Evangelicals & the Selective Outrage Against Law Enforcement

Scene of the Incident

Scene of the Alex Pretti confrontation with ICE officers

Selective Outrage Against Law Enforcement and Evangelical Moral Failure

The tragic shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE officers ignited an immediate media firestorm. Prominent progressive voices and clerical commentators rushed to condemn ICE, framing the event through a simplistic oppressor/oppressed binary with little regard for due process, developing facts, or the ethical demands of justice.

What we are witnessing today is Selective Outrage Against Law Enforcement, where moral judgment is driven by ideology rather than biblical truth, due process, or restraint.

What went conspicuously unmentioned was the broader context of lawlessness, obstruction, and attempted interference with federal officers — a fact acknowledged even in mainstream news coverage.

Official Statements & Context

Federal officials addressing the confrontation and subsequent investigation.

Federal authorities, including DHS spokespeople, confirmed that investigations are ongoing and that ICE agents were attacked by multiple individuals attempting to obstruct the performance of lawful duties. This is not uncommon: federal law (18 U.S. Code § 111) criminalizes assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers.

And yet, progressive clerics and online activists remained functionally silent about the storming of the ICE hotel, the mob intimidation, and the escalation of physical confrontation.

This silence is not neutrality — it is selective moral outrage, rooted in ideological alignment rather than biblical fidelity.

What’s Being Ignored: Biblical, Legal, and Moral Realities

Scripture does not permit a theology of outrage detached from facts, lawful authority, or neighbor-love. The same Bible that condemns injustice also commands submission to lawful authority and rejects vigilantism (Romans 13:1–4).

Additionally, Exodus 23:1–2 forbids aligning with mobs simply because they are mobs:

“You shall not spread a false report… nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit… You shall not follow a multitude to do evil.”

This is not a progressive or conservative principle — it is a biblical one.

What Removal Statistics Reveal (ICE Deportation / Removal Data)

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Statistics (FY2001–FY2024)

Source: https://www.ice.gov/statistics 

Contrary to activist rhetoric, ICE’s core function is not random terror, but enforcement of immigration law, including:

• Fugitive apprehension

• Criminal alien removal

• National security threats

• Gang enforcement

  
  

Recent data shows:

• FY2023: 142,580 removals

• FY2022: 72,177 removals

• FY2019: 267,258 removals

• 
  

Source: ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Reports (ERO)

These operations overwhelmingly involve criminal convictions, not ideological targets.

But these facts rarely surface in the outrage machine because they undermine the preferred narrative of ICE as a lawless terror organization.

The Theological Failure: When Outrage Becomes Partiality

What we saw online after the Pretti shooting was not prophetic witness — it was tribal partiality.

Selective Outrage = Partiality

James warns the church about partiality (James 2:1–9), and Proverbs warns against being “wise in one’s own eyes” (Prov. 3:7). When Evangelical voices condemn ICE without condemning mob interference with federal officers, they reveal:

• A deficient doctrine of law

• A deficient doctrine of sin

• A deficient doctrine of authority

Prophetic witness is not a tool of political agitation. It is a tool of truth-telling, even when it cuts against our tribe.

Christian Worldview: Order, Authority, and Sobriety

You shall not follow a multitude to do evil.’ — Exodus 23:2

Christians are commanded to be slow to speak (James 1:19), careful with facts, and submit to lawful authority, even when we disagree with policy.

Biblical justice is not mob justice.

The Silence Around Mob Interference

While many pastors, commentators, and activists wrote scathing posts about ICE, few spoke about:

• The storming of the hotel

• Attempts to obstruct federal agents

• Violence against officers

• The destabilizing effects of mob action

This asymmetry reveals not justice, but ideological capture.

Evangelicals Must Resist Narrative Capture

Evangelicals are called to think critically, not to serve as echo chambers for secular progressive frameworks.

To that end, consider how progressive outrage ignored:

• The facts still under investigation

• The legal categories at play

• Biblical commands for order

• The moral significance of resisting lawful authority

• The human sinfulness present on all sides

This is why the church must not outsource its moral reasoning to the secular left or right.

Video: Evangelical Worldview Response

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Related Posts

• Evangelicals & Jesse Jackson’s Social Gospel Abortion Flip: https://www.thinkingcriticallyfromanevangelicalworldview.com/post/evangelicals-jesse-jackson-s-social-gospel-abortion-flip

• Evangelicals & The Rule of Law vs Mob Outrage:https://www.thinkingcriticallyfromanevangelicalworldview.com/post/evangelicals-the-rule-of-law-vs-mob-outrage-a-christian-response-to-the-alex-pretti-shooting

• Evangelicals & The Racialization of Virtue: https://www.thinkingcriticallyfromanevangelicalworldview.com/post/racialization-virtue

Book / Resource Link

For those wanting a deeper historical and theological analysis of Evangelical political engagement:

Grab my book at Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/1644687895/

Conclusion

Evangelicals cannot afford to be shaped by secular outrage cycles. We are called to:

• Uphold lawful authority

• Pursue biblical justice

• Reject mob rule

• Resist ideological capture

• Think critically from a Christian worldview

  
  

And above all, to reject selective outrage that masquerades as prophetic courage.

With fear & trembling,
Ricky V Kyles Sr. DEd.Min