Your Mother, or the Police

There's a line in Dr. Ray Guarendi's stand-up parent-comedy routine,  "You're a Better Parent Than YouThink" that fits the current spat of news about rioting and misbehaving children.

As a parent I guarantee that your child will be disciplined. If not by you (which is the preferable) then by his teacher, his coach, his employer, the police, or…and I fear this next one…his wife. (You don't wanna go there, trust me.)"

Toya Graham is the single-mom of six kids, who was videotaped hitting, swearing at, and chasing her much larger and perhaps stronger 16-year old boy dressed like a masked ISIS terrorist, off the streets of Baltimore after seeing him throwing rocks at police.  She commented later that her pastor was not going to be too happy with her for swearing like she did at her son. She was called a "hero" by some, and villainized by others for letting his behavior get as far as it did. But you saw the fearsome look on the face of her much taller son as he ran off the streets and back home. His life, we pray, will be saved from the fate of Freddie Gray who evidently had a tragic life even before his arrest and death.

This morning I read another brief news report about a mother in Georgia for calling police after her 10-year old boy who was being rude and disrespectful in school. After the boy refused to listen to his mom, she called the cops, and they pretended to arrest him. They put the young boy in handcuffs and sat him in the back of a police cruiser where they had a heart-to-heart talk.  The boy was terrified, but evidently it worked. After a few minutes they released him and he ran to his mother and hugged her. The next week the teacher at school said the boy's behavior had been turned around. The police supervisor didn't like the idea of his officers "pretending" to arrest anyone. But, the mother defended her actions. "It worked," she said. "He's a changed boy."

The unrest around the country over claims of police brutality, or the help of police to teach the young boy in Georgia a firm lesson, keep reminding me of Dr. Ray's funny line. But behind Dr. Ray's line, and the reality of the universe is something called Natural Law. 

Be sure, if you jump off a cliff you will fall. As human beings we may have the freedom to make any choice we want. But we have no choice over the consequence. The nature of reality and the laws that God has established in the universe will ultimately determine our fate. That is true of everything from lying, stealing, sexual immorality, and disrespecting just authorities. You can jump up in the air just so far before gravity will bring you back down to earth.

There's security in that. You can trust Natural Law to be just and fair. You can trust Natural Law to have your best interests in mine.

That's why I'm Catholic.

May the Lord Be With You.

Stanley D. Williams, Ph.D.

Editorial at Nineveh's Crossing.com