As we continue with studying the duties and methods of being watchmen, we do this because we want to be able to recognize any kind of threat to our families, our church family, our neighbors, and communities on whatever level the Lord has assigned to us. However, this is not the only reason we are doing this. To be focused and situationally aware will help us to see and engage in the almost continuous ministry opportunities around us. 

         As I touched on in last week’s study, in the military there are many ways and places that watches are assigned. The most basic and common is as a sentry on the line where you are likely posted a distance from your own lines in the direction of the expected threat from an enemy. In most cases, everyone is trained to do this regardless of rank or future position because the sentry is the most basic security of the force. 

         A sentry is trained to see and to know what to look for that would indicate a threat. They are also trained to listen and know what to listen for. They usually have a two-way radio so that they can communicate with headquarters if they see or suspect a threat. They may also be the one to fire the first shot in an engagement, and that shot is a warning to the rest of the force that a threat has been perceived. 

            So, basic to being a good watchman is to have good perception and good communications. A good watchman has been well-trained in what a threat is likely to look  or act like. Police, who are the professional watchmen for our communities, are trained to see the characteristics of people who could likely be a threat. This includes certain types of behavior, or tattoos worn by certain violent gangs. 

         But isn’t this profiling? Yes, and it is necessary. We all do it, like it or not, believe it or not. There are some types of profiling that is evil and racist, and we need teaching and training on how not to do this, but there is also necessary profiling without which we will be unnecessarily vulnerable. 

         The over-devotion to Political Correctness has done more than any other factor to make us vulnerable and neutralize our readiness to deal with threats. It has already cost many lives and yet it is still being promoted and gaining an increasingly strong grip on our people. Why? It’s being done to us intentionally and systematically, and most of our leaders have been asleep on their watch. We will cover this more later.  

         If we meet someone new, we will immediately begin to profile them even if it is unconscious. Granted, we all have filters that we view others through, and these can be colored and distorted by previous experiences or from having been raised in a prejudiced environment. For this reason, some sensitivity training so that we recognize what can distort our perception can be helpful. However, sensitivity training by those who are actually the greatest threat to us can make us far more vulnerable to danger, which has been going on in many of our national defense and law enforcement agencies. 

         For several decades it was estimated that over 90% of all terrorist attacks were carried out by Muslim extremists. Yet much of the sensitivity training being given to our military and law enforcement is intended to make even looking at a Muslim as a threat to be considered racist or religious bigotry. No doubt there is a danger of gravitating into racial or religious bigotry, but if we cannot look in that direction at all, as many are now trained, then we are far more vulnerable. We have already paid a high price in lives and the fundamental stability of our culture for being so naïve. 

         Presently, Marxists and anarchists have eclipsed Islamic extremists as the source of the main attacks on our Republic and our communities. The Political Correctness police have sought to make even investigating the organizations that tout these beliefs racist and off limits. We continue to pay an increasing price for giving into this PC madness. 

         It is a basic military principle that you cannot defeat an enemy you do not see, and you cannot protect yourself from a threat you do not understand. Racism is an ultimate evil, as is religious bigotry, and we don’t want to fall to these.  However, an overreaction to the fear of this will make us far more vulnerable to those who have been very bold to declare their strategy to use these fears of being considered a racist against us, and they have been very effective at it. The longer we give into this folly, the more vulnerable we become.

         The way that we learn to perceive the threats and those who want to do us harm so as to protect our community and our country is to obey the biblical exhortation to love our enemies. As Christians, hatred and bias can have no place. This must be combined with knowing our enemy, and resolving that we will fight them until all we have been entrusted with to protect are safe from them.  

© 2021 Rick Joyner. All Right Reserved.