We now have video of another attack on law enforcement from Alex Pretti. His death could have been avoided if he had been arrested the first time. We've been told punishment is bad. Yet the Bible says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."
Welcome to Politics by Faith, thanks for being here. What a week it's been in Minnesota. Been thinking a lot about the lies that people believed in Minnesota this last week. And we've been told four stories in just the last two weeks. You had Rene Good, the elderly man let outside without a shirt on, the five -year -old who was arrested, and then this pretty guy who was just a guy getting donuts. None of it, none of those four stories turned out to be what we were first told.
And so many people fell for it all right from the beginning. So many people led by emotion and not the truth, not facts, not having any discernment. Gullible Christians. We recorded the TV show episode yesterday, and we had a wonderful guest on who wrote a piece recently about the gullible Christian. And he went into beautiful detail. I'll save that for when we release that here on the podcast, probably tomorrow.
But he spoke beautifully about how the Bible doesn't say anything about avoiding what's uncomfortable. Church discipline is uncomfortable. But of course you need to do it. Proverbs 21 15 justice is a joy to the righteous, but terror to evil doers means evil doers won't like it. It's a terror to them. So what are we just supposed to not have justice?
And you may. So, so if you're the evil doer, you don't like the justice because that means you're going to go to jail. And we have more and more of a society that doesn't like giving justice. I mean, like, oh, I feel bad for that person. Let's not convict them. Let's let them out for the millionth time.
Let's give them another chance. after he's already been arrested a hundred times.
What is this?
This is not how this is supposed to go. I thought of the scripture, Proverbs 27, 6, faithful are the wounds of a friend. I thought of this when I saw the video that was just released of Pretty, it's the guy who was killed by ICE or federal agents this last Saturday. And a new video came out of him 11 days prior and another altercation with law enforcement. He was getting in their face, screaming at them, just rage saying, assault me, assault me.
Swear words spit in their direction. And as one of the ICE vehicles was driving away, he kicked it multiple times. And one of the kicks knocked the taillight out, which is a pretty good kick. And then the agents got out and they knocked him over and then they let him go. And as he was getting up, you could see the gun in his back pocket. We also found out a couple of days ago that he had another engagement with law enforcement where he broke a rib.
I don't think this was that same engagement. So maybe it was, but so that means there could be three different engagements that this guy had with law enforcement, at least two of them with a gun. I don't think this is this, but there's a certain point where suicide by cop is on the table. I don't think that's what was going on here, but we're getting very close to that. And you're very far away from innocent guy leaving a donut shop who just got caught up in it. But that's what we're talking about.
Renee Good. She was just dropped her kid off at school and she was just driving home and she made a wrong turn and got caught in traffic. No, no, no. But I thought if this was the first time that this guy was involved in law enforcement, if he was arrested that time, His life could have been saved, as is often the case. I saw an article in the Telegraph in England. The headline was, Freed Prisoners Commit Record Number of Violent Crimes.
The Chief Inspector of Probation ordered his arrest. inspection as broken penal system fails to rehabilitate inmates. Somewhere along the line, we got this progressive idea that the only purpose of the penal system is to rehabilitate, and we just keep trying it. Like, well, he doesn't seem rehabilitated, but I don't know, let's just let him out anyway, see what happens. That's not the point of the penal system. The word penal is Latin, it means pain.
means pain and punishment. So like the headline really should say the pain and punishment system is failing to rehabilitate. Well, yeah, that's not the point of it. It's the pain and punishment system. Back to the telegraph. Almost 900 serious crimes have been recorded in the last year as being committed by offenders under supervision of probation after being released from jail.
Are you kidding me? It is the highest number since records began. Accounts for at least one murder and two rapes every week of the year. Every week, someone is murdered and two people are raped from a violent criminal who was released and on probation. And the article talks about this chief probation person who says, oh, we're just missing the warning signs. The warning sign was the first crime.
One person, Jordan McSweeney, killed a 35 year old law graduate after being released from prison. This guy's had 28 previous convictions, 69 different offenses, and he was recorded as a medium risk. If that's a medium risk, What does it take to be a high risk? 28 convictions and you're a medium risk? Try to remember these numbers. This is in America.
This is based off the state prison system in 2014. It's worse now, I'm sure. But in 2014, 75 % of people in state prison had five or more arrests. Five or more? How do you get to five? What is five strikes your out?
What is that?
5 % of people had 31 or more arrests.
Come on.
How do you get arrested 31 times? How can we allow someone to be arrested 31 times or more? New York times said that in 2022, a third of all the shoplifting arrests in New York city came from just 327 people. That 0 .004 % of the population was a third of all the shoplifting arrests. And these people have been arrested over 6 ,000 times. In Oakland, 400 people committed half of the city's homicides.
That's 0 .1 % of the city, half of the homicides. Now, check out this fact. This is the most important point of all. They did a study of juveniles. They found that for every one police contact, and that doesn't even necessarily mean an arrest, for every one police contact, there were 25 crimes that that person committed, which never caught. Some juveniles had as many as 300 crimes for every police contact.
Arresting criminals saves other victims, of course, and that's all you need. That's the only justification you need. And it can save the life of the person being arrested. Now, if it doesn't, that's fine. At least we kept them away from other people so they can't cause harm to them. They can't make their lives worse.
But if it prevents this person from hurting themselves or putting themselves in further bad situations, puts their life perhaps on a redeemable track, then that's great. We don't need them to be out. You don't need to release them. If Alex Pretty was arrested the first time, probably wouldn't have been there the third time. He'd still be alive today. If someone talked to him, if someone told him the truth, faithful are the wounds of a friend.
The true mark of a friend is that they will tell you the truth, even if it hurts. And the state can do that as well with punishment. Like, oh, you're not allowed to do that. You have to go to jail. That's the truth. And it can save their life.
I've talked to people on the radio who were addicted and they got clean in jail. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. The enemy tells you what you want to hear, even if they're lies. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. I read a great article, a sermon from Charles Spurgeon on this.
Excuse my long quotation. Once I start with Spurgeon, where do you stop? He said, ah, brethren, when we were groaning under the chastening hand of Jesus, we thought him cruel. Do we think so ill of him now? So Jesus chastening you, he's rebuking you. It's cruel.
Why are you being so cruel, Jesus? Oh, but do you think ill of him now? We conceived that he was wroth with us, means angry, and would be implacable, unable to be placated, unable to be not angry. How have our surmises proved to be utterly unfounded? The abundant benefit which we now reap from the deep plowing of our heart is enough of itself to reconcile us to the severity of the process. Precious is that wine which is pressed in the wine vat of conviction.
Pure is that wine. gold which is dug from the mines of repentance. And bright are the pearls which are found in the caverns of deep distress. We might never have known such deep humility if He had not humbled us. We had never been so separated from fleshly trusting had He, not by His rod, revealed the corruption and disease of our heart. So great had we never been so separated from fleshly trusting.
We find within us a strong and deep -seated attachment to the world and its sinful pleasures. Our heart is still prone to wander and our affections yet cleave to things below. Can we wonder then that it required a sharp knife to sever us at first from our lusts, which were then as dear to us as the members of our body? We loved these lusts. So foul the disease could only be healed by frequent drafts of bitter medicine. Let us detest the sin which rendered such rough dealing necessary.
But let us adore the Savior who spared not the child for his crying. So great. So we wanted the sin. Jesus caught us away from it and we cried to keep it. It was like a part of our body. We loved it so much.
We wanted to keep the sin and we kept crying like a baby who wants a toy. But Jesus did not stop doing what was good because he knew it was good. We didn't. Not at the time. Now we do. Hebrews 12, 6.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Discipline, chastisement. Good. Good things. Hard things, but good things. And I'll end here with Spurgeon.
We talked about how, you know, we don't like to be bothered with things. If someone came into your house and said, were sleeping at night and someone came into your house and shook you awake in the middle of the night, you'd be mad at them. But Spurgeon says, will the man who is asleep in a burning house murmur, complain at his deliverer for shaking him too roughly in his bed? Hey man, come on. Why are you bothering me?
Uh, your house is on fire.
Okay.
Thank you very much. Would the traveler tottering on the brink of a precipice upbraid the friend who has startled him from his dream? and saved him from destruction. Would not the harshest words and the roughest usage be acknowledged most heartily as blows of love and warnings of affliction? Best of all, when we view these matters in the light of eternity, how little are these slight and momentary afflictions compared with the doom escaped or the bliss afterwards attained? Thank you to the hand that rescued us.
Long afflicted, undismayed, in pleasure. Path secure, I strayed, and this false confidence that I'm living and everything's fine. I'm undismayed in my pleasure. Thou madest me feel thy chastening rod, and straight I turned unto my God. What thought has pierced my fainting heart? I blessed the hand that caused the smart.
It taught my tears a while to flow, but saved me from eternal woe. Oh, hadst thou left me unchastised, thy precepts I had stifled. Thank you for correction, God. And we, led by sentimentality, led by emotions in the real world, shouldn't be thinking that punishment is bad. Punishment can be good. Punishment can save lives.
Punishment can save souls.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
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