Perhaps one of
the most difficult subjects to broach in conservative Christian circles today
is the reform of law enforcement and criminal justice. In Gallup polls ranking
honesty and ethics in professions, police perennially rank near the top, along
with nurses, doctors, and dentists—higher even than clergy on average. (By
contrast, the bottom of the list features car salesmen, just above the very
bottom, Congresspersons.) Any perceived criticism, therefore, of police
automatically runs counter to general social sentiment.
Christians,
however, are not called to judge the world according to general social
sentiment—which can suffer malformation for a number of reasons—but according
to the Word of God. So, what does the Bible say about law enforcement and
criminal justice?
Civil
authorities in general
By far, the
most common scripture referenced in this regard is Romans 13:1–4:
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.
Therefore
whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who
resist will incur judgment. 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, 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.
It is certainly
true that the civil authorities that exist are ordained of God and are God’s
ministers. This means that law enforcement, too, may fall within this category.
By far too many
Christians, however, cite Romans 13 as
calling for blanket submission to civil authorities in all circumstances. “If a
police officer tells you to do something,” they would say, “you should obey.”
Submit, always, submit. Does Romans 13 teach unlimited submission in
this way?
A Christian who
argued that we should submit absolutely in this fashion would unfortunately
force him- or herself into an awkward position. Unlimited submission would mean
that we must submit even when civil authorities enforce unrighteous laws, or
otherwise assume unrighteous powers. It would mean we not only should have
stood idly by as a Nazi regime, for example, rounded up its victims, and worked
them and gassed them to death, it would also mean that when the officers showed
up at our own door demanding we turn over any “political undesirables” in our
household, that we should have cheerfully submitted and handed them over to the
slaughter.
No Christian,
we would hope, would hold this position. In denying it, however, they must
therefore admit the principle that when any civil official attempts to enforce
an unjust law or policy, they are not automatically to be obeyed. Why not?
Because God’s
law is always higher than man’s law, even regarding the functions of civil
authorities.
Romans 13 itself implies this in stating
that the civil authority is God’s minister to enforce God’s vengeance—not
his own, and not anyone else’s. Further, therefore, since the civil authority
is ordained to punish “evil,” by who’s standard of “evil” is he to judge? If it
is man’s standards, then we are right back at the problem of the holocaust,
etc. Likewise, we would today find ourselves having to endorse the Federal
government’s decision to punish Christian bakers who refuse to serve a
homosexual wedding as a good judgment in punishing real evil. In
effect, this would force us to say that good is evil and evil is good.
But if the
civil authority is to enforce God’s standards of good and evil, then we are
forced to look to God’s laws to determine what acts our civil government should
punish as “evil,” and to find the righteous standards of exactly how to go
about that process.
Law enforcement
in particular
So, what about
law enforcement officers in particular? What does God’s law prescribe for the
establishment and limits of their authority and practice?
While the Bible
mentions some subjects pertaining to law enforcement in general in several
places, it gives very few direct prescriptions for this particular office and
power of government as we know it. Most appearances of related ideas (such as
weapons, armed officers, guards, or prisons) appear either as divine
prerogatives (not man’s), in the context of warfare (not peacetime law), apply
to all citizens equally, or are products of pagan nations, laws, and
governments.
God’s law, for
comparison, gives explicit mention and detail for the establishment of a
judicial government: judges, some basic court procedure and protections (For
example, Ex. 18:13–23; 21–23; Deut. 17:8–13; 19:15; Deut. 17:14–20), as well as laws for warfare (Deut. 20). It gives countless prescriptions
for how to handle specific cases of law: sexual offenses, thefts, violence,
torts, murder, etc. It prescribes all the vital aspects of a nation of law and
order. It is, in fact, the sole case in all of history in which God Himself
revealed a blueprint for civil government. In all this detail, however, one
substantial feature of modern nation-states receives no prescription
whatsoever: police officers.
Does this mean
that biblical law does not support law enforcement? Hardly. Biblical law still
had law enforcement, but instead of a standing (roving and patrolling) force of
executive agents with blanket privileges and immunities, they would have been
agents of the judiciary, empowered only temporarily and by specific court
warrants. Once warranted, such an officer would have been authorized to arrest
and, if resisted, at some point to use force.
It does not
mean, however, that just because police in some form show up in
Scripture—whether as Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian, or Roman officers or
soldiers—that we can immediately claim a biblical justification for modern
police practices. Rather, Scripture often portrays such forces as examples of
tyranny, judgment, or what not to do. When God gives His
people the freedom and opportunity to impact society, they should seek to
institute his laws and limitations on government, not copy
those of pagan tyrannies.
Obviously, the
topic of criminal justice in general is far too broad for a brief position
paper. Whole large tomes have been written on the subject, and smaller volumes
such as my The Bounds of Love touch
on it as well. In general, the Bible teaches that the principle of “love your
neighbor as yourself” applies to all people and all
positions, and thus to civil government officials in their capacity as
officials, as well as to the law itself. This means that all abiding biblical
laws apply to in these regards as well, and where they apply to criminal
justice, they should be acknowledged, studied, and applied. Where the system
does not conform to these standards, it must be reformed before it can be called
faithful and acceptable to God.
All the
strictures upon government traditionally considered as American liberties are
derived ultimately from biblical law as well. This includes such things as
representative government, the consent of the governed, elected officials, the
castle doctrine, accountability for rogue agencies and agents, the right to
privacy, the right to remain silent, presumption of innocence, and more.
While a few
readers have mistakenly assumed an “anti-police” tendency in some American Vision
articles on law enforcement and criminal justice reform, this is not the case.
The Bible does not support anarchism or the abolition of law enforcement, but
it does require the reform of law enforcement. We, therefore,
call strongly for the establishment of biblical law, its equal application to
all citizens and government officials alike, and thus for a number of
significant reforms to all aspects of criminal justice, including the role of
law enforcement officers, SWAT, peace officers, prosecutors, and much more.
The American
Vision past, present, and future
Is this view a
departure from American Vision’s past? Not at all. In fact, the most immediate
point of departure for us, in addition to biblical law itself, is best
represented by comment from Gary DeMar’s foundational God and Government: “Police and fire
protection could be financed through a service fee, similar to insurance
premiums” (p. 324). This comes in the context of a discussion of how the
funding of public services—police, fire, education, etc.—through property tax
is invalid from a biblical law perspective.
Likewise, Gary
has always upheld the right and/or duty to resist officials who enforce
unjust laws:
I don’t see how
protesting the actions of a civil government is a violation of the biblical
command to submit to civil authority. When a civil ruler operates outside his
jurisdictional limitations, it is not wrong for the people to call him to
account. A civil ruler only operates legitimately in those things over which he
has jurisdictional authority. He can’t claim that because he’s a king that
whatever he does is the result of his office. An elected official that lies,
cheats, steals, and murders is not doing God’s will in his civil capacity. He
can and should be called to account.
This, of
course, was the view of Calvin and most of the Reformed tradition since, as
well as many other prominent leaders in Christian history. Likewise, it was the
view of civil government carried into the founding of America, as already
mentioned. In particular, it was a standing police power—blanket
search warrants—that was initially opposed by John Otis, Jr. in 1761 that John
Adams himself said was the beginning of American Independence. Fierce
opposition to powers such as this became the motivation behind our Fourth and
Fifth Amendments, among other things.
Conclusion
We affirm the
need for law enforcement. Law without sanction is no law at all, and thus law
without law enforcement is dead. But while we oppose the abolition of law
enforcement, we do affirm the need for substantial reform of it—reform according
to biblical law, and the abolition of pagan forms of police and the injustices
that occur because of it. There is, of course, much more to be said on the
subject, and there is plenty of room for disagreement over not only specific
laws and procedures, but also specific cases. But there is no room for ignoring
or denying biblical law or its application to all citizens and offices equally.
We need to quit
assuming and start challenging many other aspects of this discussion. It is not
“anti-police” to ask what the Bible says about police; nor is it “anti-police”
or anarchism to acknowledge that biblical law would demand reforms. Some
people, it seems, think any reform of law enforcement is an attack on law
enforcement, which is, of course, nonsense. Instead, it may actually be
anti-biblical merely to assume that modern forms and practices of police are
automatically to be assumed as acceptable and submitted to without question.
https://americanvision.org/14462/abolish-law-enforcement-american-vision-flash-position-papers-no-1/
