T h e r e w a s a t i m e in our so ciety when the police officers of our nation were highly respect ed and honored. Today they are all too often degraded and scorned and yet expected to protect so ciety so that the individual may walk without fear. The policeman has to be a peace-maker, counsel or, advisor on legal questions and at times a pastor. Always he stands as a fearless bulwark of integrity to protect the rights of people so they may live in their homes without fear and appre hension of harm. Because of the nature of his work, the public of ficer is subjected to more contro versy, demands and service than those in any other form of public employment. I originally accepted my posi tion as a professional police of ficer because I wanted to work with people, because I love peo ple, because I loved my country. I had no illusions about being a great protector o f my community but I recognized in this job a unique way to help others. Now as the years go by, I become more and more confused and saddened by the demands and attitudes of the people. We police officers are very much human too. We are married to fine women and rear our chil dren in the same manner as most
still be a Christian! Instead of ar resting, we could just talk and forgive! Such ignorance is to be prayed for and helped to under stand that the power of the law vested in every legitimate officer is, in fact, divinely appointed to inflict God’s punishment upon evil-doers (Romans 13:1-7). The honest person has no need of fear from the keepers of the law but a dishonest one should always be nervous. The policeman is God’s officer for your protection, God’s servant for your needs. A police officer can be very frustrated in these times when liberal church leaders brazenly step forward and encourage and advise others to do those things which are contrary to the ways of the Lord. They even deny His power and help lead the ignorant, uninformed and emotionally sus ceptible ones into violence and de fiance of the good orders of so ciety. Yet pretentiously they do these things in the name of God and even pray for the Lord to help them oppose the very things that He in His perfection and holiness has established and or dained. Some go so far as to per mit atheism to be taught on church - supported campuses be cause it “ encourages intellectual freedom.” Some actually use their Christian religion and freedom as a disguise to promote their own wickedness, using their free dom as an excuse for doing some thing that is wrong. These evil doers wrap themselves in a cloak of righteousness and do nothing that glorifies the Lord. They are professors, but not possessors, of the truth. This frustrates a police officer but he is baffled even more when sound c ons e rva t i ve churches throughout our land “ sit on their hands” and never raise their voices to be heard in defense of righteousness. The liberal follow ers speak up boldly, adding to the unrest and lawlessness, but the churches sound in the doctrines of Jesus Christ lack the courage “ to stand up to be counted.”
A POLICE OFFICER SPEAKS OUT
By Glen E. Vander Brink
other people do. We go through chicken pox, mumps, croup and measles and all the other prob lems in bringing up our children. We laugh and we cry ; we fear and we love just as other people do. Our children are just like your children. Many of us are God-fearing Christians who wor ship in our churches. I fellowship in a small independent conserva tive fundamental church and hold an office o f high responsibility to the Lord. I am thankful to Him that He saw fit for me to serve Him in this way because it gives me another opportunity to be with people. Believe it or not, dearly beloved, it is within the church of today that I find most confusion. Some, but hopefully only a few, who claim to be good doers of the Word do not hold that necessary level of respect for their protec tors in the law. Many times in private I hear church people re mind their children that, “Mr. Vander Brink is a policeman so you had better behave yourself or he might put you in jail!” In nocently, these good people have instilled into youth an immediate fear of the law and those who en force it. It has even been sug gested to me that it was hard to understand how I could be a po lice officer and arrest people and
The following article was written in response to an EDITORIAL which appeared recently in THE KING’S BUSINESS. We appreciate the tes timony of this officer of the law.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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