The following facts have been culled from the bulletin of the American Association of Christian Counselors, "For the Record: The Foster Report," by Gary D. Foster.

  • Gay - The average US adult believes 25% of the population is homosexual, according to a new Gallup poll. The tendency to overstate this statistic is reinforced by the liberal media. Actual part of the population who are homosexual: only 1-4%, according to the best data available.
  • Potato chips  - these are the biggest demon behind the pound-a-year weight creep that plagues many of us -- bigger than soda, candy, and ice cream. (New England Journal of Medicine, 6/23/11).
  • Poverty - More than 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day.
  • Television - Watching an hour of TV after the age of 25 can shorten the viewer's life by just under 22 minutes, according to University of Queensland researchers. Smoking 2 cigarettes has approximately the same effect. The problem is not actually TV itself, but the lack of activity on the part of the viewer for long periods. Cardiovascular disease, excess weight, diabetes, and other health problems result from a sedentary lifestyle. (MSNBC and Reuters, 8/7/11)
  • Media - A Northwestern University study finds minority youth (age 8-18) spend an average of 13 hours exposed to media a day, nearly 5 hours more than the average white youth. Asian Americans logged the most media use (13+ hours), followed by Hispanics (13), blacks (just under 13), and whites (8.6 hours/day). Youth 8-18 devote an average 7.65 hours/day to using entertainment media, yet they spend only 16-20 minutes/day on school-focused activities. (Christian Post 6/17/11)
  • Binge-drinking - A Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey finds nearly one in four Americans has participated in binge drinking in the past month. Further, 8.4% have used an illegal drug in the past 30 days. Nearly 9% of Americans 12-17 years old binge-drink, and 6.4% of students of all ages have used marijuana in the past month. (Christian Post, 7/21/11)
  • Skeptics growing - The fastest-growing faith group in America is the Skeptics. Comprised of a combination of atheists and agnostics, the segment has doubled in size in the last 25 years. (Futurecast, George Barna, Tyndale House, 2011)
  • Involved fathers - According to a 26-year longitudinal study, the strongest factor indicating whether children practiced high levels of empathic concern for others in their adult years was whether they had an involved father in their lives. In fact, father care was a stronger indicator here than the top three other strongest maternal factors combined. (Pastor's Weekly Briefing, 8/5/11)
  • Education and divorce - The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia has found just 11% of college-educated Americans divorce within the first 10 years of marriage, compared with almost 37% for the rest of the population. (CitizenLink 6/22/11).
  • Single mothers - The number of single mothers in the US has tripled since 1976, and 38% of mothers who gave birth in 2010 were single.
  • And just 27% of American kids live with their biological mother and father.

For more on the American Assocation of Christian Counselors (of which I am a member), visit http://www.aacc.net.