Mrs. Johnson has done the “illegal”
About the Author
Ben spends most of his time working with underprivileged kids in Tijuana, Mexico, encouraging them to continue their education. He's an unofficial member of Iglesia Bautista Monte Horeb, which runs the elementary school, Centro Pedagógico Didaque.
One of my job duties is translating letters we receive in English from sponsors in the U.S. and delivering them to the corresponding children in Mexico. Last week I opened up a hand written letter on pastel, floral stationary directed to a ten-year-old girl in the program. By the look of the penmanship, the author, Mary Anne Johnson (name changed to protect the sponsor), appeared to be elderly. Most of the letter was straightforward stuff (talk of the weather, hope you’re studying hard in school, etc.), until three-quarters down the page when Mrs. Johnson wrote: “And thanks for not being one of those illegals.”
I hope it can be agreed upon (regardless of where you land on the [illegal] immigration issue) that a ten-year-old has virtually no say in where he or she resides. And although, most likely, Mrs. Johnson is a lovely old lady—she has crossed the line (no pun intended). Are you kidding me Mrs. Johnson? What kind of a ridiculous, thoughtless comment is that?
Widening the scope a bit—I believe this brings up a growing problem. The United States is filled with undocumented individuals. And documented citizens obviously have complex and diverse opinions about the issue. Yet those feelings are reflected in the U.S. Christian’s global missions outlook—and I don’t believe they should be. Jesus states: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” However, if other nations are in your nation, from an evangelistic viewpoint, it may be all the better.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:46 am
This is an important topic, I think. I spoke to a Mexican man here in Cuernavaca today, who had been to th USA and Canada. He told us that he didn’t like Americans so much because they thought all Mexicans were bad (we’re Canadians, which is why he confided this). No doubt the media is going to contribute to this impression for a long time, but American believers need to do all they can to counter this impression.
December 15th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Simply unbelievable. This kind of attitude on Americans only makes our job much harder.
Also, imagine the plight of the poor Canadians who are constantly being confused with Americans;-)
December 15th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Yes - that is quite a plight. After all, I want to be known for my own prejudices, not American ones!
December 16th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
What? Canadians have prejudices? Say it isn’t so!
December 20th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Yeah, that’s kinda crazy.
December 21st, 2006 at 4:16 pm
“We Canadians ” have enough of our own prejudices, This is not why the world loves us over Americans……It’s because our Government is week and spinless, and must wait for all oppinion polls to be reliesed before it knows what it thinks. The right thing is not always the popular thing. ….. As for prejudice, I believe that there is still at least one generation that no matter how hard they try, there upbringing rats them out…
Remember our popular Mayor, who blew the Olimpc bid because he did not want to met in Aferica because he did not want to wind up in a soup pot?.. Its a problem with that generation.
blessings actofkindness