Dei Gladium

Dei Gladium
The Battle Weary Warrior

Friday, May 7, 2010

Welcome Dan

My good friend and old South L.A. graveyard partner, Officer Dan will be joining the discussion on the blog here. He's a great man of God and I look forward to having his insight. I have been very busy this last couple of weeks with work and funerals. I hope to post something this weekend.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Do cops really make a difference? - Part 2

Well I began by describing the pessimism that cops oftentimes feel after they've worked the road for quite some time. Even Christian cops can fall into this rut. The excitement that starts at the Academy quickly fades as time and circumstances roll on. So today, I want to explore the Apostle Paul's writing in Romans 13.

Romans 13:1-5 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Let's put this another way - All those who are in positions of governing authority have been placed there by God himself. This means our President, Senators, the Congress, the Governor, and yes, cops. I primarily want to focus on the cop. If you are a cop your position is God ordained. You do not hold an insignificant job no matter how pointless it may seem at times. If God has established it, then there is a purpose behind that position. The purpose is God's purpose, not your purpose. The position is not there primarily to pamper your career and bank account; it's not there primarily to give you great benefits and a healthy retirement, though none of those things are bad. There is a higher purpose for your calling than to just cater to your interests and immediate needs. What did God intend by the establishment of law enforcement? To answer this we need to continue looking at the rest of the chapter.

(2) Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (3) For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, (4) for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. (5) Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

Paul says that those who resist cops resists that which God himself has appointed. He who would resist what God has appointed resists God himself. Those who resist God incur his judgment, not only in the world to come, but in this world as well. The arm of the law is the arm of God to maintain peace and civility in society.

One may ask the question, "But aren't we supposed to love our enemies, and turn the other cheek when given the back of somebody's hand?" Yes we are, but let us not take that out of context. When Christ gave us the Sermon on the Mount he described the individual Christian life. He did not sanction anarchy in the world, but as Paul says here, he gave us people in authority for our good. In the context of Romans 13 Paul deals specifically with the way in which God exacts vengeance in the world, before Judgment Day. In just the previous chapter he says,

Romans 12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

In Romans 13 Paul describes how God takes vengeance upon evil doers in this life. Through those in positions of authority - yes, that means cops.

He says that we do not bear the sword in vain. Now, obviously, 2,000 years ago soldiers did not carry machine guns and hand guns. They carried swords - and the sword was not born without meaning. It had a purpose - to carry out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. I am always fascinated with Latin and Greek words. You could call me a word nut if you will, but I like the Latin Vulgate's term for us. We are - Dei Gladium. You could translate that into - God's Gladiators. Though, that probably sounds a little too harsh for contemporary ears, so I like to stick to the Latin. It sound sophisticated enough.

Without God's restraint on society through the medium of the governing authorities, societies would disintegrate into anarchy and chaos. It is oftentimes seen as being pretty cool in high school to say that you believe in anarchy, but let a society slip into that for half a day and the most ardent anarchist would be calling for peace and order. Society craves civility. It cannot tolerate long standing "Rodney King Riots." It is, I believe, part of what it means to be created in the image of God. We want peace, we desire a cessation from conflict. God is a God of peace and order. To have God's peace or "Shalom" is to have real peace. A rather liberal friend of mine once asked me why more Christians were not participating in the peace rallies against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan because, after all, Christian should be "peace loving" people. Isn't that what Christ was all about? I asked him the simple question - "When you rally for peace is it a peace with God or a peace without God?" He answered as I thought he would, "A peace without God." I said to him, "Then you have your answer. We Christians seek for peace with God. There is no peace without God. In fact, the Bible is very clear, 'There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.'"

Did you notice how Paul said that we are God's servants? In the original Greek the word transliterates to Deacon. We are God's ministers. God has established our position and he is watching over it to perform his good work in society. And what, ultimately, is the end of that good work? It is to allow the gospel to be unhindered as it goes forth into society, being preached by faithful men. Lives being changed and transformed into the image of Christ because peace reigns and evil is constantly put in check by God's ministers. I encourage you, as you reflect upon your position in life, to not lose heart. Your work here is not in vain. If God is in it, it has eternal significance. Let me sign off with these words from Joshua.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Do Cops really make a difference? - Part 1

Ask any rookie, straight from the Academy, if he/she makes a difference in the community and the typical answer you will get from the starry eyed newbie is "Absolutely!" However, give them 5+ years of road experience and come back and ask them that same question and you will more likely get an answer similar to this, "I could write 100 tickets a day and take at least 10 people to jail a day and it wouldn't make a hill beans worth of difference! It's like trying to dig a hole on the beach next to the ocean. Every time you dig, the tide comes in and fills the hole with a fresh deposit of dirt." Ask them why they stick around with such a pessimistic attitude and the answer will usually be because of the pay, benefits, and retirement. Why is it that cops get this way?

Keep in mind that cops don't generally pull people over for doing the speed limit. We don't pull up next to those who decided to stop for the red light and say "thank you for obeying the law today." No, a cop isn't out on the streets looking for law abiding citizens, they are looking for the law breakers. After 5+ years of contacting law breakers, a dim, rather pessimistic world view tends to creep in to the cops' mind. In fact, we tend to become our own Solomon. What's that you say? Our own Solomon? Wha?

Yeah, I said, we tend to become our own Solomon. Remember, Solomon was the son of King David of Israel, you know, the David of David and Goliath. Solomon later became king and God gave him a wisdom that surpassed all others in the ancient world. Outside of Jesus Christ, Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. Here's some reflections Solomon had towards the end of his life in the book of Ecclesiastes. "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Sound like any veteran cop you know? Here's a rather simple, yet interesting observation he made. Read it over a couple of times before you dismiss it. "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again."

Do you get what he is saying? Let me paraphrase it in my own words. "I have observed a rather interesting phenomenon, I observed that every stream flows into the sea. You would figure that eventually the sea would be full after a while, but you know what? It never does get full. For what purpose do the streams constantly flow into the sea if they never fill it up? It seems like a completely meaningless task appointed for streams to do. Absolutely futile! Vanity!" Make sense?

Solomon noted how much in life seems to be absolutely meaningless. Why do I bring this up? Because that tends to be the veteran cops' attitude towards the difference they make in the community. "I write 1,000 tickets yet the freeways are still full of speeders. It's all in vain!" But I ask the question - Is it?

In my short span of 36 years in this world I have managed to go to at least 3 third world countries. To Mexico 6 times while in high school, and to Honduras and the Philippines while being a cop. I wasn't too observant of things while in high school so I can't comment about what Mexico looks like from a cops perspective, but I can tell you what the other two countries look like.

Of course, every where I go I am always evaluating the performance of law enforcement in societies. The thing I noticed almost immediately in both the Philippines and Honduras was that there was no active patrol being conducted by local law enforcement. In Honduras, I noticed that the only visible force of law enforcement was random checkpoints. Usually around a congested artery of traffic. They were always checking people for valid driver's license's. Because of the lack of high visible patrol I noticed that when people got away from the usual check point spots their driving behavior dramatically changed. On a 3 lane roadway there would be 5 lanes of traffic. People would create their own traffic lanes. Stop signs and stop lights were mere suggestions, not something to really be followed. One group would go through the red light until there was a gap in traffic, then the cross traffic would go until there was a gap in their side. And so on it went. Traffic was insane and all because, I believe, there was no high visible patrol by law enforcement.

There is much more to say in this matter but it is almost 1am and my wife really wants to sleep and this computer is so old and loud that it is probably keeping our neighbors awake. I will continue this post as soon as I am able. I really want to flesh out the implications of Romans 13 and show precisely why cops do make a difference in society. Until then...Goodnight!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Welcome

This blog is one primarily about ethics as it relates to being a law enforcement officer and a Christian. It will be an attempt to evaluate different law enforcement situations in light biblical ethics, especially Romans 13. All names, and situations in this blog have been changed and/or modified to protect the privacy of all suspects.

The overriding question I will keep asking is - How are we to conduct ourselves as cops in light of scripture? How does scripture dictate the way we engage people every day? I hope you will wrestle together with me as we seek to glorify our God and Savior Jesus Christ.