Justice
Rotten Core, Baltimore, Who’s Your Friend?
This past week saw the ISIS Islamo-Nazis take major cities in Syria (Palmyra) and Iraq (Ramadi).
In Texas, record rains have broken a ten-year drought, but now flooding rivers have left parts of Austin and Houston underwater with at least eight people dead and sixteen missing.
On the Memorial Day weekend, following a month of turmoil, a record number of people were shot and killed in Baltimore, America’s 26th largest city.
Let’s pray for the situations in the Middle East and Texas. But today, let’s focus on what is absolutely destroying Maryland’s biggest city (along with Detroit, Chicago, and many others).
Rotten core, Baltimore, who’s your friend?
As you know, Baltimore has been in the news for six weeks after African American Freddie Gray was arrested on April 12, 2015 and died six days later–apparently of injuries suffered either during or after his arrest.
Gray’s death led to rioting in the streets of Baltimore, a stand down order of the police force for a period of time, and millions of dollars in property damage as angry mobs looted and destroyed local businesses.
On May 1, six Baltimore police officers, (three black and three white) were charged in Freddie Gray’s death.
The Baltimore riots were the latest in a string of police-citizen confrontations that some have used to stoke racial fires all across America. There are many more than these, but three brought national attention:
In August, 2014, Michael Brown robbed a convenience store in Furgason, Missouri, resisted arrest and charged Policeman Darren Wilson who was trying to apprehend him. In this initial race-war escalation incident, people shouted false slogans about Brown’s innocence (“Hand Up, Don’t Shoot!) which were later de-bunked. Wilson was cleared of all charges.
The Furgason furor was bogus from the beginning–an excuse for anarchy and race-hustling.
Then, in December 2014 a New York Grand Jury failed indict officers in the chokehold death of Eric Garner who resisted arrest for illegally selling cigarettes. This incident was tragic yet accidental. Riots ensued.
Finally, Freddie Gray died on April 18 after being arrested by police for illegal possession of a knife (he had a long rap sheet). The verdict is still out of this one, but many believe that District Attorney Marilyn Mosby over-charged six officers in Gray’s death and fanned the fires of hatred via her words (“This is our moment!”).
Baltimore’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, also failed to protect the citizens of the “Star Spangled Banner” city by holding back police during early encounters with protesters. Her now infamous line: “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that.”
Baltimore was looted and burned–and it has only gotten worse.
This past month was the deadliest that Baltimore has seen in more than 15 years. More than two dozen shootings over the Memorial Day holiday weekend alone had city police working around the clock. From West Baltimore to the East Side, a spike in weekend violence took place all over the city. Over the Memorial Day Weekend, city police report 28 shootings and 9 homicides.
Baltimore Police say they responded to six shootings on Friday night, seven on Saturday, five on Sunday and eleven by night fall on Monday. One of those included a double shooting in which a 9-year-old boy was found shot in the leg and a man who suffered a grazed wound to his head.
I like Baltimore. I’ve been there a number of times. It has many great attractions as a city and a lot of good people. But two social elements have been extremely hurtful to the lives and future of Baltimore. There is also one friend who needs to help heal the carnage and point the way to hope.
What are the negative factors that have created a rottenness in Baltimore’s urban core?
Negative Factor One – Bad Leadership
Former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, penned an astute assessment of what is rotten in Baltimore from a leadership standpoint. Entitled “The Collapse of Baltimore City,” he points out that Baltimore’s problem has been one-party dominance by Democrats for decades. The Democratic Party and its ideology have destroyed the once great city of Baltimore.
I don’t particularly like party labels because I know good people in both political parties. But it’s also true the today’s Democratic Party is not the party of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, or even Franklin Roosevelt. It is generally far-left liberal, secular-based, socialism leaning, and produces many victims and government dependents.
Let’s use the modern term “progressive.” Progressive politics are regressive to people, cities and nations.
Here is Newt Gingrich’s fact-based proof that progressive leaders and policies play a major role in Baltimore’s rotten environment:
- Fact: the last Republican city council member in Baltimore City left office in 1942. That is 73 years of solid Democrat city councils.
- Fact: the last Republican mayor of Baltimore City left office in 1967. That is 48 years of unbroken control of the mayor’s office.
- Fact: the Maryland Senate is currently 33 Democrats to 14 Republicans.
- Fact: the Maryland House is currently 90 Democrats to 50 Republicans.
- Fact: the last time Republicans held both the Maryland Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates was 1897.
- Fact: the last time Republicans held even one chamber of the Maryland General Assembly–the House–was 1917. That is unbroken Democrat control of the Maryland legislature since 1918–or nearly a century of Democrat control.
- Fact: 7 out of 8 members of the Maryland delegation in the U.S. House are Democrats.
- Fact: Last Republican U.S. Senator from Maryland was elected in 1980.
I think you get the point. Progressive “leadership” (Democrats) has made Baltimore what it is today.
Gingrich points out:
“The collapse of order has a continuing effect. There has been a drastic increase in shootings and homicides in Baltimore since April 27. More than 50 people have been shot. At least 10 have been shot and four killed since Saturday May 9. Nonfatal shootings are up nearly 50 percent. All of this happened under the leadership of a Democrat mayor who was worried more about the rioters’ free speech than about the safety, protection, and livelihoods of innocent Baltimoreans.”
He concludes his argument by reminding us that the first duty of government is to protect the innocent and the weak from predators and violence. But progressives “favored the violent over the victims.”
Newt also destroys the false charge that the police are racist. Here is his second “fact check” list:
- Fact: More than half of the Baltimore City police force is minority.
- Fact: Four of the six top commanders are African American or Hispanic.
- Fact: Half of the police officers being prosecuted are African American.
- Fact: The problem is not lack of money. Baltimore spends $17,329 per student, and its unionized, bureaucratic schools fail. (Amazingly, as Archbishop of Baltimore William Lori points out, the Catholic schools cost $6,000 a year and have a 99 percent graduation rate. Yet the Democrats are committed to locking poor children out of those schools if it takes a dime away from funds for failing, unionized public schools.)
Gingrich summarizes that in Baltimore, and many other progressive-led cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and New York, bad leadership policies have “trapped people in dependency, killed small businesses in favor of bureaucracy, and favored unionized workers over children. The result has been a 50-year disaster which no liberal Democrat is prepared to analyze honestly.”
Problem one in Baltimore is the rotten core of progressive leadership (or lack of it).
Negative Factor Two – Family Breakdown
The other major factor in the chaos, crime, and rottenness of progressively-led cities in America is the tragic breakdown of the African-American family. Whereas relatively intact black families were the norm in this nation all the way up to the 1960s, that is no longer the case.
Seventy percent of black children are born out of wedlock. Seven out of ten black teenage girls get pregnant and don’t graduate from high school. The “fathers” don’t take responsibility and split the scene. The single parent homes go on welfare. Crime increases in the neighborhood as fatherless children join the gangs to find “family” and peddle drugs to survive.
No one in America has been a clearer voice on the tragic breakdown of the black family that Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, anchor of the number one cable news show in America, “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Please take time to watch this short video. No one says it plainer than Bill.
The stunning collapse of the African-American family has produced poverty, bad neighborhoods, and rotten cities where it’s easy to light a match of racism or any other grievance and watch the culture go up in smoke.
Two human resources are rotting Baltimore’s core: Broken families and bad leadership.
So who is your friend?
The person who is the answer to all human needs is Jesus Christ, the God-man, who not only died for our sins but sends his Holy Spirit to live inside of those who turn and become reconciled to God.
God in us provides the will to reject violence and hatred; Christ in our hearts gives us the power to create strong and healthy families; God’s grace in our lives lifts us out of despair and poverty; Christ-centered leaders enact and enforce good laws that create security for people, good schools for children, jobs for the industrious and deterrents for criminals.
How does Jesus accomplish this? Through his people–the Church–who rise up like the morning sun to bless the city through their prayers, evangelism, charity, acts of service, and leadership
Followers of Jesus in Baltimore–this is your kairos moment. Flood the streets with God’s grace, justice and goodness and pray that the Lord of the harvest will make Baltimore a “city on a shining hill.”
[An encouragement from Steve Hall, Northwest Prayer Leader:
A Tortured Report and Forgotten American Value
I think everybody in the universe now knows that Democrats in the United States Senate recently released a 6200 page report on what they call torture. Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) were done on select jihadist extremists for a few months following 9-11 to try and save American lives.
It’s been a major story on the mainstream media for the past week. They call it “The Torture Report.” I call it “A Tortured Democratic Report That Will Cost More Americans Lives.”
Why is the report tortured, and what forgotten American value does it blatantly overlook?
As you now know, Republicans on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee refused to participate in the 40 million dollar project, pushed by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), because they smelled a rat that reeked of selective memory, hypocrisy and lying for political ends.
President Obama also weighed in on the report on December 9 while speaking to Jose Diaz-Balart on the Spanish version of MSNBC (Telemundo). He said, “We took some steps [in torturing jihadist detainees] that were contrary to who we are, contrary to our values.”
Before we analyze that statement, let’s recount the history.
History
On September 11, 2001, the United States homeland was savagely attacked by Muslim jihadists who believed that they would each be rewarded with seventy virgins in heaven for murdering innocent people.
They wickedly and premeditatively killed nearly three thousand American citizens of many races on that fateful day–the greatest slaughter on American soil since Pearl Harbor. They would have murdered more people if it weren’t for some brave passengers aboard American Flight 93 who thwarted their plan to fly a plane into the Capitol Building.
Their goal, according to one official, was to “decapitate” the American nation–financially (Twin Towers), militarily (Pentagon), and politically (Capitol Building–the assumed target of Flight 93).
This barbaric act by Al Qaida, and its leader, Usama bin Laden, fanned into flame the Global War on Terror that is still being fought in many parts of the world.
Lies and Hypocrisy
Erick Erickson of Redstate reveals the essence of the deception involved in the Democratic Report:
“Democrats, who spent a number of years being advised of what the CIA was doing to extract information from enemy terrorists, released a report claiming we were torturing bad guys. Further, they claimed that we were gaining no valuable information from that torture.”
“Individuals in the intelligence community have pointed out, mostly to deaf ears in the press, that (1) these same Democrats were well briefed for years; (2) there were no objections at the time; (3) we did, in fact, learn useful intelligence that kept us safe; and (4) none of the intelligence officers who were involved in the interrogations of the bad guys were interviewed by the Democrats.”
That’s what makes it a tortured report. Former Vice President Dick Cheney called it a “piece of crap.”
I agree.
And very expensive manure at that. Think how many poor children could be fed or educated with 40 million dollars.
The Democratic Party, now pumping their chests about American values and sniveling about us owning up to past mistakes, are, first of all, lying about the history. The former head of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program, Jose Rodriguez, has stated publicly they he and others from the CIA briefed all the principles involved at least forty times during the months following 9-11.
Rodriguez says that none of our national leaders at that time questioned their activities or asked them to stop what they were doing to extract information from terrorists that could save American lives. In fact, they asked him to “do more if necessary” to get the information that might prevent further attacks.
In all, twenty-six radical jihadists were interrogated using EITs. Only three, including the mastermind of 9-11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, were water-boarded.
Ten years later, leaders like Dianne Feinstein, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, appear to have selective amnesia about any of those meetings, their lack of concern about EITs, their support of the techniques, and the complete legality of the program.
Amazing how a desire to score political points damages brain cells.
On Monday, December 15, Megan Kelley interviewed a psychologist, James Mitchell, who helped design the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Program and used it on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other terrorists.
The interview with Dr. Mitchell was one of the most poignant and honest interviews I have ever seen. You can watch it here. The highlights:
- Dr. James Mitchell talked in great detail how the EITs were used, humanely, sincerely, and legally to get information from terrorists who killed our fellow citizens. I was struck by the great care they took to guard the dignity of evil men–something the terrorists never did in killing our countrymen.
- All of the terrorists walked away from the EITs with no permanent damage, thus, no torture. The people killed in the Twin Towers did not walk away. They jumped from hundreds of feet, burned to death, or died in crushing rubble and pain.
- Dr. Mitchell was visibly angry that the Democrats never called him to get his side of the story and that they had “cherry-picked” aspects of the information to showcase their political temper tantrum.
- He now has death threats because of the exposure the report gave. He knew that a “fatwa” would be issued because of the release of the report. He knew that other Americans would die because of the chicanery of the Senate Democrats and their staffers.
- Dr. Mitchell did not strike me as a political man. He is a normal guy who loves his country and only got involved when he realized it was the least he could do to avenge the loss of thousands who died. He reported abuses of the program (as did others) and felt the use of EITs were not only legal, but truly the “moral high ground” if we hate evil and want to save lives.
As both Dick Cheney and James Mitchell clearly stated, the enhanced interrogation techniques that were used after 9-11 were appropriate, self-correcting, humanitarian, legal, held to high standards, left no permanent damage and were necessary to break the back and plans of evil people.
The American people agree. A recent Pew poll found that 56% of Americans believe the EITs helped save lives, 51% think the CIA methods were justified, and that “the public expresses the most doubt not about the CIA methods and program itself, but about the Senate committee’s decision to release its report”.
The CIA tortured no one. They acted humanely and justly in the context of war.
The Democrats, by exposing CIA and civilian patriots and ridiculing the means they used to defend America, are the real traitors here.
What they did was dishonest hypocrisy.
American values
Our president, vice president, Dianne Feinstein, and numerous other Democrats stated that the reason for the release of the report was about values, taking the high moral ground, and having the integrity to own up as a nation when mistakes were made.
Mistakes and abuses are always made because we are human beings. When good people or nations make mistakes, they are nothing compared to the barbarity demonstrated by those who intentionally hurt others.
As Americans, with a 230 history of civil polity based on biblical principles, we always take the moral high ground compared to the Hitlers, Stalins, Mao Tse Tungs, or Usama bin Ladens of the world. We value life, property, nations, and all human rights–and work hard to protect them.
There is no moral equivalence with the bad guys. We believe in human dignity which comes from God.
Evil people do not.
And we are at war. During human warfare, normal civil rules are suspended to combat evil. When our enemies commit murder, or are war criminals, they forfeit their normal human rights. We are morally mandated to do everything possible short of torture (causing permanent physical or pschological damage) to save the lives of the innocent.
God calls that “justice.”
By the way, in a God-fearing nation, wise leaders go after the bad guys and protect the good guys. In a godless nation, it’s reversed: Good guys are punished and bad guys treated leniently.
I guess that tells you who the Senate Democrats are. They blasted the good guys (American interrogators) and victimized the bad guys (murderous jihadists).
Remember that next time when you listen to bloviating politicians.
And when an American president implies that we shouldn’t use strong interrogation tactics on human beings that murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens, and lectures us that this is “against our values,” remember this:
A supreme value of a God-fearing nation and government is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13).
The Democrats seem to have forgotten that most basic of truths.
Two Revelations from Ferguson
Some people say if you haven’t experienced injustice or walked in the shoes of those who have, then you can’t relate to those who’ve suffered.
That statement doesn’t apply to me.
My family was slapped in the face by civil injustice. My father went to prison for three years because a jury made a wrong decision. We nearly lost everything–my mother courageously working a graveyard shift so that we could keep our house during that season of grief.
Not once did we blame the establishment or burn our neighborhood down to get even. We made a better choice.
Here are two revelations from Ferguson, Missouri.
Yes, it’s true that I’m not African-American and weighted down with the historical millstone of slavery. That is not a pretty history and no one can deny that it has affected generations of black Americans.
I am as white as white can be–half German, half Swedish. But many races, cultures, and families have experienced human injustice in other forms.
In my case, it was directed at my family in the 1960s.
My dad was a successful doctor who brought down the wrath of the medical elite by helping to fund a better way of doing blood tests that undercut the profits of the establishment. They needed to put him out of business to benefit their bottom line.
They succeeded.
In a bogus trial in which the main witness lied on the witness stand (and later committed suicide), my father was convicted of a crime he never committed and spent three years of his life behind bars.
Unjustly.
A jury of his peers made the wrong decision and my family spent a horrendous thirty-six months (and then a lifetime) dealing with the consequences.
So when I hear shouts of “injustice” I understand its meaning. I’ve felt it, experienced and hate it.
But when I saw the reaction of the local community to the killing of Michael Brown–and more recently watched the riots and wanton destruction of property by those who were angry that Officer Darren Wilson wasn’t indicted–it brought to my mind two revelations that I want to offer up to my fellow Americans who are still dealing with this tragedy.
The first is a perspective on our current culture that is frightening. If we don’t learn from this insight, then our nation could “burn” in the coming years.
The second revelation is more personal. I believe it would have been shared by Dr. Martin Luther King, a rightful hero in the United States and in other nations among those who care about truth and justice.
Revelation One – Post-Modern (Pagan) Morality Destroys.
I haven’t liked the term “post modern” since I first encountered it in my graduate studies about a decade ago. Almost nobody can define it. Between typing these lines, I tried to google a definition of post modernism on-line and got a gobblety gook of words with little meaning.
Post-modern is supposed to be “after the modern world, “a new evaluation of culture, mores etc.” One definition got close to the heart of it: self-referential when it comes to right and wrong.
What does that mean?
Let’s back up a moment and look at its opposite.
Nobody who is honest about history would disagree that the modern world was built on the foundation of a Judeo-Christian values. Let’s call this God-referential--in other words:
- There is God Who made not only the natural laws of the universe but also revealed the moral laws that apply to all human beings. We are accountable to Him for our actions.
- From the Decalogue and the nation of Israel, to the Magna Carta, to the Reformation, to the foundations of British law and American civilization, this biblical view of life has formed the basis of modernity and the civil rights (and peace and prosperity) that we enjoy.
- Human rights are not derived from tyrants or human governments, but are God-given, including the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
- The biblical worldview assumes that there is such a thing as truth–and that this truth is based on evidence. All of our human courts and principles of justice are based on this axiom that we must seek to know the truth that is based on objective facts.
- Our system of “blind justice” is the best the world has produced–and human juries are the wisest and humane way to keep justice near to the people and discover truth in a fallen world.
- Because human beings are sinful and fallible, sometimes even the best structures make wrong decisions. But the rule of law that comes from God is still worth honoring, even when it fails.
- Perfect justice or judgment will only be given in eternity by a holy and just God. We must leave ultimate justice in the hands of God.
- The end (justice) never justifies the means (violence).
Thus the biblical worldview teaches us 1) there is a God of justice, 2) truth is based on evidence, and 3) We must never take justice in our own hands either through vigilantism or random acts of violence.
A biblical worldview and godly character are the guardians of peace in a free society.
So what happened in Ferguson and what did it reveal about our present character and worldview?
The shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson looked confusing early on. It could have been racially motivated–a white cop over zealously gunning down a black young man–or it could have been a young thug robber assaulting a policeman which cost him his life.
Which was it?
After a media circus fueled by race hustlers used the occasion to stir up the community against the police and burned and destroyed parts of Ferguson, a grand jury was convened to analyze the facts. They concluded:
- That many early witnesses lied and changed their stories about it being police brutality.
- At least six African American witnesses confirmed Darren Wilson’s testimony that he shot Michael Brown in self defense after Brown punched him, ran away, then charged him even when Wilson pleaded for him to stop.
- There was no basis to indict Darren Wilson.
Yet after the grand jury decision was announced, 20 businesses were burned to the ground by angry, stoned, anarchic thugs, 60 businesses were burglarized, and scores of people were arrested for partipating in the economic mayhem. Then the violent protests spread around the nation to other major cities.
Why?
Because the post-modern worldview of “self-referential” people –meaning I will decide my own truth regardless of God, evidence, justice, juries, or other people’s property rights–is growing in our nation.
Selfishness reigns. I am my own truth. I don’t care about the facts and I don’t respect your private property. I will burn you and loot you with impunity if I don’t get my way.
In the biblical worldview, Jesus (God’s Word) says, “I am the truth (John 14:6). In the post-modern worldview which we saw unleashed in Ferguson and other places, fallen human beings say “I have my own truth and will do what I want.”
Let’s call post-modernism what it really is.
Paganism. The spirit of anarchy that comes from Lucifer himself.
It is life without God, his rules for living, his character and self control, his love and grace.
And if the pagan/postmodern worldview is not exposed and repented of in American life, then the prevalence of violence and anarchy looms large in our future.
Revelation Two – Biblical Morality Brings Peace and Blessing
When my family faced injustice forty-five years ago, I could have gotten mad, bitter and even violent. Our family had been destroyed and my dad had been taken away.
If I’d had a notion to be post-modern or pagan, I could have burned up the whole neighborhood to get “justice for my dad.”
Instead, I began a pursuit of God which led me and much of my family into being born again, discipled in his character, filled with his love and forgiveness, and set free to serve others.
We never blamed the prosecutor, the jury, the state, the medical establishment or anyone else. Yeah, we had our pity-party moments, but the greater reality was allowing God to work in our lives and help us overcome injustice with his goodness and grace.
We learned to turn the other cheek, work hard, accept some bad decisions and circumstances in life, try to make it a better world thorough peaceful means, and put final justice in hands of the only One who can handle it.
God.
He became our reference–not our twisted, angry human pride.
Dr. Martin Luther King did the same thing in the 1960s regarding African-American civil rights. He shared the truth, preached non-violence, and left the verdict in God hands and a biblically-based nation that responded to the facts and removed some chains of discrimination.
In the past fifty years we’ve made great racial strides through referencing the God of MLK and his ways. Let’s not go back to self-referencing and the chaos and destruction it produces.
Benjamin Watson, an African-American tight end for the New Orleans Saints, has it right when he says about Ferguson:
“I’M HOPEFUL, because I know that while we still have race issues in America, we enjoy a much different normal than those of our parents and grandparents. I see it in my personal relationships with teammates, friends and mentors. And it’s a beautiful thing.”
“I’M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn.”
“BUT I’M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One that’s capable of looking past the outward and seeing what’s truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It’s the Gospel.”
“So, finally, I’M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope.”
Amen, Benjamin.
You’ve gotten the revelations.