More Police Officers Murdered - Why?

Overnight it happened again, this time in Des Moines, Iowa, where two police officers were gunned down while sitting in their patrol cars.  At this time a suspect has been identified but not yet apprehended.  With these two deaths, fifty law enforcement officers have been murdered while in the line of duty this year.  To put on the blue uniform seems to also include putting a target upon your back.  Now law enforcement officials have always been targeted.  The stories of the gunning down of sheriffs and marshals in the Old West are legendary.  And then there are those horrific stories that appear during the days of Prohibition and the rise of the gangsters who took out their wrath upon those who wore the badge.  But it did not seem that even with those stories that law enforcement officials were hunted down just because they wore a badge as they are today. 


Why is this happening? is a question we all are asking.  I am not sure I have a definitive answer but I believe it stems from a society and culture that has a blatant disrespect for authority.  When I was a child growing up my parents taught me to always respect those who wore the badge of law.  I was to be courteous to them if I was pulled over for a traffic offense.  And, what my parents taught me was also amplified with what I was taught in school. 


But all that changed when I went away to school.  For two years I worked as part of the campus security team at Wheaton College.  It was a great job and I loved the hours and the people with whom I worked.  But I kept noticing a lack of respect on the part of many students for the position that I held.  (And this was a Christian college).  I think I was called every name possible that reflected disrespect for the badge that I wore and for the authority that was vested in me and my fellow officers.  That generation includes in its historic landscape such events as Woodstock and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.  Now that legacy of disrespect has found roots in their children and in their grandchildren.


And look at our presidential candidates, one of whom will become President of the United States next Tuesday.  One candidate has willfully broken the law by lying to Congress and by defying the subpoenas that were issued.  There is a ruthlessness about that campaign that almost staggers our imagination.  And the other candidate may have violated laws regarding his taxes, although those have not yet been substantiated.  Where is the demonstrated respect for authority?


Interestingly enough, I have found a time very similar to what we are experiencing today within the Bible.  It certainly is not a time that ancient Israel was particularly fond of.  But it did happen.  And I am speaking with regard to the time of the judges.  The attitude of the people can be summed up with this scriptural passage (in fact, it is repeated twice): "In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit." (Judges 17:6, 21:25). 


Let me see if I can paint the picture.  There was no national leadership.  It was "every tribe for itself" as best seen in those closing chapters of Judges.  It seems that even the religious leadership was corrupted and incapable of truly leading under God's banner.  And, in the absence of God, truth becomes at best marginalized, if not abdicated altogether.  And, when truth is cast aside, personal opinions become dominate.  And, when personal opinions take priority, then everyone is right and no one is wrong.  Therefore, respect for authority collapses.  Those who seek to enforce laws become targets.  Thus, police officers are murdered at the rate of over one per week. 


But, let's draw this even wider.  In the absence of God, not only does truth become marginalized, respect for others becomes marginalized as well.  Take the city of Chicago for example.  This past weekend 17 people were murdered in Chicago within the space of just over 48 hours, making a total of over 600 people murdered on the streets of this amazing city over the past ten months - 60 people per month; 2 people per day.  Staggering.  And this could be added to with one city after another.  What has happened?  We no longer show respect for one another as we should.  And  believe it all stems from the direction our culture has gone in walking away from God and from God's truth.  The consequences are overwhelming.


Is there any hope for our nation?  That is the question I have been asked on several occasions these past few weeks.  My honest response is, "I don't know, but I think the answer will become clearer on November 8."  As I shared with you last week, I am NOT voting for a personality, I AM voting for an ideology and the contrast could not be clearer, at least in my mind.  Will I vote?  Absolutely as it is not only my Constitutional privilege, but it is my Christian obligation.  God is not calling us to stay at home.  God wants you to be involved in this process.  So, I will vote and I will pray, knowing that, whatever the outcome God is still on the throne and that the world will continue to move toward that ultimate purpose for which God has designed it.  And that gives me great peace!