It’s alot harder to be angry at someone who just built a school in your community.  

The idea of America is brilliant.  But can’t we use the idea of life, love, and the pursuit of happiness as a tool to serve others instead of serving ourselves?

Never before in history has there been a group of people as resourced as America today. 

Choose to believe something different.

Statistics and thoughts courtesy of Rob Bell and Mars Hill ”Calling All Peacemakers“  Audio downloadable for free!

I am halfway through my sociology class.  As I currently understand things, it is very difficult, almost impossible for change to be created by those who govern, who are responsible for creating the social systems that we find ourselves subject to.  Great change, if it is to happen, must be a movement of the people, who have more power than those who govern would like us to believe.  Too often, we wax eloquently, and sit by idly, hoping that the next elected official will create the change we’d like to see.  If change is to happen, it is up to us to make it happen.  

I came across this quote today in the New York Times: 

“The most effective answer to this leadership vacuum would be a new era of political activism by ordinary citizens. The biggest, most far-reaching changes of the past century — the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement — were not primarily the result of elective politics, but rather the hard work of committed citizen-activists fed up with the status quo. It’s time for thoughtful citizens to turn off their TVs and step into the public arena. Protest. Attend meetings. Circulate petitions. Run for office. I suspect the public right now is way ahead of the politicians when it comes to ideas about creating a more peaceful, more equitable, more intelligent society.”

- Bob Herbert, New York Times columnist. (Source: The New York Times, January 25, 2007)

What if we began to do the things we wish government would do?  Provide better educational opportunites, change healthcare, positively impact poverty.  Are there enough private dollars and innovative, enterprising minds to do these things without them being federally mandated activities?

Choose to believe something different.

Several days ago, my daughter Gracie found a kid’s Bible on her book shelf.  ”Daddy, when are we going to go to church again?”   Her sister Ellie was sitting nearby with a look of agreement on her little face.

“Girls, I’m not sure if this is going to make sense, but let me try to explain it, we actually go to church all the time…”

I went on to explain that when Jesus says, “come follow me, I think you can be like me,” those that follow Him,  He calls them the church.  So we are the church, you and me and Mommy and Ellie.  Everywhere we go is church.  Church isn’t a splace that we go it’s a way that we live.  Like, when you share with your sister, or someone at school, you are being the church.  When you help me take our neighbor’s trash can to the curb, we are being the church.  When we take time to celebrate what cool things happened in our day, we are being the church.  When we have friends over for dinner, we are being the church.  

“Does that make sense?”, I asked.

“Hmmm…” was her response.

Later on that night, I put them to bed and came downstairs.  A few minutes later they began going through their stalling checklist, where they take turns coming to the top of the stairs and asking for things. 

“Daddy, I need some medicine for my runny nose.”

“You’ll be fine, go to bed.”

“Daddy, I need some water.”

“No more water tonight.”

“Daddy, can we turn the light on, I can’t find my blanket.”

It continues, on like this, with me giving a response that is never to their liking.  Then I hear both of them at the top of the stairs, and in unison they shout, “Daddy, you aren’t being the church!”

I think they understand, all too well.        

“I’m not gonna blame it on global warming.  It’s all just a cycle.  Anyway, man has been polluting since the beginning of time.  We’ll just do what we’ve always done, and that’s adapt.  Besides, even if it is global warming, nothing too disastrous is going to happen during my lifetime.”

          -Middle-aged man sitting across from us on a train to Chicago in response to a comment about how warm the temperature seemed for December 29th.

“When men can generally acquiesce in, even relish, the destruction of their living contemporaries, when they can regard with indifference or irritation the fate of those who live in slums, rot in prison, or starve in lands that have meaning only insofar as they are vacation resorts, why should they be expected to take the painful actions to prevent the destruction of future generations whose faces they will never live to see?”

     -Robert L. Heilbroner

Choose to believe something different.