Toronto, Ontario

When York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween stood before the cameras this week, his words left many Canadians stunned. Speaking on a recent wave of violent home invasions, MacSween told citizens: “In the unlikely event that you find yourself a victim of a home invasion, we are urging citizens not [to] take matters into their own hands,” urging them instead to comply with intruders. What sounds like safety advice on the surface carries with it a deeper, troubling worldview—a surrender of the very principles of justice, liberty, and human dignity.

The Message Behind the Message

On one level, Chief MacSween is saying what law enforcement often does: don’t escalate violence. But the advice crossed a line when it effectively told citizens to yield, to obey the criminals. This is not merely tactical advice. It is philosophical. It signals to the public that the state does not see its citizens as moral agents capable of defending life, family, and property. Instead, it casts them as passive dependents who must submit until the state swoops in after the fact.

The Role of the State and the Duty of the Citizen

At the heart of Western law, rooted in biblical and natural law traditions, lies the principle that the state exists to punish evil and protect the innocent. But if the innocent are told not to resist, and criminals are emboldened by the knowledge that homeowners have been instructed to comply, then the state has abdicated its moral role. Citizens are stripped of their God-given right to self-defense, reduced to little more than spectators in their own homes while invaders rule the night.

The Philosophy of Compliance

What does it mean, philosophically, to tell a man to submit to evil? It means the state no longer believes in transcendent moral truth. It no longer recognizes evil as something to be resisted, but merely as an unfortunate inconvenience to be endured. Instead of cultivating courage, it cultivates cowardice. Instead of training men and women to rise in defense of what is good, true, and beautiful, it conditions them to bow before the wicked. This is not just bad policing advice—it is a reflection of a society that has lost its moral backbone.

The Ripple Effect: A Culture of Fear

If such advice is normalized, criminals are empowered and law-abiding families are disarmed—psychologically and spiritually, even if not physically. The culture that results is one where government insists that submission is virtue, resistance is vice, and courage is criminal. History shows where this path leads: not to peace, but to deeper lawlessness and tyranny. A society that trains its citizens to obey the thief at the door will one day find itself unable to resist the tyrant at the gate.

Restoring Courage and Truth

Canadians—and Americans watching closely—should recognize the stakes. To tell citizens to comply with evil is to reject both natural law and biblical truth. Scripture teaches, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). This applies not only to spiritual warfare but to the courage needed in earthly battles. A free people cannot survive if they are told their only role in the face of evil is compliance. The deeper question is whether the state trusts its citizens—or whether it has already decided that submission, not freedom, is the highest good.

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Photo by David Samacoïts-Etchegoin on Unsplash