Some statistics that made me stop a minute....

Some statistics that made me stop a minute…so, naturally interested to see what you think

America controls nearly 20 percent of the world's wealth. There are around 6 billion people in the world, and there are roughly 300 million people in the US. That makes America less than 5 percent of the world's population. And this 5 percent owns a fifth of the world's wealth.

1 billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses 400 to 600 of liters of water a day.

Every 7 seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age 5 dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14 percent of the food we purchase.

Nearly 1 billion people in the world live on less than 1 American dollar a day.

Another 2.5 billion people in the world live on less than 2 dollars a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week.

40 percent of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.

1.6 billion in the world have no electricity.

Nearly 1 billion people in the world cannot read or sign their name.

Nearly 100 million children are denied basic education.

By far, most of the people in the world do not own a car.

One-third of American families own 3 cars.

1 in 7 children worldwide (158 million) has to go to work every day just to survive.

4 out of 5 American adults are high school graduates.

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

Now, when many people get a glimpse of how the world really is, whether it's through travel or study or reading statistics like the ones we just cited, it can quickly lead to guilt. We have so much, while others have so little.

Guilt is not helpful.

Honesty is helpful. Awareness is helpful. Knowledge is helpful.

Guilt isn't.

-An excerpt taken from Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile, by Rob Bell and Don Golden (122-123)
-Most of the Statistics are from UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, World Bank, and The CIA World Fact Book