Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to explore a longstanding political truth, and that is when government can no longer manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper. That is you and me. Have you noticed this phenomenon, dear listener?

It is really apparent to all with eyes in their heads that federal, state, and local governments across America have abandoned their prime directive that is to maintain law and order. And this happens throughout history. That is when government no longer can manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper. It can't help itself. Oh, there is, for example, in America, we have evidence of this all around us, do we not?

First of all, we understand that there's now no prosecution for theft. There's no prosecution for crime, whether it's egregious and major, or whether it's relatively incidental and minor, right? For example, we have Proposition 47 in California. It made theft of property valued under $950 a misdemeanor. Rather than a felony.

And the predictable result is that most courts in California not only do not bring felony charges against someone who may shoplift goods or steal less than the stipulated amount, $950, but also they drop even the misdemeanor charges. In other words, thieves go off scot-free as long as it's under $950. And consequently, petty theft has exploded across the state. Oh, I'm shocked. How could that be?

Large retailers like Safeway or Target or Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies, they have reported in that in 2016, at least, shoplifting increased from 15% to over 50% since voters approved Proposition 47. Organized retail theft is now flourishing, where gangs go in and steal items, which they've calculated beforehand, will amount to just less than $950. Funny how that works. Also then, we've seen that the illegal alien is the new untouchable. That's another factor in, indeed, crime exploding and government not being able to manage the lawbreaker because the illegal alien is the new untouchable.

That is, our immigration policy has led to the illegal alien being untouchable by the criminal justice system. The Heritage Foundation reports the undeniable link between increasing illegal immigration and crime. Biden's policies have fostered crime ubiquitously. Mass parole for millions of aliens, for example. Two million aliens have been released into the nation's interior, many of whom have engaged in criminal activities.

Thousands have prior criminal convictions, including assault, rape, and murder. In fact, the Department of Justice statistics reveal that 64% of federal arrests involve non-citizens, even though they comprise less than 7% of the total population. In fact, it is observed that immigrants are the most egregious of the victims of illegal immigration, for that matter. There's a 23% surge in deaths at the border since Biden took office, and a 58% surge since his former boss's administration, that is, the Obama presidency. Well, there is also the matter of unsolved crime, when government can no longer manage the lawbreaker.

And we see that transpiring with the vast amount of unsolved crime. Crime in America has gotten so out of control that there's little hope of getting justice. When you do become a victim yourself. FBI stats tell us that just 62% of murders and 33% of rapes are ever solved. The rest go unsolved and just vanish into the mist with the victims of those crimes suffering.

Even these stats can't be trusted, actually, since the FBI no longer requires major cities to report crime stats. Oh, yes. Did you know this? Cities like New York and Los Angeles and Chicago no longer even submit their crime stats. And so these cities, which find themselves under a sea change of crime in their cities, aren't even bothering to submit their reports.

It's gotten so bad that only 42% of people victimized by crime, even with the stats we have, only 42% of people victimized by crime even bother to report the incidents to the police. Brother, when it comes to crime in major US cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, you are on your own. But don't you dare arm yourself either as a citizen because when governments can no longer manage the crime perpetrators, right? They micromanage the law keepers. But don't you dare arm yourself or carry in any of those crime infested rat holes any arm or you will be prosecuted for protecting yourself.

Yes, unsolved crime in America is just further evidence that when government can no longer manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper. We've also seen in this regard, that is, that government can no longer manage the law breaker. We've seen that manifest in the defunding of the police. Oh, the police have been defunded, dear listener. How self-righteous is the progressive who marches and opines to defund the police, right?

Oh, the racial minority that's been victimized for generations by brutal white cops. Shrink the police department, punch holes in that thin blue line, replace them with community counselors, right? Well, we've had a while to let this policy take effect and the results are predictable to anyone with a modicum of common sense. Crime rates have surged since cities have slashed their police budgets. Just some random samples here.

For example, Portland, a center of the defund the police movement. Portland has seen record shootings, over 1,200 this past year. New York is up 81% in terms of shootings within New York City. Oakland, California, another example. Carjackings are up 88%.

We could go through so many of the crime stats. They've all mushroomed since the defund the police movement has taken hold. And of course, in an incident, just one example, in an incident that's rich in irony, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party official, Shivanthi Sathanandan, was recently robbed and beaten as her car was hijacked with her in it. Oh, yes. And she says, I quote her, I have a broken leg, deep lacerations on my head, bruising, and cuts all over my body.

And I have rage, she says, unquote, who said, Sathanandan said, the beating occurred also in front of her four-year-old daughter and her seven-year-old son. Well, that is tragic. I feel for her. But she's righteously indignant that the police were nowhere to be found. The police were late to the crime scene.

The police have not been able to find her assailant. Oh, I wonder why. The problem, of course, is that Sathanandan vowed to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of the George Floyd incident. Oh, she has been in the lead. She has been in the forefront.

She has been stridently vocal in the defund the police movement. And she's been harshly condemnatory of police and their supposedly racial discrimination against minority communities. Oh, can't she see the irony? She got her wish. Budgets have been slashed in Minneapolis.

The force has shrunk and cops in Minneapolis are overwhelmed. But of course, in classic narcissist fashion, when she is a victim of crime, where were the cops? Why wasn't I protected? Why don't I get justice? Oh, dear listener, when government cannot manage lawbreakers, they micromanage the law keepers.

We also see as well that 9-1-1 is overwhelmed. Here's another index, if you will, of the fact that when government can no longer manage the law breaker, they micromanage the law keeper. We see from 9-1-1 calls that law enforcement, emergency responders are overwhelmed. 9-1-1 is overwhelmed. The 9-1-1 call system, of course, was originally created to receive emergency calls to which then police and EMT responders would be deployed.

But as one might reason from the explosion of crime in American cities, well, there's been a corresponding explosion in 9-1-1 calls as well. Call centers are overwhelmed. And since COVID, in particular, since COVID and the extreme measures taken during COVID, it takes two to three minutes longer to even get through to have a call received. And the average is extending, too, with the increase in crime in American cities. The system is increasingly bogged down, too, by another phenomenon.

Listen to this. 9-1-1 call takers have become, if you will, the emotional counselors and psychiatrists of record in our culture. Anyone with a complaint for existence, for example, have you heard the bit with the McDonald happy meals without fries that a woman called in, indignant, called 9-1-1 because her happy meal had no fries. Or other callers just having a stressful day. There's also a call with a woman whose cat died.

This poor lady had her cat die and she called 9-1-1 for consolation. Oh, but they all feel free to call in and pour out their troubles to a first responder. That sounds so comforting, doesn't it? I'm going to call that first responder, not to a life and death circumstance, but rather to sympathetic response to a bad day. These are the things that are coming in at 9-1-1 calls.

Created to be a fast response to emergencies, 9-1-1 has become bogged down by bureaucracy boondoggles and boobs. In a pinch, you might as well make a call to Batman for a quick response than 9-1-1. And then, of course, another index, if you will, of why and how when government can no longer manage the lawbreakers, they micromanage the lawkeepers. Another index of that inability to manage lawbreakers are theft gangs. Theft gangs.

Retail stores are reporting that shoplifting and outright theft is mushrooming their losses and costs as well for things like added security. Well, what that means is that the stores really don't take the loss. They don't, but they rather increase their prices to you and to me to make up for it. That's what happens. We end up paying more for increased crime.

Individual thieves are becoming more violent and aggressive too, and they are frequent in their predations. But retail organizations also report that organized gangs are sweeping through their outlets in lightning raids, systematically looting stores of their most valuable items. One example, Target saw a 120% increase in theft involving violence or threats of violence in the first half of 2023, for which we have most recent stats.

It's even reported that theft gangs from Chile, for example, will fly in hit predetermined high-end retail outlets like jewelry or fashion boutiques, and then they will fly out the same day on private jets, all to the confusion and consternation of law enforcement. When government can no longer manage the lawbreaker, they will micromanage the lawkeeper. I have only sampled, dear listener, the breakdown of government's ability to protect you. And we must also understand that God hates, as well as chaos and crime, predations, the victimization of the poor and the outcast, the widow and the orphan, as the Bible calls them.

Ecclesiastes 8, 11 says, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. That's a wise insight by Solomon. Ah, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Increasingly, because government cannot execute its most basic function, justice. Of David, Samuel says, in governing Israel, he says, David administered justice and equity to all the people.

The Bible says of Solomon, too. God says of Solomon, he says, God has made you king over Israel, that you may execute justice and righteousness. But because justice is delayed, or it's not meted out at all, as the Bible says, the heart of man is fully set to do evil. And this includes those who rule over us. When government can no longer manage the lawbreaker, it will micromanage the lawkeeper.

And we see this all around us as well. At the same time your government cannot manage the lawbreaker, it still has the primal instinct to control and force, doesn't it? George Washington says, government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force.

And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Unquote, George Washington. This primal instinct, this inherent desire, is the core of all human governance. A particular government may convince itself that it has the best interest of the people at heart, that they want to do the best by the people over whom they rule. But no matter the protestations to the contrary, this is not their goal.

It is not their goal in the end. As Voltaire puts it, he says, so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so. Tyrants are active and ardent and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. Unquote. Yes, putting shackles on sleeping men.

This is the bent of tyranny. Tyrants are active and ardent indeed. And they will find something or someone to control or manage or tyrannize over if it can't be the lawbreaker. They will then turn to the lawkeeper, who they will proceed to micromanage. And it's because it's in their DNA.

It's been true throughout history and it still stands today. Look about you in America. For example, dear listener, consider the COVID control measures, right? The COVID control measures infamously. What we witnessed in response to the plague hysteria was a tyrant's wet dream.

Shut down, fax up, and stay in. Remember? I remember very vividly the fistfights in Walmart over not wearing a mask, right? I remember the Harbor Police in California chasing a lone surfer out on the water for not staying indoors. I remember fraudulent Fauci with dire warnings if we didn't wear masks.

Oh, speaking of frauds, how about Joe Biden lecturing us that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated? Oh, and there were governors wagging their fingers at us, telling us to mask up, vax up, and shut up if we disagreed with them. While, of course, they cruised in their private yachts like the governor, Whitmer, in Michigan. Or they dined in exclusive restaurants while Weber shut down, like Newsom in California. Or they feted their friends in crowded mansions as Governor Cuomo did in New York.

And it's all a matter of rules for thee, but not for me, right? So spectacularly successful was the system in micromanaging us that the United Nations is fashioning an entire pandemic treaty, which is before the respective signatories even now, including the United States of America. If this treaty passes, it will make temporary COVID rules into permanent law, dear listener. Oh, and then, of course, there are the Byzantine tax laws. This is another way in which we are micromanaged.

Indeed, if government cannot manage the lawbreakers, they will micromanage the lawkeepers. And part of the way they do this is through Byzantine tax laws. The tax code in America is a wonder to behold, isn't it? The official IRS tax code, which you can download, is 6,000, excuse me, 6,550 pages long. And that excludes appendices and case law, too.

Just try and decode the language and the rules to follow. The entire thing is, as Churchill puts it, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, the United States tax code. And, of course, this is intentional. It is deliberately complex so that the average taxpayer cannot do his taxes himself. He needs a professional accountant.

And you're not going to see this segment of the culture be in favor of reform either, ever. Why get rid of a career, right? And further, the code is filled with so much special language and ambiguities that its interpretation can be managed to the advantage of the government, almost at will. This has been proven over and over again, such that one complex return may be submitted to 10 IRS accountants and come back with 10 different results. Oh, as George Bernard Shaw puts it, he says, all professions are conspiracies against the laity.

That's a good cynical insight. But true, all professions are conspiracies against the laity. And, of course, the nomenclatures of professions, like the language of the IRS, the nomenclatures of professions are the charms and spells that they use to hypnotize us. This all works to the advantage of the federal government. And it's a prime means by which they manage the law keeper, micromanage the law keeper.

When government cannot manage the law breaker, they will micromanage the law keeper. And then, of course, there are privacy invasions. This is egregious. Privacy invasions. Your Fourth Amendment, which used to mean that you were, as the amendment says, secure in your persons, houses, papers, and effects.

That is your right to privacy. Well, that Fourth Amendment is now a quaint relic of the past, fit for nostalgic reminiscence, maybe, and whose entire constitution, for that matter, can be put in a glass case in the museum. And, of course, artificial intelligence and the eagerness by tyrants to use it to the full has made the Fourth Amendment obsolete. The alphabet agencies, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, they all brag about their access to every computer in America with every word spoken into your telephone and every keystroke on your device recorded and stored for future reference, if necessary.

Cameras see you, microphones hear you, thermometers register you, sensors can sense the surface of your skin, and algorithms predict your future actions with such accuracy that you will soon be arrested or called in for questioning based upon your profile. That profile assembled from a panopticon portrait of yourself. Never mind that you've done nothing wrong. Oh, the system will find something at some time, whenever they want you. As the head of Stalin's secret police, Beria, quipped to him, he said, give me the man and I'll give you the crime.

Oh, when government can no longer manage the law breaker, dear listener, it will micromanage the law keeper. When government can no longer manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper. Oh, and then, of course, there are Second Amendment violations. Of course, the encroachment of tyrants on our Second Amendment are legend by now. We know most of them, don't we?

And if that goes away, so will all the rest of our liberties and they'll be gone for good. What is of immediate concern to me is what has come to be known as red flag laws. These are ordinances that allow police to confiscate a gun owner's firearms without due process, based upon a suspicion or a complaint, perhaps from a third party, a complaint or fear from a spouse or a neighbor or local official or just someone angry with you could result in your firearms being preemptively seized without a warrant. Yes, Gary Willis of Fernandale, Maryland, for example, found this out, but he found it out fatally.

Somewhat officials are not releasing the identity of the caller. Well, somebody called in Mr. Willis as a potential danger and the police went to his home under the red flag ordinance, went to his home to seize his firearms. And when he resisted, they shot him. Oh, dear listener, we will see more of these kinds of incidences in the future as government continues to micromanage the law keeper. When government cannot manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper.

Oh, how many laws do you need? We've just gone through a few of these. How many laws do you need to micromanage the law keeper, dear listener? And the answer comes back, never enough. Never enough.

For example, just some other more, perhaps more humorous examples of micromanaging the law keeper. Did you know that it is illegal to collect rainwater in Colorado? Oh, did you know that skateboarding without a license is prohibited in Florida? Did you know that chickens are not permitted to cross the road in Georgia? Oh, I couldn't believe this one.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Well, I guess we'll never know because it's a moot point because crossing the road for chickens is against the law. Did you know that it is illegal to catch a fish with your bare hands in Kansas? Did you know that it is prohibited to harass Bigfoot in Washington State? Oh, did you know that in Mississippi, anyone disturbing a church service is subject to citizen's arrest?

I think I like that one as a pastor. I kind of like that one. Maybe we should get that in Idaho. Anyone disturbing a church service is subject to citizen's arrest. Oh, and did you know that in Maine, Christmas decorations are not to be up past January 14th?

Oh, they'll bust you for it, dear listener. All of these would be funny, would they not, if it were not so serious? When government cannot manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper. Behold the situation which obtains in the United States of America even now. And, dear listener, if we don't really step up and do something about this, I think we're going to find ourselves in even deeper hot water than we are already in.

After all, the Bible does exhort us then to do justice and justice alone in a land to which the Lord your God has been calling you and sending you. Ah, so long as people do not care then to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize them will do so, as Voltaire says. Tyrants are active and ardent, and they will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. Yes, we need to wake up, citizen, wake up from our slumber, and do as the Bible tells us, even as David administered justice and equity to all his people. So, our government must do the same.

And just as Solomon exhorted, or just as God exhorted Solomon, God has made you king over Israel that you may execute justice and righteousness. This is what we need to return to biblically in our own land, so that, indeed, because government cannot execute its most basic function, justice, we find that when government can no longer manage the law breaker, it will micromanage the law keeper. Let us throw off the shackles of micromanagement in our own lives, dear listener, and return to justice and righteousness. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and join us for worship, and also give us a call. Give me some feedback, or if you have any more questions, you can call us at area code 208-523-0196. That's 208-523-0196.