Recently I spoke with a friend named Carol (name changed) who had just returned from a difficult ocean cruise. She works for an organization that was helping to sponsor the getaway for a group of more than 1,000 people. In the middle of winter, Carol flew with her colleagues from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama, where they were to board the ship. As she and hundreds of other excited vacationers waited ...

Boston's Charles Street jail used to be home to the city's most notorious characters. Among its former inmates was Frank Abagnale, Jr., the con artist portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the feature film "Catch Me If You Can" (Steven Spielberg, 2002). Once the paragon of prison architecture, the facility fell into disrepair by the 1960s, when it became overcrowded, riotous, and filthy with pigeon droppings. ...

Editor's Note: This is a great scene that shows the mindset of someone consumed by materialism. A word of caution is in order, however: Toward the end of this clip, the last 5-8 seconds or so can be interpreted as being sexual in nature. Though the general ratings system does not list the scene as sexual in nature, we were concerned enough to give you ample warning should you use this scene. You will ...

In 2009, Bank of America asked 1,000 adults (18 and older) what they would do if they were given $1,000. Of those surveyed:

• Forty-eight percent said they would put it all in a general savings account.
• Twenty-seven percent said they would use it to pay off credit card debt.
• Twelve percent said they would put it in their child's educational fund.
• Ten percent said they would use it for health care expenses.

Percentage of Americans who say the current recession has served as payback for overindulging: 42 percent

Percentage of Americans who say the current recession has shown them what's important: 38 percent

Percentage of Americans who say the current recession proves capitalism is bad: 14 percent

What U.S. adults say is their idea of the American Dream:

• Free to accomplish anything: 74 percent
• Free to say/do what they want: 68 percent
• Children financially better-off: 64 percent
• Being financially secure: 61 percent

On the surface, it sounds like a healthy company was rewarding its best and brightest. Over 400 employees recently received bonuses. Three-fourths of the company received more than $100,000. Fifty-one employees received $1 to $2 million; fifteen received more that $2 million, and six received $4 million. The highest bonus stood at $6.4 million.

Bonuses, [$165 million in bonuses.]

But these bonuses were ...

To help Americans understand poverty in its truest sense, Robert L. Heilbroner, a prominent U.S. economist, itemized the luxuries most U.S. citizens would have to abandon if they were to adopt the lifestyle of their 1.2 billion neighbors who truly live in poverty:

We begin by invading the house of our imaginary American family to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes: beds, chairs, tables, television ...

My friend Ashish came from Northern India to visit me in Chicago. We were eating at Gino's Pizzeria one day and ran into a youth pastor I know, along with his youth group. Just returned from Central America, they were debriefing. "So what did you learn from your trip?" Ashish asked. Student after student obsessed about the poverty of "those poor people." After they left, Ashish said, "Why do they ...

In his book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Rob Bell offers some startling statistics about America's affluence:

...

One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, while the average American uses four hundred to six hundred liters of water a day.

Every seven seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age five dies of hunger, while Americans throw away 14 percent of the food ...