A Letter to Pastor Ken

by Warren Asmus

Good morning Pastor,

I am responding to your invitation to comment as a Christ follower and law enforcement officer for over 37 years, on the recent rioting and protests.  I will be brief, but hopefully give you a perspective as a Christian police officer.

 Although this has not been a foundational passage in Scripture throughout my career, it has become so with violent protests becoming more common, and me growing older and through the grace of Christ more spiritually mature.  That foundational scripture passage is from Ephesians 6:12, where Paul wrote, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” 

This is our, yours and my struggle.  When we do not recognize who and what is behind all of the hatred, violence and destruction, what occurs should not be a surprise.  The ‘power of the dark world,’ Satan, is directing what is occurring in our cities right now.

 What happened to George Floyd was wrong and evil.  It was a crime and should be prosecuted.  It goes against the very core of who I/we are as law enforcement officers.  What is happening with the riots and lootings is also wrong as it violates the rights and liberties of individuals we have sworn to protect.  Again, when we see through the lens of ‘flesh and blood,’ and not ‘spiritual forces of evil’ we should not be surprised. 

I, like the vast majority of law enforcement officers, joined the profession because we wanted to help those in our communities.  We wanted to be the protective line between good and evil.  We wanted to comfort those that had been victimized and bring their perpetrators to justice.  We have all heard the expression, “It’s just a few bad apples…”  Now I’m hearing that is an excuse for a profession that has a barrel full.  That is not true.   Again, ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood…’ 

More than ever our law enforcement men and women need our support and prayers.  They are trying to protect, to help the people who want to see their community business thrive, but is now looted and ransacked.  People who want to get to work on a bus, but now can’t because it’s been destroyed. People who want to go into the city with their families safely, but now cannot due to the rioting and buildings covered with profane graffiti.  We, law enforcement, joined the profession to give the ‘people’ the freedom to achieve all these things.  It affects us deeply when we cannot not achieve that.

Jesus Christ, and He alone is the way to stop this.  He only can remove the scales from my, our eyes, to see the spiritual forces of evil.  Nothing else will!

I am grateful for you and Emmanuel Church.  The community is seeing and experiencing the grace and love of Jesus Christ.

Warren