Link in the Chain

A police officer friend of mine posted this picture on his Facebook.  I shared it and received some question back on my stance.  Allow me to answer: 

I cannot understand the people who blanket hate police. Don't they realize there are bad apples in every profession? Don't they realize that simplistic answers like, disarm the police, offer no real world practical answer to the fact that bad guys exist? Don't they realize that demonizing the police only increases the likelihood of bad cops where working as a community lessons the likelihood of corrupt departments? Don't they realize that police officers are people who live in the neighborhoods too? Don't they realize that our incarceration rate demonstrates precisely that there isn't a lot of corruption in the police force compared to other places where bribery and corruption is rampant?

Absolutely a police department can become corrupt and a city can become a police state.  Its actually quite easy.  We see it in all sorts of groups.  Churches become cults.  Companies become fraudulent.  Government agencies become abusive.  Leaders at the top create a culture that coercively adjusts people’s behavior, either in a good way or a bad one.  You see it with companies that treat their employees well and churches that do service in the community.  Those are good examples.  Then you have situations like Goldman Sachs and Wall Street at the start of the recession.  Or that famous evil church who I won’t name because I refuse to draw attention to them.  Or Ferguson Police.  Or other Police departments such as the two in Florida who were just disbanded because of corruption.

What can we do about it?   

 First let’s take some thought about the real situation.

The profession of police officer is already a difficult one.  Consider having to wade day in and day out in the worst that humanity has to offer.  Seeing abused wives and children.  Seeing dead babies.  Seeing people who have lost everything because of a wrong choice.  (In many ways, the pastoral profession can get this way too.) 

 

Consider also the fact that NO ONE wants to see a cop in their rear view mirror.  How often are they yelled at, cussed at, and treated like dirt?  Think of the names, Five-O, Pig, etc. 

 

Consider that they have to be right in split second decisions 100% of the time and will get criticized in the media and courts by people who have hours and days to think through and review their decisions minus adrenaline, fear, and other pressures.  Or that they face regular false complaints from citizens of discrimination or wrong use of force, merely because said citizen didn't like the fact that the police officer was holding them accountable for their actions.  All that with the knowledge that if they make a mistake, they could die.  Or someone else could die.  Wow.

Police officers don’t truly “face death every day,” as an officer friend of mine told me.  Many days are riddled with boredom and paperwork.  HOWEVER, they face the prospect of danger on any given day and any given call.  Six hours of boring duty and paperwork could suddenly result in minutes of terror and danger.  

Their job results in blame sometimes no matter what they do.  Arrest the bad guy and his family accuses you of discrimination or being a bully.  Don’t arrest him and an hour later he has shot someone in an armed robbery.  Arrest the husband who beat his wife and she turns on the officers (a common phenomenon in domestic violence).  Don’t arrest the husband and later that night he beats her to death.  Pull someone over for speeding and you are a petty jerk for worrying about ten miles over the limit.  Don’t pull them over and then maybe face having to go to the accident scene where they hit some kids.  

Is it any wonder they have such a high rate of divorce, depression, and suicide? 

This all causes them to withdraw into a shell.  The thin blue line is a real thing.  It’s no different than with soldiers.  They think no one cares.  They believe, “No one understands us but each other.”

 

The very actions pushed by people like Al Sharpton or some of the anti-government groups (and even some of the major Democrats) are precisely the wrong choices because it exacerbates this very thing.

Jumping on every single police shooting as if it is an example of an endemic problem is not the way to go about it.  Protesting without considering the case by case circumstances is wrong.  Making judgements based on shaky video taken out of context and with no backstory isn’t good.  Posting every copblock statement about bad cops only skews your own vision and does no good.  Announcing every bad thing done in any police department everywhere and rarely if ever showing the thousands of positives that go on every day isn’t helping.  

All those things do is push officers around the country more and more into that ‘thin blue line’ fortress mentality.

Lest we forget, these same men and women live in our neighborhoods.  They have children and families too.  They want to go home at night.  They want to live without fearing crime.  Just like each and every one of us!!!

Evil exists.  Period.  The one thing I never see from the protestors and anti-police types is an answer of how to keep our streets and families safe without some law and order.  It’s called anarchy folks and guess what, those of us who desire peace will be in greater danger without police.  I’ve been accused of being naïve about this.  But, the truth is, I recognize that there are bad cops and even bad departments out there.  Those must be aggressively rooted out, just as bad pastors, politicians, teachers, and all others who use power for evil must be rooted out.  But you don’t cure cancer by killing the patient.  You cure a cancer by rooting it out.  I would challenge that those who make blanket statements about police are the naive ones.  The old saying is ultimately true, “when you’re in trouble, you ain’t gonna call a crackhead.”

Instead of all the negative, the solution is to get involved.  Get to know your local officers.  Call them out for the good things.  Invite your businesses, churches, and organizations to award those who do heroic things.  Volunteer on the civilian review board.  Advocate.  Do a ride-along.  Join your block watch.  Attend the police community presentations that most departments do.  Community is the answer.  Tomorrow, our church is hosting a group called, Link In The Chain, who rally for the police because they realize that we, as a community are part of the solution.

Being part of the solution goes both ways.  When the bad happens.  When you do get that bad apple, we mustn’t be afraid to stand against them.  A great example of that is what just happened in Phoenix with our previous Police Chief.   Not only did his officers pull together to stand up to him, but members of the community, including myself did so also.  Another example is our famous (or is that infamous) Sheriff Joe.  Integrity for those who believe in the rule of law means calling him out for ignoring the rule of law for the last 18 months.  It also means going the other way and calling out Al Sharpton and his ilk for helping to destroy the career of Darren Wilson long before the real story got out, and for not apologizing and working to make it right after the truth came out.  

Ultimately, we have to quit cultivating an Us versus Them mentality in this situation.  Pray for your police officers.  Let them know that someone out there gives a damn.  Hey, thank them for their service…even when they write you a ticket.  We all want safer, healthier communities and that ONLY comes from working together. It's easy to complain, the hard thing is to stand up and get involved.  Choose to be a link in the chain supporting our police and community, don't be the one who breaks the chain but provides no hope or solution in exchange. 

Black and White

You know when he comes in the room.  The lighting completely changes, the shadows deepen, and somehow, the very air of the seems oppressive.  Ominous music plays from nowhere and then you see him.  Black hat, black clothing, and boots.  There are always boots.  All of these things point to him, but you could get rid of all of that and still know him by the eyes.  The eyes say it all.  Squinty.  Shifty.  Dark.   There's no doubt, once you see the eyes.

He is the bad guy.

Years ago, my daughter and I were watching some random kids movie.  If you have kids, you know these movies.  Terrible script.  Bad writing.  Awful acting.  Kid’s love them.  You watch them because your kid loves them.

“Dad, is that the bad man,” my daughter asks in all her innocence. 

“Yes honey, that’s the bad guy,” I answer somewhat offhandedly.  

But wait.  I stopped there.  I realized that perhaps I’ve just taught my beloved child a terrible lesson.

If you’ve spent any time knocking around this world, you learn very quickly that the “bad man” is rarely accompanied by menacing organ music.  The stage lighting doesn’t suddenly change and there is no chorus of gasps when they enter the room.

No, I can tell you as a Pastor, some downright evil people, people so evil that it affects you.  Like an oil slick on the surface of water, you can’t help but get some on you when you touch it.  

Some of the worst people I’ve ever dealt with have had a smile on their face as they stab you in the back.  I’ve seen people lie with so much sincerity that you’re left breathless when they turn on you.  I’ve watched folks who everyone placed on a pedestal turn around and hurt others in the most brutal ways.

It’s the politician who kisses the baby even though he just signed a bill that will leave the baby’s father out of work, and he knows it.  It’s the husband who abuses his family in the most heinous ways, but smiles at church and plays the good Christian.  It’s the teacher that everyone likes who turns out to be molesting kids.  It’s the person at work who schemes and lies for their own benefit, climbing the ladder over the bodies of their coworkers.  It’s the person who brings drama and bile into the lives of everyone she touches, as she plays one person off against another.  

I wish I could continue to tell my daughter that the world is divided nicely and neatly in to categories of good and bad, with the good guys always wearing white hats and the bad guys always wearing black ones.  I wish I could tell her that it was easy to avoid the evil ones.

But no, the truth isn’t in the black and white, but in the grays.

Even an oil spill can be pretty.  Have you ever seen the rainbow of colors on the surface of an oil slick?  Beautiful colors that can hide an appalling evil.

I can’t protect my daughter from the evil people in this world, but I can be honest with her that sometimes bad guys wear masks so good you can’t even tell they are masks. And sometimes the good guy comes out of nowhere and surprises you.

And sometimes, that oil slick of evil is going to stick to you, no matter how hard you try to wash it off.

Life isn’t as easy as a kid’s movie.

I wish that she never would have to learn that lesson.

Camp Songs and Theodicy

Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.

The perennial church camp song, sung by kids for so many generations.

We sang this at Kids Camp this last week and it started me thinking.

In youth and childrens ministry, I have seen all kinds of horrible things that have been done to kids and heard even more second hand stories. Physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse. Kids who have watched their parent’s marriage torn apart and are drawn into the fighting. Children of drug and alcohol abusers who had to learn all too young how to take care of themselves. Children who have to help their siblings hide from a stepfather’s unwanted attention. Children abandoned by parents. Children drugged into oblivion so they don’t act up.

I faced some of these very situations this last week.

My heart aches each time I look into the face of a sweet child and see adult-like pain.

If the line from the song, “Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong,” then how can He let this happen?

This is an old question that has long been batted around by believers and non-believers alike. In fact, there is even a term for it: Theodicy. But, the reality of holding a child in pain brings it home in a way that academic arguments never can.

God allows us to live in sin as part of our ability to choose Him. That makes sense. If He fully protected us against our own sin, then we can never fully choose Him in love. I get that. I understand the difference between a computer programmed to say, “Rodger is awesome” versus my daughter giving me a hug and saying, “Daddy, I love you.”

Recognizing that God allows us to suffer the consequences of our own sin doesn’t make it hurt any less to realize that He also allows us to suffer the consequences of other people’s sin.

And that brings us to the child in pain.

Jesus says, “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”

He also said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Therein lays the answer. God’s solution to the problem of these children’s pain comes from us. For now, we are the ones to welcome them in His name. Facing this in ministry, my only comfort comes from the fact that there are loving Christians in the world who take Christ’s love for little children as a personal call. They are His hands as they put their arms around a weeping child. They are His hands as they call CPS to help break a child free from an abusive situation. They are His hands as they adopt a child or take them in foster care.

Jesus loves me, this I know. For loving Christians show me so.

Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but through Him his servants are strong.

Will the band play on?

This blog originally posted Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 2:50pm

If you haven’t seen the movie, “The Matrix,” I strongly urge you to go see it. Put your thinking cap on and take some time to process it. Watch it with someone who likes to discuss ideas. Science fiction may not be your thing, but trust me, this is worth your time.

The movie tells the story of a guy who realizes that there is something more to the world that he is living in, that something about it isn’t right. He meets a group of people who help him to wake up to the fact that the world that he thought he was living in isn’t real and that he is actually living in an ugly world that is at war. The syncretism and pop-philosophy of movie has been much discussed, but the one part that I firmly believe that the creators got right, is the concept of two worlds existing simultaneously.

The first world is the one that we put on like a set of ultra-hip sunglasses and an iPod. It wraps around our eyes and blocks our ears, letting us see and hear only the most pleasant things, while filtering out the harshness of reality.

It is the world of entertainment that we cover our eyes with.

It is the world of toys and fun and busy-ness.

It is the world of Myspace and March Madness.

It is the world of Mortgages and Soccer Moms.

It is the world of corporate ladders and promotions.

It is the world where the things that Paris Hilton or Brittney Spears do matter.

It is the world where the coolest car, the nicest house, the most money, make a difference.

It is the world where you care what team won the game last night.

It is the world where you want to know what is going to happen tonight on “Lost,” or “House,” or “American Idol.”

It is the world of desperate dissipation that we grip tightly over your eyes so that we don’t see that other world… The real one.

The other world, the real one, is the world where choices are hard and bad things do happen. It ain't pretty. It is where your Mom is sick. It is where someone you know commits suicide. It is where a sweet little eight year old girl skips down the street to her murder. It is where a strange, lonely man opens fire on hopeful immigrants.

Genocide happens in this world over and over and over again and no one stops it. Moms and babies are hacked to death with machetes for being from the wrong tribe or religion. Men are beaten to death and beheaded for believing something different from their persecutors. Children in this world are forced to fight on the front lines of battle between drug lords or petty dictators. Beautiful young pre-teen girls are raped repeatedly in forced prostitution so that their starving families might be able to feed their brothers and sisters. Immigrants trying to find a new life, die of thirst in the desert while people argue of the ‘problem of illegals.’

Here in this world, children are born to struggling single moms and grow up knowing only crime and abuse to continue the cycle with their children. Here, elderly people languish in their own soiled clothing because family members are too busy to see them or help. Here, drugs and alcohol reap a terrible toll on the bodies, minds, and souls of their victims. Here, people die of AIDS, abandoned by their family for their lifestyle choice and by their friends out of fear of contracting the disease themselves.

Earthquakes happen. Wars go on. Lives are destroyed. Evil exists..... In this world.

In this world, hope dies a thousand deaths every day.

All this, while we close our eyes tightly, cover our ears and yell “la, la, la” at the top of our lungs so we don’t have to have our precious first world disturbed.And, if you do peek from between your eyelids and notice the other world, or, God forbid you call attention to it, there is always a man in a dark trench coat and shades, looking suspiciously like Timothy Leary there to hand you a blue pill and urge you to go back to sleep in blissful ignorance in the first world. Chill out. You take things to seriously. Don't worry, be happy.

The story goes that, as the Titanic sank, the orchestra realized they could not be saved. So they took out their musical instruments and played music as the ship was sinking.

For me, the most poignant scene in The Matrix is when Cypher betrays the others and makes a deal with Agent Smith so that he can return to the first world, the Matrix. He says, “I don't want to remember nothing, and I wanna be rich. , you know, someone important, like an actor.” He chooses a pretend life of escapism over the reality that is there.

I took the red pill years ago and sometimes I want to scream, “WAKE UP!!!”

I watch parents encourage their kids to play in every sport, to join every extracurricular activity, as if any of it matters. I watch men ignore their families to devote their lives to work so that they can get a little more money to buy toys that they will hardly have time to use. I watch women sink their lives into their children, living vicariously through them, trying to grasp the youth that they once had. I watch young people party like mad, trying to drown reality in beer bongs and unattached sex. I watch adults and teens get sucked into an online world where they can pretend to be anything they want to be and have ‘friends’ that never truly know who they really are. I watch people that I care about drowning in busy-ness and stress.

Yet, every once in awhile, the real world intrudes. The doctor says, “It is cancer.” Your Grandma calls and says she has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. The friend you had lunch with last week was just killed in a car accident. The letter arrives telling you that the bank is foreclosing.

This is your opportunity! Break out of your self-centered, entertainment-ridden, life of dissolution. Take the red pill. Wake up!!!

Your life on this earth is short. Turn off the television. Log off the computer. Throw away that magazine. Don’t sign-up for that next club sport. Put the golf clubs and fishing pole in the closet. Sell your toys and give money to the poor. Grab your family and hug them. Take the money that you would have spent on a movie or a cup of Starbucks or a new iPod and give it to someone in need. Meet your neighbors and really get to know them. Call up that friend that has slipped away because you have both been too busy. Have lunch with the lonely person, hold the hand of a sick person, read to a child, volunteer, go on a missions trip, serve someone. Go to church and get right with God.

or………take the blue pill………go back to sleep………rejoin the matrix………let the band play on………

But, I promise you this, you will be pulled, kicking and screaming into the real world eventually.

As this real world crushes you without pity, you may get a momentary glimpse, where you realize what a waste it has all been. You could have a moment to savor the taste of regret before you are extinguished. You might just receive the split-second of knowledge that neither your life, nor your death will ever matter.

We each have a choice - We can ride the edge of reality or fade away in dull self-indulgence.

Will the band play on?