Tony Miano is a statist. I’ve explained it before (<–this article is important), and my concern for Tony is growing. The first interaction I had with Tony was when my former assistant pastor (who was a chaplain for the police department) invited Tony to speak at our church.
At that time, my evangelism partner and I were embroiled in conflict with the police about how we were doing evangelism on Main Street. Apparently some of the police complained to Tony about our methods, and from the pulpit, Tony denounced us and our evangelism. He was speaking out of complete ignorance, and completely mischaracterized what we were doing, but it certainly indicated where he is intellectually.
The next indication of Tony’s character issues came when he stated on Facebook that he thinks theonomy is akin to Islam. Now, Christians may or may not like theonomy, but to refer to God’s civil law as being akin to Islam reveals an astonishing level of stupidity. He accepted the rebuke from many Christians and took a short break from Facebook. I wish it had been a much longer break, because his recent activity is very troubling.
Here’s what he said on Facebook that made his idolatry and character issues so clear.
There is no logical fallacy. This meme is true, but Tony’s presupposition is that Christians need to submit to the state, so he can’t see that the Revolution was instigated by the black robed regiment (Presbyterian pastors) preaching from the pulpits about what Scripture teaches about proper government, and what Christian rebellion ought to look like. Tony thinks that true Christianity leads to submission to tyrants.
I’m willing to concede that the particular founding fathers that Tony lists here weren’t Christians. So what? They played a big role in the revolution, but there were dozens of others with a big role, and thousands of others with smaller roles, many of whom were Christians. These guys on Tony’s list were behaving inconsistently with their unbelieving presuppositions and taking part in the Presbyterian rebellion, aka the revolution.
Tony wouldn’t know a tyrant if he walked up and bit him. Tony is a retired tyrant, and he loves tyrants. He has no idea what the Bible teaches about how we ought to resist tyranny. American Christianity has no biblical doctrine of how to resist tyranny, and we’re reaping what we’ve sown.
Tony has revealed that he has a tender, little soul, because the commenter here, extremely politely, called him ignorant with a morally deficient view of government, and he says the commenter needs to be mindful of his tone. Is Tony a man? This isn’t how a Christian man has a conversation. The commenter’s tone was very polite, and a Christian man shouldn’t respond this way to rebuke. Time for Tony to drop the “little-girl-tea-party routine” and read Proverbs.
I decided to comment on this, even though I was eight days late to the conversation. Tony deleted my comment. Maybe different people look at that differently, but I look at that as being indicative of a serious deficiency in manhood. I realize some popular people are busy so they can’t respond to every comment they receive on social media, but to delete a comment you disagree with shows a huge character problem.
I’ve gone to the Jehovah’s Witness state convention the last couple years, and they refuse to accept literature from us. They are scared that being exposed to a viewpoint critical of their own could lead them away from their religion. I have such little respect for that. My worldview is informed by Scripture, and it will stand up to scrutiny. I don’t have to be scared of being exposed to something critical of Christianity. In fact, I think you ought to expose yourself to things that are critical of your beliefs, because it will force you to more precisely define what you believe, and you’ll better learn how to defend your position.
Obviously, I should have written my comment down. I knew Tony was a pansy who may very well delete it. Here’s what I said as best as I can remember, including the two links.
Tony Miano said, “There is no biblical support for Christians rebelling against government.”
I think Tony missed the entire Old Testament, and has badly misinterpreted Romans 13.
But I guess when you share Adolph Hitler’s interpretation of Romans 13, you have no compunction in deleting comments of someone who disagrees with you.
This is a video of the unjust arrest of Tatsuo Akamine in February 2015 in Torrance California. Seeing the arrest is shocking. What is even more shocking is the warped commentary on this video from Tony Miano, which you can read in full here. Tony is a retired LA Sheriff’s deputy and a street preacher. Brevity is not the soul of wit in Tony’s world, so here are the highlights of his article along with my own comments.
Tony says,
“The moment Tatsuo refused to show his identification to the officer, he was subject to arrest. The officer was not required to ask Tatsuo more than once for his identification. The officer was under no obligation whatsoever to negotiate with Tatsuo.”
Apparently that’s the garbage that police are taught, and it appears that Tony never thought to ask whether it’s biblical or not. If an officer walks up to someone, he can make up something about disturbing the peace (which Tony later acknowledges is well-known as a catch-all accusation) and then the cop’s victim is “lawfully” (U.S. law–not God’s law) subject to all kinds of arbitrary orders and searches.
I have a question: What does Tatsuo’s name and address have to do with whether he was disturbing the peace?
As far as Tony is concerned, there is no room for disobeying a man-god wearing a badge. You must submit, regardless of whether the accusations have any basis in reality.
After this, the officer says that Tatsuo isn’t under arrest, but he wants to search him for weapons.
Tony says,
“The moment Tatsuo refused to comply with the officer’s lawful orders to turn around and place his hands over his head…he was subject to arrest. The officer, at that moment, could use whatever amount of force he deemed both reasonable and necessary to overcome Tatsuo’s resistance.”
“The way Tatsuo locked up his body and clenched his hands together, which are behaviors that are obvious to even the untrained eye watching the video, were aggressive acts, which could lead a reasonable officer to believe a physical altercation was imminent.”
To Tony, it’s obvious that Tatsuo resisting a cop having him put his hands over his head is an aggressive act. This is because Tony thinks the cop is a man-god who must be obeyed. Disobeying a man-god is justification for a “reasonable” officer to believe this is a prelude to fisticuffs. What tender egos they must have! The truth is Tatsuo wasn’t aggressive in any way whatsoever, and a child could see it.
Tony says,
“Even though Tatsuo was resisting, the officer shows commendable restraint by trying to deescalate the situation through conversation–explaining his “plan” to Tatsuo.”
Well, by golly, let’s pin a medal on the man-god’s chest. It doesn’t matter whether that cop is there for a valid reason, or whether his accusation is completely preposterous. He has sauntered on to the scene and has given his orders and the mere humans must humbly obey. He showed tremendous restraint in not blowing everyone away, right then and there.
Tony says,
“Tatsuo then refuses to spread his legs and resists, multiple times, the officer’s efforts to move his legs so he could safely conduct a search of Tatsuo’s person, incident to a lawful arrest.”
First of all, at 4:10 in the video, after the cop tries to move Tatsuo’s legs, he says that Tatsuo isn’t under arrest, but being detained. Second, Tony will later acknowledge, and explain that Tatsuo wasn’t disturbing the peace. So where is the lawful arrest? Tony must be saying that it’s lawful to be arrested solely for disobeying a cop. That is un-American, and much more importantly unbiblical.
Where in the Bible are civil magistrates given the right to search people to see if they have weapons? They’re so special that they can only talk to people who have no weapons? They certainly are a timid bunch.
Tony says,
“Then, Tatsuo and his friends begin to make a scene by shouting. Any officer–any reasonable officer–would experience myriad of emotions as a result of recognizing he or she was in real and present danger…I cannot get into the officer’s head to ascertain to what degree he was in fear for his safety.”
At this point, it crossed my mind that Tony was making all of this up as a joke. This is the most preposterous thing I’ve read in some time. Tony thinks that reasonable officers experience a myriad of emotions when they hear shouting. Really? If shouting can upset someone, I’d think they must be an emotionally tender person.
But, what exactly is it that Tony calls shouting that he thinks might cause the officer to suffer fear and a virtual panoply of emotion? Are they cussing the cop out? Are they referring to him as various cuts of pork? Are they threatening him? No. They raise their voices to say, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake”, “Hallelujah!”, “Thank you Lord Jesus”. Tony actually says that such words could strike fear in the heart of a reasonable officer. I’m sure his life flashed before his eyes!
No wonder Tony isn’t a pentecostal where they shout such things in church. He would probably wilt in fear.
Maybe if these cops are so sensitive, emotional and fearful they could find a more suitable line of work. But, I imagine it would be hard for them to give up the rush of a good power trip that comes from knowing that you have the ability to lock up everyone who doesn’t hang on your every word.
Tony says,
“Tatsuo then foolishly asks his friend with the camera to follow him, now putting his friend in potential danger and maybe even making him subject to arrest.”
“For reasons of officer safety, the officer’s order to Tatsuo’s friend not to follow him was reasonable and appropriate, considering the circumstances. The officer even told Tatsuo’s friend, “You’re violating my officer safety!” But foolishly, the person behind the camera argues with the officer.”
Just when you think Tony couldn’t get any more ridiculous, he starts calling Tatsuo and his friends fools. These people aren’t crackheads, gang bangers or bikers, (as if that would be justification for the tyrannical behavior of this cop). They’re Christians. But this cop is afraid to have a Christian with a video camera walking behind him. It is a violation of his officer safety. He is a god walking among us and his safety takes precedence over any American’s right to walk through a parking lot, right?
Not only that, but Tony thinks Tatsuo is a fool for asking his friend to follow. According to Tony, only through the mind of a fool could a thought of someone freely walking across a strip mall parking lot cross. And Tatsuo isn’t the only one behaving foolishly. The cameraman also foolishly dares to question the orders of this man-god. I’m surprised the cop didn’t obliterate the petulant cameraman where he stood for daring to question a government official of the almighty state of California. One day that foolish man will run out of mercy and receive his full cup of wrath.
Tony says,
“While I do not believe Tatsuo was in violation of California Penal Code section 415 (disturbing the peace), I also do not believe Tatsuo was persecuted for his faith. I believe he simply suffered the consequences for his unlawful behavior. And, sadly, that same behavior brought a reproach upon Christ and His gospel.”
This is an amazing paragraph. Tony doesn’t believe that Tatsuo broke a law, but believes that he suffered the consequences for his unlawful behavior. Tatsuo’s only unlawful behavior, according to Tony, was disobeying the arbitrary, unjust orders of a government employee. Hello? I wish every Christian went out and disobeyed at least one arbitrary, unjust order every day. The world would be a better place.
Tony then goes on to explain how the officer was mistaken about pretty much everything he said about sound amplification, loud preaching and disturbing the peace.
At this point, Tony, like an unending number of American Christians, twists Romans 13 into a pretzel to teach that Christians must blindly obey the arbitrary orders of a cop. Tatsuo took pains to obey the law as written, but this isn’t enough. Tony accuses him of sin for disobeying a cop’s arbitrary and unjust orders!
I’ve been faced with this situation in the past, and I handled it differently than Tatsuo. I think that there is little justice in the American justice system and to put one’s life into the hands of a wicked judge is something I want to avoid. However, I certainly don’t think that what Tatsuo did was a sin. We are to stand for righteousness, and resist tyranny. If that’s the way Tatsuo wants to do it, then God bless him.
I have searched and searched for what has come of Tatsuo and this case. I can’t find anything on it, and he keeps a very low profile; he has no website, Facebook or Twitter that I can find. I hope that this is an indication that the charges were dropped. Another possibility is that Tatsuo was never actually arrested.
I can see cops thinking that they’re gods and their orders must be obeyed. I can see government passing laws that give such favors to their collection agents. What I can’t see is a Christian like Tony actually defending this wicked system, or saying that Tatsuo is sinning when he resists.
As we bemoan the pitiful condition of our country and our eroding liberties, we have Christian men like Tony to thank. Christians are supposed to be salt and light–to preserve society–maintain godliness and truth. Truth leads to freedom (John 8:32). When Christians warp Romans 13 to defend tyrants, they’ve abandoned the truth, and they might as well just beg for more tyranny.
Whose law you obey reveals who your god is. If you dutifully obey the laws of the state, even when the laws of the state and the law of God contradict each other, then the state is your god.
Tony is wrong, and his article is reprehensible. We need to fear God–not men.
Working for the Secession of Fremont County from the Union
