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So much has been thrown at us, as a society, such as biased media pushing their agenda instead of objectively reporting the truth, Black Lives Matter and police officers being shot and killed on a regular basis. It begs the question: how do we deal with this, as Christians? As followers of Jesus, we want to deal with it in the proper manner – in a way that is pleasing to God and that serves our fellow man. In my pursuit of an answer to this, I haven’t seen anyone asking police officers – especially Christian police officers for their perspective. Many Christian leaders are telling us that we need to listen to what the protesters have to say and take it seriously, but on the other hand, some of the things that are being thrown at cops today are testing the limits of their service. As Christians, this tests our commitment to truth. And, I want to make sure that we don’t get caught up in the lies that our culture and our media is throwing at us. We need to hear from honest, Christian police officers who are out on the front lines of society – our brothers and sisters in Christ who put themselves on the line for us. That’s why I have asked my neighbor and friend, Chris to come and share his thoughts.
Jefferson Drexler, e2 media network producer: If we just had a standardized set of rules that our law enforcement would adhere to on a national level, wouldn’t that make police-life and civilian-life much easier?
Chris, Southern California Police Officer: I’m a 28-year police officer, and I do not want to live in a police state or a police society. Police have a role – and it should be a small role – in society. We have the FBI, the DEA, and several other Federal law enforcement entities, but it is so important that local communities maintain local control over their law enforcement agencies.
For example, the style of policing that exists in San Diego County wouldn’t necessarily work in other regions of the country any more than the style of policing that might work in say Oklahoma City, Peoria, or New York would necessarily work here. We must maintain local control over the people whom we trust to enforce the law.
Jefferson: So, while all politics should remain local; law enforcement should definitely remain local as well in order to be effective.
Chris: I absolutely believe that to be the case. Yes.
Joel Fieri, Big Picture Podcast Host: And, we also need to realize that, throughout history, whenever anything akin to a nationalized police force comes to be, it has attracted the worst elements and has led to a police state society. These nationalized officers have always turned into nothing more than political street muscle.
And another thing – we can’t be naive about history. We must constantly be remembering history accurately and learning from the lessons of those who came before us.
And this gets back to the Black Lives Matter issue. Political street muscle is what Black Lives Matter smells like to me. When you have these riots and an obvious disregard for what the true facts are – that young blacks are NOT systematically being hunted by police officers. And when you have Black Lives Matter people screaming that they demand justice without realizing that justice happens through a process. Then, without allowing for the process – in less than a day after a contested incident – they are burning down neighborhoods.
All this is making a lot of people think that the Black Lives Matter movement is being pushed in order to promote a national police force. They want to discredit local police officers so that the politicians can say, “See! Local police departments are too corrupt. We need to bring it under a national branch. It would be easier to have a standard set of rules for policing all across the country.”
Well, if that is the case, you might as well take the Constitution and use it to start your fires at night, because you won’t have a society where electricity is available.
And this all goes back to what we were saying in our previous episode, in relation to a black teenager who only sees a corrupt view of police officers. That’s a legitimate point, and any young man in those shoes are in a tough spot in life. But, he also has members of his community – older men and women – who are telling him, if he listens, that police are here to protect and to serve us and they are not the enemy. These messengers of truth need to be supported, encouraged and legitimized.
If you have a society like inner-city Chicago, where many police officers don’t even dare to go down certain streets because they know they will be targeted, then you will have a war-zone for a community. And who is taking the brunt of this? Who is being killed repeatedly in these Chicago neighborhoods? Young black men.
So, the counter argument for Black Lives Matter seems to be: Is it worth sowing the seeds of chaos in society when it will only truly turn around and hurt the community that you purport you are trying to bring justice to?
Therefore, as a nation – as a responsible society – we need to think hard about these questions and not be so afraid to face them. We need to stop being afraid of any blowback that may come our way for questioning the narrative – lies, even – that the liberal media and pop culture is pushing.
If we question their narrative and call “TRUTH” on their lies and distortions, we will get a great amount of blowback. We will be called racist, bigoted, and all sorts of terrible things.
But, the more you are called these things when you seek truth, these insults will have less meaning and they will have less impact as well. Because, as Christians, we believe that truth sets us free. Therefore, the best thing we should be pursuing is that which is true.
In my mind, the biggest tragedy is all these communities that are being destroyed and all these young men that are being killed for something that is a lie. They could be set free, if they only knew the truth.
So, for that young black man who only knows the perspective that all police officers are hunting him down, we need to do everything we can to communicate to him that HIS LIFE DOES MATTER! In the United States, we have a society where each life matters.
Sadly, for this young man, the people who influence him either don’t know this – or worse, they know it and they don’t want him to be aware of the truth!
Chris: And really, we need to change the idea of Black Lives Matter to the truth of All Lives Matter. Even Rodney King was quoted as saying, “Can’t we all just get along?” And, I think that there is a lot of veracity to that.
We need to get members of the Faith Community to come together as Believers in Jesus Christ – regardless of race, creed, or denomination – and counter this lie from pop culture and liberal media. We need to educate our youth. That’s the only way we will be successful in turning things around and changing the direction of our society.