The Problem of Polls

As everyone knows beyond a shadow of a doubt, "81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump." How do we know that? Exit polls. There ya go!

Here's the problem. Polls in and of themselves are problematic. They take a sample, not a whole picture. And they ask questions. In today's world, that is a problem. In a society that cannot grasp "male and female", the idea that "marriage" means something, or that a thousand other terms that are commonly understood are not commonly understood, how would we expect a poll to be accurate? Worse, since most polls are "opinion polls" and we know that the world is blinded (2 Cor 4:4) and deceived (Jer 17:9), why would we expect good, valid opinions?

Consider. How many Americans are in favor of banning assault weapons? Well, I'd argue that it is impossible to tell because there is no definition of "assault weapons" available to ask about. The dictionary says "a weapon designed for use in warfare", but that would include knives by that definition. One set of definitions includes rifles with telescoping stock and pistol grip. That's an assault weapon definition? Another says that if a handgun weighs 50 ounces when unloaded, it's an assault weapon. What about baseball bats? Can't they be used for assaulting people? What about knives? On the same day of the terrible Sandy Hook shooting, a man in China attacked 27 school children with a knife. That's certainly assault. But, we have no clear lines, so when we seek to ban "assault weapons", thinking we're all in agreement, we're not.

We know this is the case in these polls about religious beliefs and such. The Pew Research Center recently reported that less than 50% of Protestants believe in Protestant beliefs. Yikes! Except my very next question would be, "So ... how did you determine 'Protestant'?" Because if we're going to determine Christian beliefs, won't we have to ask Christians? And we know there is a large number of "Christians" who are not Christian. I remember one poll at the turn of the century (the 21st century) said that some 95% of Americans believed in God and some 75% of us were Christians. Wow! Some revival, eh? Because, if you followed the line down, you'd have found that only 15% of them went to church and only 5% said it made a difference in how they lived. Now James says, "Faith, if it has no works, is dead." (James 2:17) So James would suggest that "Christians" without a change in how they live are not Christians. But, hey, they self-identify as Christians and they self-identify as Protestants and they self-identify as Evangelicals, so they must be, right?

In a world that allows a guy to self-identify as a girl or even something in between but refuses to allow a white woman to self-identify as a black woman, I think viewing "self-identify" as a valid statement of truth is a dangerous thing. And when "I'm a Christian" is claimed in defiance of everything Christian, I think the validity of that claim should be questioned. So when I read polls or even self-identifying statements, I have to wonder. "Do you know what those terms mean?" It used to be that words mean something, but we're way beyond that now.