You shall not give a false report; you shall not join hands with the wicked to be a malicious witness [promoting wrong and violence]. 2 You shall not follow a crowd to do [something] evil, nor shall you testify at a trial or in a dispute so as to side with a crowd in order to pervert justice; 3 nor shall you favor or be partial to a poor man in his dispute [simply because he is poor].
—Exodus 23:1-3, Amplified Bible—
The police aren’t the problem. The politicians and activists are.…Police aren’t afraid of walking the streets or being shot by random criminals. They’re afraid of being involved in an incident that would label them forever as trigger-happy racists.
—David Clarke, former Sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, in this PragerU video—
Key point: Believe me, you do not want to live in a world where injustice masquerades as justice and gets away with it. Before it’s too late, injustice must be unmasked. If it isn’t, justice may never be able to make a comeback.
The following interviews were conducted in Minneapolis just before the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial was released. Interviewer Ami Horowitz wrote of the video, “I went to the George Floyd memorial and found out the shocking truth about some of the protestors views!”
Genocide against blacks? Really? Thousands of blacks dying at the hands of the police? As the video indicates, the number of unarmed blacks killed by police in 2020 was 18. In just a few moments, we’ll learn from Dennis Prager and Heather Mac Donald that the number of unarmed blacks killed by police in 2019 was 13 or 14. Yet the perception is that thousands die at the hands of racists cops—and the news media exacerbate this myth!
Maxine Waters makes matters worse.
Apparently Congresswoman Maxine Waters believes violence is OK. Her rhetoric has to be reinforcing the myth of systemic racism among America’s police. This video was posted on April 19.
Americans need to be aware that Waters has a great many allies in the House of Representatives. Each one of them needs to be asked why they support violence in the streets. A CBS News article dated April 21 reports,
Democrats narrowly defeated a resolution brought by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Tuesday to censure Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, after she encouraged protesters in Minnesota to “stay on the street” and “get more confrontational” if they don’t see a guilty verdict returned in the Derek Chauvin trial regarding the death of George Floyd.
The House voted to table the resolution 216 to 210 along party lines. This was a victory for House Democratic leadership, since they could afford just two Democratic defections on the vote. There were zero defections on either side, with all Democrats present voting to table and all Republicans voting to move forward.…
Following the vote, Waters said, “I love my colleagues and they love me. I don’t want to do anything to hurt them or hurt their chances for reelection. I will make sure that they are comfortable with my kind of advocacy so that we can all be sure that we can do the right thing.”
The right thing? Really, Maxine?
Denny Burk speaks up, then disappears; Pastor Dwight McKissic lends his support, at least by implication, to mob violence.
Denny Burk of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Boyce College tweeted the Ami Horwitz video along with a comment that is undeniable. “Our civilization would collapse if this racist repudiation of the rule of law and due process were to win the day. Let’s pray that it doesn’t.”
Do you think anyone should have difficulty agreeing with Burk on this? Apparently SBC Pastor Dwight McKissic is at least not ready to agree with Burk until he makes another point first. McKissic tweeted, “Justice ruled the day [in the verdicts that found Derek Chauvin guilty].” Then, addressing Burk, McKissic wrote, “Really uncomfortable knowing that a segment of the SBC feel they way you do. ‘The repudiation of the rule of law and due process’ is normally what happens when police kill AAs, & face very minor consequences, if at all. Maybe they’ll think twice now.”
Yet Burk was right, regardless of what one thinks about the verdict. I say was because it’s my understand he later deleted his tweet (for whatever reason). This is unfortunate; mob “justice” needs to be forcefully repudiated. If it isn’t, chaos ensues. Yet Dwight McKissic apparently is OK with letting it stand.
Of course there are some bad police officers, but systemic racism in law enforcement does not exist.
Respectfully, Pastor McKissic, the instances in which blacks have died as a result of police gunshots are starkly different from the kind of mob brutality advocated by the individuals Ami Horowitz interviewed.
According to Manattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald, “There Is No Epidemic of Fatal Police Shootings Against Unarmed Black Americans.” The article is dated July 3, 2020. Mac Donald writes,
As of the June 22 [2020] update, the Washington Post’s database of fatal police shootings showed 14 unarmed Black victims and 25 unarmed white victims in 2019. The database does not include those killed by other means, like George Floyd.
The number of unarmed Black shooting victims is down 63% from 2015, when the database began. There are about 7,300 Black homicide victims a year. The 14 unarmed victims in fatal police shootings would comprise only 0.2% of that total.
Ideally, officers would never take anyone’s life in the course of their duties. But given the number of arrests they make each year (around 10 million) and the number of deadly-weapons attacks on officers (an average of 27 per day in just two-thirds of the nation’s police departments, according to a 2014 analysis), it is not clear that these 1,000 civilian shooting deaths suggest that law enforcement is out of control.
“No horror movie is as scary to me as the few-minute video…Ami Horowitz…made in Minneapolis.”
Despite the fact that no evidence of systemic racism in law enforcement exists, people are buying into the narrative. In a Fireside Chat posted on You Tube on Thursday, April 22, Dennis Prager indicates the Ami Horowitz video is the most frightening thing he’s ever seen. Can’t you understand why? When people believe that jettisoning due process is justified, justice no longer exists.
When people believe that jettisoning due process is justified, justice no longer exists.
There’s another danger as well. How would you feel if you were a police officer — not just without support from your local community, but facing ardent opposition?
During the Wednesday, April 21 broadcast of Family Research Council’s Pray, Vote, Stand (available here), FRC President Tony Perkins interviewed law enforcement experts Scott Erickson and Wiley Thompson. Both these men spoke of the pressures law enforcement personnel currently face. Fearing they will be caught in one or more no-win scenarios, many are riding out their time. To avoid being falsely accused of brutality or overly aggressive behavior, they are trying to “lay low.” Consequently, criminals are getting by with more, and communities are becoming less safe. It’s time to support law enforcement personnel!
The Core Problem
Here’s the core problem. Social justice advocates, including some church leaders, have successfully redefined justice to mean something it doesn’t. Society is unraveling as a result. As Allie Stuckey says in the PragerU video featured in “Justice Needs No Adjectives,” “Justice is getting what you deserve without favor. Social justice is getting what you don’t deserve because you are favored.”
Justice eschews partiality, but social justice habitually practices it. Thus, ironically, in the name of justice, injustice is occurring frequently and in a rapidly increasing number of places. Moreover, it isn’t being seen for the injustice it actually is.
What is justice? Here is a great definition, one arising from an in-depth study of the Scriptures:
Exercising and promoting justice means “rendering (1) impartially and (2) proportionally (3) to everyone his due (4) in accord with the righteous standard of God’s moral law.”
In the world in which we live, few things are more important than recovering this definition of justice. Further, if the church doesn’t act to recover it, it never will be recovered. Pastors and other church leaders must teach their people what justice really means.
In the world in which we live, few things are more important than recovering this definition of justice. Further, if the church doesn’t act to recover it, it never will be recovered. Pastors and other church leaders must teach their people what justice really means.
If as a church leader or church member you wonder where to start, I have an answer. Begin by reading this booklet. It was originally released in 2013. You can order a revised and updated edition of it here.
After that, go here, then here. Also, challenge the prevailing narrative with the truth, and rely on God’s help as you do.
There’s something else. Support law enforcement personnel in your community. Through your words and actions, let officers know you appreciate what they do.
It’s probably never been more important to encourage them than it is now.
Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image credit: Photo by Kayle Kaupanger on Unsplash
Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations come from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.
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