Chaplain Bill Wolfe
Llano County Sheriff’s Department
Hello, and welcome once again to the Chaplain’s Corner. Here it is June, and you sure can tell it by the thermometer. When I came on full-time I was expecting to be on days in the winter and nights in the summer. Didn’t quite work out that way. Oh well…I’m glad I can set the a/c in the patrol car to “freezing.” J
“Your Taser’s Just a Crutch.” Now, I bet that’s put some folks on the defensive. As I said a long time ago, from time to time I’ll take police equipment and turn it into an object lesson. Many years ago when I first became a Christian the “operative phrase” of non-Christians was “Christianity is just a crutch.” (As if drugs and alcohol weren’t.) Christianity is no more a crutch than your taser. Let’s take a look and see how they compare.
There are those who will assert that Christianity is only for those whose life is out of control. The same could be said of your taser. You use it when the situation is getting out of control and you don’t want to resort to deadly force. Until then the taser “calmly resides” on your duty belt, bringing you a measure of “peace of mind” until such time as you need it. The same is true of a Christian’s faith. It resides in one’s heart, bringing with it a peace and a knowledge that God is there all the time and is willing to intervene should life get rough.
The implication of their crutch comments was: “Christianity is for wimps.” Well… how about your taser? Don’t you fire it while you’re still outside the perp’s range of hurting you? Wouldn’t “real men” stand up eyeball to eyeball with the perp and slug it out? I haven’t heard that kind of judgment leveled against officers who use tasers, so why use it against Christians?
Another argument that I’ve heard from those who reject Christianity is that “people have been killed in the name of Christ.” I’m certainly not in a position to argue that that hasn’t happened. But there are other religions that have done the same and people don’t reject them for that reason. But getting back to your taser… we sometimes read about deaths attributed to taser shocks. The taser shock may or may not have directly caused the death. That doesn’t mean we reject the tactical value of the taser out of hand.
I’ve mentioned already the comparison of faith and a taser. I think we can make a comparison between prayer and a taser shock. The taser shock knocks down the one it hits so you can “get a handle on him/her.” Prayer, for the Christian, does essentially the same thing even though the process is a little different. In some of my past columns I’ve talked about philosophical giants that pop up in our lives from time to time. Sometimes they’re bigger than we can handle, so we hit them with a burst of prayer that knocks them down so we can “cuff and stuff.”
The dictionary definition of a crutch, in addition to giving a description of a literal crutch, is “anything one leans on or relies on for support.” Okay, maybe that’s what the Christian faith is. The Christian leans on his/her faith and hobbles their way through the problem. But they come through. (When you lean on drugs and alcohol, the problem is still there when the buzz is gone.) The Christian faith and the taser…alike and yet so unlike. Carry both and you’re covered for any event.
Well, I’ve rambled long enough for this trip. Give it some thought and email if you want to discuss it more. J
Blessings to you and yours.
Chaplain Bill
llanochaps@moment.net
