Ernie wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:42 am
ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 11:05 pmI think that God does use unregenerate persons to do His will even when they have no desire to do so, but I'm not sure how a person can go to war and kill other people without being evil. Is it not evil to reject Jesus and his way?
Yes, I think that could be one definition of evil. Does the same definition apply to a "good" policeman who hasn't yet killed someone but would do so if he needed to? And does the same definition apply to a cook on a battleship? And does it make any difference if the cook was drafted and didn't want to help with warfare. Is he still evil for going along with the draft?
The vast majority of police officers (about 75%) go through their entire careers without ever firing their weapons in the line of duty. And of those who do, the majority do not actually kill anyone, only a small percentage of police officers ever take a life during their careers. Interestingly, we can also break it down by race and gender. Women police officers are about half as likely to ever fire their weapons as male officers. And Black officers are less likely to use their weapons as white officers. Pew did a big study on this:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads ... n-on-duty/
Studies also find that a majority of police shootings are also done by a small percentage of repeat offenders. In other words, a small number of cops are doing most of the shooting.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mo ... e-n1264795 In effect, it seems to actually be a small subculture of police who do most of the shooting. Which also demonstrates that it is probably very possible to spend an entire career as a police officer and never once deploy deadly force. While going out every single day to serve the public. In fact that is what the vast majority (75%) of police actually do. And if you adjust for those who are trigger happy and exclude them, the likelihood of an officer ever firing their weapon is smaller still.
In my mind, that makes working as a police officer absolutely no different from any civilian who chooses to carry a weapon or own a weapon for "protection". There are those here who support owning and carrying weapons but would reject ever serving as a police officer. I have relatives who are like that. They have gun collections, keep weapons in their cars, attend Mennonite churches, and would never serve as police officers "because of their beliefs". Which I find morally inconsistent in my mind. they are no different than the police officer who carries a weapon on the job but seeks to avoid using it. Worse perhaps, because they are doing it voluntarily.