No. Your not getting it. A Christian calling the police does not mean they are directly condoning violence in any way anymore than they would be directly condoning violence by calling upon God for an angel to protect them (And that angel then is given permission from GOD to use lethal force by any means necessary to protect the believer). They are the same thing.
I think it is you Jason who is not getting it, and not thinking things through.
If you are a pacifist and believe in turning the other cheek, as many advocate on this thread,
you cannot call the police!
Calling the police is not turning the other cheek, but is clearly condoning and committing violence by proxy.
If you or your family is being attacked, and the police come, they are very unlikely to just politely ask the person to desist, they will most likely resort to violence in very short time.
Even if you believe violence would happen only 10% of the time, unless you are a hypocrite, as a pacifist you cannot risk that possibility.
You should just turn the other cheek and let your wife and children be raped and beaten senseless because that is obviously the will of God!
Now, if a Christian had the power or ability to call a hit squad to kill people (and that was their only mission), then that would be different. Then that would be wrong. Police are not a hit squad. They can potentially use violence, but they are also called to resolve situations peacefully if they can.
Wrong. Police are clearly a hit squad, even if only 10% of the time!
And the other 90% of the time they succeed because of the legitimate threat of violence, which as Jesus makes clear is of equal sin to actual violence!
Sorry Jason, if you insist on turning the other cheek, you cannot get others to do your dirty work. Just grin and bare it. Maybe your wife and kids in time will recover after being beaten and raped because you just stood back and let it happen!
And on the occasion that the police manage to resolve a situation peacefully, it is most likely that violence has not already been the case. If violence is already there, then as I stated above, the police response will of necessity be violent. When lives are clearly in danger, there is little time for prissy negotiations, and the police response is to protect the victim, not to be nice to the perpetrator.
To claim otherwise is to live in cuckoo land, and goes completely against statistics.
The police are God's ministers of justice for those who do evil or wrong. That does not mean that all of the police department as a whole are saved individuals. They are merely tools or instruments used to carry out God's justice (Similar to when God used a pagan nation "Assyria" to punish Israel at one time in the past for their sins).
The police are a very modern invention, and you are making the mistake of projecting your modern view of society back thousands of years to the time the scripture was written.
So what do you suppose they did when attacked in bible times? Dial 911, or maybe go on social media?
While their family was being attacked, being holy and righteous citizens of heaven, maybe they just sat at the side and watched, but of course they had first sent a runner the ten miles or so to the nearest village.
But then the nearest village, having no militia sent another runner to the big city to wake up the garrison.
But being night time and they don't open the gates after sun down, the garrison commander didn't receive the messenger till the following morning after his breakfast.
After listening, the commander decides that to send a troop all that way several hours was a waste of time as the victim was likely already dead with his wife and kids on the way to someone's harem or slave market.
So bad luck pal, just send my condolences to anyone that's left.
Before police were invented, the government of God typically included the following.-
The national government, ie. kings and princes etc.
Regional government, ie. dukes or tribal leaders etc
City government, ie, tribal or clan leaders,
Local or village government, heads of families.
This is not meant to be precise, and can be listed in many ways. However you will find that local policing always came down to tribal heads and the heads of families or houses, including all those capable of bearing arms.
In God's eyes, the advent of policing in no way absolved family men from their judicial responsibility for defending law and order in their own house or that of their neighbours!
The Christian himself is not to act violently in any way. These are direct orders from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and by His followers within the pages of the New Testament. A person either believes those words or they don't believe them (based upon human rationalization, etc.).
Then why did Jesus make a whip out of cords and violently drive the traders out of the temple?
Why did Paul command that Elymas was made blind for a season?
Also why didn't Paul just turn the other cheek when about to be flogged by the soldiers when he was arrested?