Silence is Violence: The Quiet is Deafening when Police are Shot
Assassination attempt. There are no other words. Two sheriff’s deputies were targeted and shot in Los Angeles on Saturday. Reports suggest, they will survive.
Outside the hospital that very night protesters shouted, “We hope you die!” (click this line).
Yesterday I wrote about Frank Reich’s kneel-down. Today I write about “No Police, No Peace.”
There is a reason why the phrase “thin blue line” exists. Order in the streets is something many enjoy because law enforcement stands between citizens and chaos. Police show up when 911 calls go out asking for protection from evil. The Bible is clear about the need for justice being based on order (read Proverbs 28-29). Good governance is essential for a peaceable society.
But anti-police rhetoric is rampant on social media (click this line).
And then one wonders why police are reticent to engage 911 calls.
NPR ran a story on police morale yesterday (click this line) saying the pressure on police is enormous. The New York Times wondered aloud “Is the N.Y.P.D. Pulling Back?” (click this line). And the horror of two sheriff’s deputies shot in an unprovoked ambush is heinous, so much so that The Washington Post editorial board declared it to be “a monstrous act of lawlessness” (click this line). But one must ask, “With all the headlines all three news outlets have run for months questioning law enforcement, has there been an attempt to say police are a necessary good?”
Scripture is clear. There is evil in the world (Eph 6:10-18). Scripture is also clear, that the evil is in us (Mark 7:21-23). Further, in multiple contexts “evildoers” are called out. Consider these passages:
“When justice is done it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers” (Proverbs 21.15).
“There is no peace for the evildoer” (Isaiah 48.22)
“The face of the Lord is against evildoers” (Psalm 34.16)
“Be subject for the Lords sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” (1 Peter 2:14-15)
Romans 13:1-7 is an essential passage to remember: “Whoever resist the authorities resists what God has appointed” (v 2). Yesterday, The Heritage Foundation paid for billboards in New York, Dallas, and Atlanta announcing, “No Police, No Peace” (click this line). There can be no better connection to Scriptural dictates that calls for justice must be based on a standard for righteousness (Click here to see the biblical precepts I wrote about yesterday). Romans 13:3 continues, “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.”
Silence is Violence: The Quiet is Deafening when Police are Shot. If you care deeply, as all of us say we do, for justice, we should remind ourselves that justice is impossible if left up to just us (Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:3). When police are shot and sometimes killed by evildoers, our collective voices should rise again for justice, for all.
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Photo Credit: https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/09/14/no-police-no-peace-billboards-to-reach-4-million-in-new-york-atlanta-dallas/