Christian Book Review

Take Up The Shield: Comparing the Uniform of the Police Officer & the Armor of God

by Tony Miano
Reviewed date: 2009 Jul 29
128 pages
cover art

Take Up The Shield is Tony Miano's short book about the Armor of God passage of Ephesians. Miano recasts the illustration in terms of a policeman's uniform. Oh yeah, he is a policeman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The book is decent. He relies a lot on other commentators, which is wise. I found that a lot of the book is spent in translating the biblical illustration of a soldier's uniform into an illustration of a modern day policeman's uniform. That helps to explain the illustration, but I'm not convinced that the illustration needed explaining. The illustration isn't complicated. The complicated part is living it out. I wish Miano had spent more time on practical examples of how to apply the armor of God to one's life. He has a few examples, but not many.

Where the book shines, though, is its presentation of the gospel. I get the feeling that his whole point in writing the book is to get a clear gospel presentation into the hands of police officers and other members of the law enforcement community. This is a book designed to appeal to the law enforcement community, and it may reach people that would not otherwise be receptive to the gospel.

Miano thinks rather highly of the law enforcement community. As a libertarian who is completely convinced of the depravity of mankind, I like to keep power and authority out of the hands of fallible individuals, even those wearing the uniform of law enforcement. But that's not what the book is about, and Miano's attitude is appropriate given his audience.


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