Or, are you one of the counters?
May 17, 2010 (Monday)
I received a census form in the mail, filled it out, and mailed it in. Last week, the census worker came to my house, interviewed me and filled out the exact same form with the same answers. I don’t know why.
Information about the census workers reveals something about our present employment situation, because the education level of the workers is higher than it was in the last census. People with PhD’s have become census workers and are “temps.”
The worker who came to my house had official identification and showed it to me without my asking. It’s a good idea to see it before inviting the worker into the home. Recently some men entered a home in Houston, claiming to be census workers. They stayed for hours, mistreating the family members and killing a man, ransacking and robbing the house.
Of course, the worker is also at risk. One census taker was threatened with gunshots when told to leave the property.
Moses took a census and was blessed for doing so. David took a census and was severely reprimanded by the Lord. God had his reasons for the varied responses, and they had to do with the motivation for the enumeration. It’s what’s in the heart that counts. I would think the Lord is neutral about the present census.
The last big religious census in which I participated was in Dallas in the early sixties. That was almost 50 years ago, but already resistance to such efforts was beginning to take hold, as our cities were becoming more dangerous and our culture was emphasizing the value of privacy.
I’d still like to know why we were asked to complete the forms sent to us in the mail if they were not going to be relevant. I suppose the government is just trying to obey the Lord, because He said, “Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth.”