Is being an FBI agent bad as a Christian?

Answer 1

I'm a Christian, and I'm seriously pursuing a career for the FBI. Here's my opinion:

FBI agents are licensed to kill, and are certainly put in situations where it is completely unavoidable. When you are protecting someone who is innocent, or defending yourself, it is completely ok to kill. I don't think that just attacking someone for no reason is acceptable, but FBI agents don't do this. As you've probably noticed, terrorists act first, and then the FBI goes after them and eliminates them. If you're concerned about issues like Christians being able/allowed to kill, I'd suggest you look into the "Ethics of War" genre of books. There are plenty out there....try "Politics According to The Bible" by Wayne Grudem.

If you're concerned about the interrogations, consider this: God has given us the ability to seek out information, and we are privileged over all creation to have wisdom, knowledge, and the resources to find out more. In interrogations, the FBI needs to find information so that people can be protected. Whether they obtain this through harsh interrogations or deception, they are equally valuable. Christians in national security and law enforcement who are forced by circumstances to lie to their suspects in order to obtain information are, in my estimation, not doing anything wrong. We can't be gullible, we can't just walk on eggshells. We are called to be soldiers of Christ, putting on the full armor of God, and using the gifts he's given us. Deceiving a criminal is (again, in my estimation), perfectly fine if you are saving someone's life in the process. Think about Nazi Germany. Do you think it was wrong for Corrie Ten Boom and other people like her to deceive the Nazis and protect Jews from annihilation by hiding them in their houses?

I think Christians who work for National Security have a privileged position. Just like any other workplace, Christians can witness to their coworkers in the FBI. And, God promises his ultimate protection for his children. We have access to God constantly through prayer, and FBI staff can certainly pray for their fellow agents as they go into dangerous situations. Perhaps in the FBI, Christians have the best position to witness to their fellow workers during particularly risky or stressful investigations. They will see Christ through our daily actions and how we live and react, and some will want to know why we have such peace and confidence.

Christians can glorify God (which is the purpose of life) through several callings, and that can CERTAINLY include national security and counterintelligence. (Consider your spiritual walk: Satan is constantly attacking us, but do we let it keep happening and just sit there and take it? NO! As Christians, we ask God to help us, and we fight the good fight. In the same way, we fight our physical enemies until evil is removed from the world as much as it possibly can be with as much as we're enabled to do by God). God has called me to a career in national security, and I feel at peace about it. If, after investigating your own views on the moral correctness of being an FBI agent, you find that your conscience is unsettled, perhaps God is calling you to something that fits you uniquely and helps His Kingdom in a different, yet equally meaningful way. Good luck! Just remember, as it says in Esther 4:14, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance . . . will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your . . . position for such a time as this?". Perhaps YOU are here at this moment on earth, interested as a Christian to work for the FBI, for "such a time as this".

Sincerely,

Sarah, age 18