A True Story


    This story was heard during a BBC interview of a senior British policeman who was also a member of a Christian group within the police force. The interviewer asked how being a Christian might have helped the policeman during his police career. Here is his answer:

    "Many years ago when I was a very young and raw constable, I was sent out in the company of a much older constable to bring in a person on a charge of sexually molesting a ten-year old child.

    "The man responsible was a known sex offender and had already been identified as the probable culprit. We knocked on the door of the offender's home and I was taken aback at the courtesy with which my senior partner treated the man. We put him in the police car and drove him to the station where my partner again showed great courtesy, even offering the offender a cup of tea and a cigarette.

    "This same gentle treatment continued throughout the interview and the subsequent arrest. When it was over, I was seething with resentment and anger at the way this criminal had been treated and I let my partner have the full blast of my anger. He responded, 'Sonny, if you have that attitude you will never make out in this job. Be angry at the crime but never at the criminal'

    "In later years I gratefully recognized that this very old fashioned British policeman had taught me in a practical situation what Jesus long ago taught us--to condemn the sin but never the sinner."

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