I’d like to poll the pollsters

I came home from the SC Republican Party Convention this afternoon and checked my e-mail. There was a Zogby poll for me to complete, the second this month which is more than normal.

I signed up to be a pollster several years ago, and the poll topics usually range from buying habits of household products to healthcare.  Today the topic was Presidential politics. Who did I think was best at management, or best at uniting the nation, or best at representing the USA to the world.  That sort of question.

But a strange name appeared in the list of announced candidates for President from the two mainline parties: our South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford.

Why was his name on the list, I wondered? Could it be because although my name doesn’t appear on my answers anywhere, my state does? Hmmmmm.  (He is NOT a candidate for President, according to him, and I believe him. I think he has better sense at this point in his career.)

I had a real problem with the Zogby poll a year or so ago when one of their questions was an obvious push poll question. It listed no choice among the suggested responses that answered the question legitimately for me, and there was no “Other” choice either.

Further, you had to select one of the bogus choices to progress to the next question or exit the poll altogether, which then wouldn’t count.

I chose the least objectionable answer and then emailed the Zogby people with my low opinion of their fraudulent poll question.  I added that finding this bogus question among what seemed like legitimate questions had substantially lowered my opinion of the Zogby company overall.

I got no response of any kind. I don’t think I actually expected one but it would have been nice.

For the next several months I just deleted their polls without opening them.

This year with presidential politics going full speed ahead, I decided to give them another try.  Until today I had felt a little better about their questions and multiple-choice answers. Now I’m back to wondering just what they are thinking.

Do they think I can live in this state and be unaware that Mark Sanford is my Governor?  Perhaps are they trying to suggest that Mark is a stealth candidate. Or maybe they are trying to persuade him or someone else that he’d be a good Veep pick…

I’d like to poll the pollsters and give them a multiple-choice question of my own:

What is the purpose of your so-called polling?

a. None, I just think it’s fun to run people around in circles

b. I want to direct people’s thinking in the way I want it to go

c. If enough people answer these things I can make a living off of them

d. Who knows and who cares, the media just eat this stuff up

e. You don’t think this polling stuff is for real, do you

Interesting week

Monday I started volunteer work at the OM Ships Partners Office which moved to Florence last summer. To get an idea of how “green” I feel, check out the OM Ships website -

I first heard of Operation Mobilisation over twenty years ago when the daughter of a friend of Tim’s served aboard one of the ships for several years. This is a worldwide, interdenominational missions organization celebrating its 50th year in 2007.

So far I have been meeting people and thinking, reading books, newsletters and websites and thinking, asking questions and listening and thinking, praying and meditating and thinking.

Next week I will start interviewing other OM Ships volunteers. Who are these mission-minded folks? How did they learn about OM and OM Ships? When did they “come aboard?” (though many work on land). What is their area of work?

After that I will start writing for a new local OM Ships newsletter, website and email updates.

Later this year I hope to visit the newest OM ship, the Logos Hope, currently being prepared in a Croatian shipyard. This will be an exciting addition to the ministry!

If you’d like to receive one of the newsletters or emails, let me know, bettecox@bellsouth.net.

Say what?

Excuse me? Pardon? How’s that? Huh? M’aam? Say again? What’d you say?

That really drives me up a wall, know what I mean?  They went off the deep end that time.  He’s lost his marbles.  She’s got bats in the belfry.

Some phrases don’t need a translation, they paint a word picture that’s fairly easy to understand.  “Lower than a snake’s belly,” for instance.  Either someone is really depressed or they are very dishonest.  (Low down, no good crook.)

Other phrases need a bit of explanation to a non-Southerner.  Bats we know, but what is a belfry?

It’s a bell tower.

Well, don’t most bell towers have bats?  I see.  Belfry is slang for brains, bats come and go, flit around and make messes, so you should not have bats in your belfry.  Is that it?  No?  Why not?

It means nutty as a fruitcake.  

But shouldn’t fruitcakes contain nuts?  Yes, but this is different.  

There is a problem sometimes with good old Southern communication.  It doesn’t.  Do they make a dictionary for Southern slang?  We use it so much down here in the good old Pee Dee, we think it’s proper English.

I’m re-thinking my normal speech patterns these days, which is probably a good thing.

What Then?

What Then?

A friend came up to me after church Sunday and said, “You know, Jesus could come back any day now, isn’t that exciting?” I said, “Yes, and what do you think will happen next?”

She said, “Well, we’ll….” and paused. She couldn’t think exactly what would happen next. I reminded her that there will be 1000 years of Jesus reigning on the earth after that. But just before he returns there will be Armageddon.

“Oh yes, that’s right,” she replied. For a moment I think she had imagined as soon as Jesus returned some heavenly resort would cover the earth and there would be nothing for us to do for a thousand years except party. Praise and worship and party.

How many Christians wishing Jesus would return today have the same idea, that during the millennium there will be nothing but peace, parties and prosperity everywhere?

Actually some end-time experts don’t believe Jesus could come back today. In Matthew 24:14 he told the disciples, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to the nations (ethne, people groups) and then the end will come.” There are still thousands of people groups who haven’t heard the gospel so Jesus can’t come back yet, according to those experts.

But it occurs to me that the usual idea of that verse being fulfilled is a group of people in their home country somewhere listening to a missionary preaching the gospel. It doesn’t require that scenario, however; if one or two members of a people group travels outside their normal area and hear the gospel, that verse is fulfilled for them. Or if they hear if by way of radio, television or internet. The verse doesn’t say the group must become believers, either. It doesn’t say a church must be established there. Whether they accept it or not, hearing the gospel preached fulfills the verse. There may well be fewer people groups who haven’t heard the gospel than those experts think. Jesus’s return may be very soon.

Then what? The verses preceding and following Matthew 24:14 as well as Luke chapter 21 describe vicious wars and destruction, earthquakes, signs (like volcanos, perhaps – Mt. Etna is erupting today as I write this), persecution of Christians, false prophets, and believers abandoning the faith.

What will the planet earth look like when Jesus returns? Certainly not a resort. Think about the news videos after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, or after the tsunami in Indonesia. Looked pretty grim to me.

Who will be here when Jesus arrives back with the glorified believers from heaven following him? Let’s see. The believers remaining on earth will be here. They will be changed at that time so all Christians will have a glorified (enhanced) body like that of Jesus (see I Corinthians 15:52). They are going to need it, I think.

And the unbelievers who were not killed in those final days of destructions will be here. We know they will not all be killed because Revelations 20:7-9 mentions nations on the earth during that thousand years. Some people no doubt will become believers, but the ones that don’t will be deceived by the devil who is released from his jail at the end of the thousand years, and another war will take place.

During that thousand years the glorified Christians will be ruling and reigning with Jesus over somebody. Who? Over each other, and over the unglorified humans who are still here on earth, whether they become believers or not during the millennium. A government structure with Jesus at the top will take care of all the needed repairs, reconstruction, resupply and order.

What will need to be done? After any war there is a lot of clean-up needed. Rebuilding. Infrastructure will have to be re-built, communication re-established, medical care, food, clothing, housing, and employment provided. There will be plenty of work to do and none of us will be taking extended vacations.

Instead of complacently anticipating a glorious eternity of rest and recreation when Jesus returns, I think the church should be preparing, training and planning now for those days that will come next. Otherwise the first thing Jesus will have to build is a kindergarten for his church.