100 years of Progress

We’ve come a long way baby……………….

I received an email this week with some interesting statistics about 1909:

- The average wage was 22 cents an hour
- 95% of all births took place at home
- Eggs were 14 cents a dozen
- 8% of homes had a telephone
- 6% of Americans graduated from high school
- 2 0f 10 adults couldn't read or write

I cannot corroborate any of the above.

The email also listed the 5 leading causes of death, one of which was diarrhea. So I did look this up (www.cdc.gov) and found that diarrhea was indeed the 4th leading cause of death in 1909. By 1911 it was down to 6th, 8th in 1918, out of the top 10 in 1933 and gone from the top 20 by 1960.

We’ve come a long way baby……………………….or have we?

One of the top 5 culprits in killing 30,000 children under the age of five today (and by today I mean in the last 24 hours): diarrhea.

And tomorrow we lose 30,000 more.

Isolate

Read Ezekiel 16:49. Better yet read Ezekiel chapter 16. It's basically the story of God picking up the nation of Israel out of the the blood and muck after her being discarded and thrown away at her birth. How God saw her and rescued her and gently and lovingly cleaned her up. God nurtures her and adorns her with fine clothing and shining jewelry. He puts a crown on her head and takes her as his wife.

And she prostitutes herself.

So in verse 49 God compares Israel to a town called Sodom. Sodom was completely wiped out by God because the town was so wicked. There was constant lewd sex and drunkenness and revelry all day and night. So God wipes out the town.

But verse 49 clarifies Sodom's sins some and they sound a lot more broad and general to me. It says "Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony and laziness, while she closed her borders to the poor and needy, in hopes of protecting her own interests."

Okay it doesn't say that exactly. My paraphrase.

In the New Living Translation: "Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door."

Ouch.

If you're a reader check out "The Last Town on Earth" by Thomas Mullen. It's a novel set in 1918. While the country was embroiled in war a plague of biblical magnitude erupts on the home front. The town of Commonwealth, Washington decides to isolate itself and keep everyone from coming and going, by all means necessary. Check this book out and see how it worked out for them.