The Least of These...

As I walked across the plaza in Guadalajara towards where I get my morning coffee, I saw him in the distance. Walking around, shirtless, in his bare feet.

We’ve all seen him before. Even you.

That guy. The guy who smells. Who just looks so… unkempt. 

Homeless. 

He’s the guy who sees you even before you realize he exists. The guy who when you get close, asks for money, help, or something else you aren’t prepared, or don’t want to offer.

For many of us, guys like that, and increasingly women too, are the least of these.

We see them all the time, as I did that morning. And if you’re like me, even before you get close you are thinking of a strategy… of avoidance.

When I saw that guy walking in my direction, I decided to not avoid him but simply to walk directly to where I was headed. As I did, our eyes met and we acknowledged each other. No conversation, no confrontation, no asking for money. Nothing, And in a few short strides I had completely forgotten him as I was drinking my hot latte and thinking about the day ahead of me.

Until I got in my Uber to head to Pastor Raul’s church.

That’s when I looked across the street and saw him again. On the edge of the plaza. Kneeling by the rose beds, pulling them close to his face and smelling them. 

And then it hit me.

He was human.

Just like me. 

And just like me, he too was created in God’s image. With dignity. Worthy of our, or at least, my love.

I was pretty pleased with myself when I first avoided that guy. But now watching him tenderly pull a rose close and consider it, I was crushed by the reality of Jesus’ words…

“This is the truth I tell you… in so far as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

My way of walking made sure I would not have to interact with him. Just like when I act like I have a phone call to avoid others like him as I leave department stores or markets during Christmas time back home. 

They stand on street corners with “Help a Veteran” signs. 

Depending on where you live, they might be selling bags of oranges to passersby at corners as people wait for the green light. 

Or they dot the city landscape with their shopping carts loaded with all of their worldly possessions.

The least of these.

But it’s easy to dismiss the least of these. Because for some reason, we’ve determined that they are not worthy of our time, our love, our touch, our hearts.

And in so doing, our dismissal becomes a rejection of not just the person who’s bothering us, but if we’re honest, his or her humanity too.

Lord, I serve my life on mission. I’ve sacrificed for you, left home, helped build your church and made sure people all across Mexico have an opportunity to hear about and experience your eternal life saving Gospel. 

When have I ever treated you badly, neglected you or rejected you?

You did it that day, Dave, when you decided to ignore that man on the plaza. 

That man you later saw considering the lilies of the field.

That man who is just like you Dave… I created him in my image too!

Think on it...

A New Reality... Funding the Great Commission through Short-Term Mission

This is the final piece detailing what I believe the church needs to do to address chronic funding issues as they relate to ongoing missions work around the globe.  

Today I want to offer some real world suggestions for financing the Great Commission work of US churches around the world.  

Let’s start with a few realities.

1. Short-term mission [STM] is here to stay.  Hundreds of thousands of people serve each year and STM is effectively a billion dollar industry when you factor in not only direct costs like fees and offerings, but travel and lodging.

2. Denominations are cutting back on their historical support of in-country missionaries as they scramble to fund their domestic operations and service churches closer to home base. This is forcing many log term people to have to learn themselves how to raise money to support their ministry and mission.

3. Cross-cultural Great Commission work is hard, takes a huge commitment, and is exceedingly costly. 

************************************************************************

Case Study 1. Years back, the American Baptist Churches [ABCUSA] responded to a series of bad financial decisions by breaking a historic pledge to their in-country missionaries, telling them that they now had to build teams to help raise part of their personal support. Sadly, this was decided not as good missionary policy, which I believe it is, rather, in response to the denomination’s inability to continue funding their global missions force.

************************************************************************

Case Study 2. I've had numerous discussions with pastors and leaders who wonder why churches should pay for anything beyond actual expenses when they serve on short term mission overseas. Many see no need for professional help and guidance, often prefer to go it alone, and believe paying host receivers for their time is bad stewardship of the dollars God had entrusted them.

************************************************************************

Case Study 3.  Not too long ago Adventures in Missions, founded by Seth Barnes, had a little survey on their web page. The results showed that cost was the top factor in determining where to serve on short-term mission.

************************************************************************

Short-term work, long the bane of career in-country missionaries is a billion dollar growth industry.  

We need only look to the explosion of web sites like gofundme and shorttermmissions.com for evidence. In a tangential way, STM even made it into a Jeopardy episode a while back with the answer being “donor fatigue.” It's the feeling you get when you open the mailbox and see support envelopes from every student you’ve ever known. 

I believe that the future of our ongoing Great Commission work around the globe is dependent on Short-Term Mission and Ministry [STM]. Without the energy, vitality, youth and direct personal experience from these ministries, we are going to struggle to fund and continue our long-term work.

So, what should we do?

First, long-term missionaries need to reorient their ministries to take advantage of this incredible resource and opportunity to call people to a long-term commitment to cross-cultural missions.

Gone are the days when these faithful servants served and lived their lives in isolation from anyone from their home country.  With the availability of relatively cheap, and quick air travel to even the most far off locale, folks are going to visit.

Simply put, there are people back home who want to visit and serve in other countries alongside knowledgable, God-loving people who are involved in God’s work over there. A long-term missionary in a stable country that is not open to short-term work, is a kingdom liability.  

If you are a long-term missionary and are not making use of STM in your ministry, you are robbing yourself and your work of a valuable partner. Worse, you are refusing to develop relationships with the very people most interested in prayerfully and financially supporting your ministry over the long haul.

It is ironic that even as denominations like the ABC recognize the necessity of career missionaries building partnerships with potential donors, those missionaries who will benefit from these partnerships still try to keep STM involvement at arms length. The very people in country missionaries are casting aside as not worthy of their time and effort, are those that will organize people back home to raise money for their work and causes.  

Does the seminary where you teach need a new computer lab? Do you need a financial shot in the arm to jump start a new church plant? Would you like to finally move that long hoped for project from the shelf of dreams to reality? Short-term mission can help you in all of these, and more.

As a career in-country missionary, the short-termer is your friend, not an enemy, or an adversary. He or she, is there in response to a call by God to serve you, your people and your ministry. Make use of them! Encourage them, and maybe one day they will be your biggest supporter, or even the much needed replacement to continue the ministry you spent a lifetime developing.

Next, we need to recognize that it takes strong leadership to do effective mission, and that leadership costs money. It takes even more money to sustain long-term mission. If you are choosing your short-term ministry site primarily because it is a cheap option, you need to rethink your priorities.

Talk to anyone who has served long-term in another country and ask them how long it took before they felt like they were beginning to understand the people and culture where they served. It has taken me more than 20 years to finally feel like I have a grasp on “some” aspects of the Mexican culture. 

Without a doubt, I made a myriad of mistakes in my early years serving. Thankfully those mistakes were forgiven both by God, and those I harmed. Grace and forgiveness were accorded me from many different quarters in those days.But that grace only came as a result of a years of humble learning and servanthood.

However, the presence of grace and forgiveness should not be an excuse to not do all we can to ensure effective ministry. Often that means spending the money necessary to do mission and ministry right. The first step in this is partnering with a person or organization that has invested the time necessary to learn and understand not only the church culture, but the larger cultural issues where you are going to serve.

It is not bad stewardship to make use of an experienced person, or organization, when you go abroad to serve. In fact, it is exactly the opposite! It is bad stewardship not to use a person who is experienced with the people and the culture you are going to serve.  

Church planter and missionary Roberto Guerrero of Del Camino Connection says that any ministry that thinks they can sustain an effective cross cultural partnership without someone standing between those two cultures is "doomed to fail."

Churches, groups and individuals need to repent of their cheap gene. In all my years of hosting short-term groups, the strongest partnerships we had were ones where I knew if something came up, the church, or group was prepared to respond. They had raised extra money for their mission, were looking for God’s guidance, often through the missionary they were supporting, and came with a generous spirit and the resources to back that up.

It is that spirit of giving, and the wisdom to plan for it that leads to my final point.

Double up! 

I've proposed this before, but with every passing day, it’s simpleness continues to gnaw at me. It is an idea first floated by Larry Hovis, Executive Director of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina a few years back.

After figuring out your cost for short-term mission, each and every leader and participant on a team should agree to raise double those fees. Let’s face it, those people on short-term teams have huge networks of friends and family that are not even part of our local faith communities. Those networks, and the people that make them up, are going to be personally vested in making sure little Billy raises the money he needs to be successful.

So let’s put little Billy and his networks to work not just for this mission, but the larger Kingdom need. And when that extra support comes in, give it directly in support of the local missionary with whom Billy is working.

Give to their denomination, their organization, or directly to their mission, but make it clear that the funds are a direct gift to the mission and ministry of the missionary you are serving. 

This type of approach will go a long way towards helping our long-term in country missionaries achieve financial stability, fund a vision that often goes unreached for lack of resources and see the value of short term mission.

Imagine the impact this could have on a global scale.

If young people knew they could have financial security on the mission field, they may be more willing to enthusiastically meet the ongoing call for career in-country missionaries.

If those of us in the field knew with certainty that we had the resources available, in many cases, we could move from Christian relief to Christian development. Churches would be planted, workers would be resourced, lives would be changed and God’s Kingdom would grow.

The resources are there. Short-term mission holds great promise for the continued resourcing of vital long-term mission work. It’s proven ability to raise money and potential future missionaries cannot be discounted.

If I could rerun that conversation I had with the pastor who suggested paying host receivers for their time was bad stewardship, here’s what I would say.

Bad stewardship on the part of career missionaries, churches, groups and individuals is a failure to leverage this billion dollar industry for the greater good of the Kingdom and financially provide for our ongoing Great Commission work now and for generations to come.

[The 1.6 million statistic is from Robert Wuthnow, author of Boundless Faith, the Global Outreach of American Churches.  The $20,000.00 STM team statistic is from Asher Sargent, long time friend and Mission Pastor at Cole Community Church in Boise Idaho.

A Missiological Response to the 2016 US Elections...

“Your job is now much more difficult.”

I was at a national gathering of mission leaders from North America and the speaker was sharing what he was hearing from pastors and leaders across the Middle East after the US led invasion of Iraq. Because of our actions he said, Christians were in for an increase in persecution and the credibility of US missionaries was being called into question.

Why? 

Because of the near total approval of the evangelical church for the actions of the Bush Administration in the aftermath of 9/11. The attacks on Afghanistan were understood by many in the world, but the escalation of violence in the Middle East to include Iraq was not. The speaker was not passing judgement on what we were doing. He was simply stating the facts as he understood them from his travels in the field.

Those were hard words for many in that audience to hear back then. 

I’ve thought a lot about those words the last few days as I have reflected on the recent elections here in the US. I hope our job has become just more difficult. Because more difficult is way better than next to impossible.

The numbers are stunning. 81% of white evangelical voters chose Donald Trump. As that sinks in, take a moment to read how Yolanda Pierce put it in her recent article at Religion Dispatches…

Last week I watched as 81 percent of [voting] white evangelicals and born-again Christians voted for someone who, on tape, mocked a journalist with disabilities, and who, also on tape, lied about mocking that journalist. 

I watched as 81 percent of [voting] white evangelicals and born-again Christians voted for someone who admitted to sexually assaulting women and gleefully affirming that he would face no consequences for doing so. 

I watched as 81 percent of [voting] white evangelicals and born-again Christians dismissed his affairs, adultery, multiple marriages, participation in porn subculture, refusals to release his tax returns, failure to donate to charities to which he promised money, mockery of his own supporters (including their wives and parents), participation in racist lies about President Obama, stereotyping of African Americans, Mexican Americans and Muslims–and still voted for him. 

I watched as 81 percent of [voting] white evangelicals and born-again Christians voted for someone who lies about even the most trivial things. 

I watched as 81 percent of [voting] white evangelicals and born-again Christians voted for someone who in his acceptance speech did not mention “God.” Not one time. Not even to thank God for his victory or to suggest that “God bless America.”

People can disagree with who Pierce chose to support in our election, but about the above facts, there can be no disagreement. 

Sadly, 81% is only part of the story. Younger voters, those under 45, broke overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. And there in lies my worry that in fact, our job, that of heralding the Good News of Jesus is going to be much more difficult. 

By and large the Gen X'ers, Millennials, and the Nones are multicultural, multiracial, diverse groups of people who are not as troubled by gay friends and relationships as are their parents. The evangelical church is already struggling to bridge a growing culture gap with these generations. I fear our near monolithic support of Donald Trump in the election past will only exacerbate this trend.

Perhaps my biggest concern is in the area of character. For many, it was the one area evangelicals could point to that set us apart. Here’s what longtime evangelical heavyweight James Dobson, Founder of Focus on the Family wrote on the importance of character in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky scandal during the administration of Bill Clinton…

…character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it. How foolish to believe that a person who lacks honesty and moral integrity is qualified to lead a nation and the world! 

At any given time, 40 percent of the nation’s children list the President of the United States as the person they most admire. What are they learning from Mr. Clinton [or in this case, Mr. Trump]? What have we taught our boys about respecting women? What have our little girls learned about men? How can we estimate the impact of this scandal [or this election] on future generations?    

James Dobson was right then and his words are right now. And yet, 81% of white evangelical Christians decided to vote for a man who clearly lacks the values they and Dobson used to believe were central to morality, good character and a strong Christian faith.

I am a missiologist. Here’s what that means… “someone who studies religious (typically Christian) missions and their methods and purposes.” In a practical sense, it means I think a lot about how to reach people for Christ, both here in the US, and in my case, in Mexico.

Here is my conclusion and fear.

I believe the White Evangelical Christian Church in America has forever tarnished her reputation among the culturally, ethnically diverse people that soon will make up the majority of the American people. 

Our excusal of how Donald Trump ran his campaign, his repeated mocking of people, dismissals of longtime Christian principles and repeated racially insensitive and misogynistic statements has, in the eyes of many, called into question our values and character. How, people have rightly asked, could we support someone so outwardly opposed to the values we expect from our children and believe are central to our faith?

Simply put, we look like the hypocrites we are, not because we did not support Hillary Clinton in this election, but because we supported Donald Trump.

And now because of that, I fear our job is now much more difficult. 

**************************************************************************** 

A final note... The history of the US is filled with many who despite their personal flaws, have been great leaders. Regardless, historically Christians have understood that we have a responsibility to pray for our leaders, whether we like them or not.

Let's make sure as the Trump team comes into office, that we commit ourselves to pray for him, his administration and our country these next four years. 

Cultural Awareness... the key to effective mission and connection in todays world

You should "Read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other".

That quote has been attributed for years to the great German theologian Karl Barth. While the Barth Center has been unable to authenticate that he actually said it, the quote lives on in theological mythology, t-shirts and numerous quote books.

Perhaps because authorship does not matter. What matters is the reality of what is being said.

Stop and think about that statement for a moment. We are to have an awareness of what is happening around us. For the sake of the Gospel!

The Mexican Chupacabra

Years ago I was in Baja California talking to a family I'd known for years. They had made me breakfast at their very "rural house." As we talked, Gloria told me a few of their chickens had been killed recently, probably by the Chupacabra. The Chupacabra is a legend in the rural areas of Mexico. It's famous for killing animals, babies and causing all sorts of general mayhem. Think of it as the Mexican version of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot.

The truth of the legend did not, and does not matter. What mattered is that Gloria, and indeed, millions of Mexicans across the country were aware of the Chupacabra. 

Later that week I was walking with another missionary who knew Gloria and who had also served in her village for years. I shared with him her concerns about her missing chickens and that she felt it was the Chupacabra. I expected that we'd be able to share a little laugh together. What ensued has stayed with me to this day.

That missionary, after spending almost 20 years serving in Mexico, had no idea what the Chupacabra was. He said he tried to keep his focus on God and did not involve himself much with locals events, news or culture.

If I could've sued that missionary for malpractice I would have do so. How is it possible that a person serving a specific group of people for any length of time could be so willfully unaware of the things that animate, or matter, to that community? 

Recently we have faced a significant level of unrest in Oaxaca, primarily as a result of massive ongoing protests from the teachers union in that state. In response to a ton of questions about those protests, I decided to write an article providing some detail and background. You can read it here.

Thousands of people across the US and Mexico read that article, shared it and commented. But two specific Facebook comments stopped me cold. One said as he shared, "read this article, it is the ABC's of what is going on." I appreciated that a local thought I had a good understanding of the facts. But it was the second comment that really hit me... another person asked how it was possible an outsider like me could understand the issues and culture of Oaxaca as well as I did.

The answer is simple... it's my job! 

As a missionary, I need to know and understand the culture where I am serving. It makes me a better communicator of the Gospel and enables me to better love and understand my neighbor. I spend hours on this. Reading, thinking, studying. Because I believe effective mission demands it.

If the church is going to have a prophetic witness in the world today, I believe this approach can not just be relegated to missions work "over there." It must be part of how we act and live everyday in our local worlds too.

Being unaware of the happenings of the day, needing to catch up with happened last week, or choosing to ignore cultural events make us woefully unprepared to effectively communicate the Gospel in a rapidly changing world. 

Most of you will never be called to "the ends of the earth." But you are called to be a prophetic witness for Jesus in your local worlds. That means understanding the culture, knowing what is going on and being able to not just see both sides of an issue, but figure how Jesus fits into some difficult situations. 

If we really want to change the world around us for Jesus, the words ascribed to Barth are as relevant here in the US today as they are in my missions work in Mexico... 

Read the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other!

Immigration... Understanding the Divide between Mexico and the United States

As someone who has served as a missionary in Mexico for over 25 years, there is one thing people from the US always want to ask me about, and no, it’s not water. It’s immigration, and usually it's phrased benignly, like this… “Dave, what are your thoughts on immigration.”

This question, perhaps as a result of the coming presidential elections, is not just being asked here in the US. I’m also getting the same question from my south of the border friends. But the  question there goes something like this… “¿David, que pienses de Trump?” Or “Dave, what do you think of Trump.”

For better or worse, Donald Trump has raised the immigration issue to a level not seen in years, both in the US, and in Mexico.

I believe that if you are going to be about Jesus in another country, you owe it to that country to get to know her. For me, that goes well beyond what many feel are the typical ‘missionary” issues, things like food and the local church cultures. For one to thrive in a foreign land, develop the relationships necessary for success, and convince locals you truly love them like God does, requires a strong dose of cultural intelligence, to use a phrase coined by noted author David Livermore.

I’ve thought a lot about this issue over the years. I’ve been an employer in numerous jobs, responsible for hiring thousands of people both here in Nevada and in Southern California. I’ve had to deal with I-9’s both as a boss, and as an employee myself. I’ve worked alongside and yes, have hired illegal workers from around the world. And I’ve had both good and bad employees from both sides of that issue.

While my Spanish is not perfect, and I doubt it ever will be as I came to the language late in life, I can sit and have the conversation with the two major sides of this issue fairly competently in both languages. This includes both my hard right and my lefty lib friends in the US and business owners and poor indigenous farmers in Mexico, and everyone between. 

In short, over the years I’ve built enough of a rebel image, that people from all sides feel comfortable talking to me and expressing their views, no matter where they stand on immigration.

My first real conversation about this in Spanish was with a group of college students in Guadalajara almost 20 years ago. We were at a weekend retreat and a few of them decided to ask me about immigration. Truthfully, back then I had no real “side” in the debate, but I could argue. We talked long into the early morning hours. It was, and remains, one of my favorite nights ever in Mexico. I learned so much that night. About immigration yes, but also about how people think, feel and experience life in general in Mexico.

That was the beginning of understanding the issue of immigration as much more than just a series of laws, fences, walls, and regulations designed to keep people in, or out. It is an issue that divides friends, countries, families, and even churches. Simply put, few issues between our two countries are as emotionally charged as immigration. 

Like all difficult issues, workable solutions are not going to be easy and no side will, nor should, get everything they want. Simply imposing one sided solutions from the US, no matter how good that might make us feel, will not get to the root of, or solve the problem. 

Conversely, Mexico cannot escape the fact that they have a role to play in this ongoing drama. It is the responsibility of government to care for her citizens, within her own borders. While the US is guilty of sometimes being a rotten big brother, the Mexican government has at times acted like a petulant adolescent and struggles to take responsibility for their own actions related to immigration, even as they are currently deporting more illegal immigrants than does the US.¹

Any solution is going to be difficult and costly. To be effective, it will involve political sacrifice, from the heights of the Mexican government, to the most seemingly insignificant US Congressman. On the line here are billions of dollars, years of political grandstanding, national pride, jobs, and of course, peoples lives.

We should also acknowledge that while many in the US are fixated on Mexico as it relates to immigration, a large percentage, 48%, of those who come to the US illegally are from countries other than Mexico.² Additionally, new research shows rather than allegedly sneaking in, the largest group of people in the US illegally enter under the full authority of the US Government, on approved VISAS, and then, overstay their welcome. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.³ 

Of the more than 11 million immigrants here illegally in 2014, over 5 million are from countries other than Mexico.  This means that even if we secure our southern border completely, no small feat, we will still have a significant amount of illegal immigration to our country.

Where do we start? First is education. 

Before you can have a solution, you have to understand the problem. I’ve laid out a few facts above as they relate to Mexico, but there is more. Here are a few questions I typically hear from folks in the US.

Why can’t Mexicans follow the rules like people who come here from other countries? 

This is a fair question, if there were in fact rules. The premise is also false, as the facts show. The difference between 48% and 52% is so small that in reality, people from other countries are no more likely to follow the rules than our neighbors to the south. To put it bluntly, you are just as likely to run into a person here illegally from Germany or China as you are Mexico.

But the problem runs deeper. Literally, for Mexicans there are few hard and fast rules, other than you cannot cross the border without permission. For someone trying to visit, or immigrate to the US from Mexico the process can be cumbersome, slow, and costly. If you desire to come for a visit, add arbitrary to the list. Our government routinely denies tourist VISAS without ever providing a reason why, after the applicant has seemingly met all the requirements listed on the appropriate web sites and has paid his or her fees. 

I call this “hunch or feeling based” judgement. And while we all know that at times, yes, hunches can be very accurate, they are not a way for a country to effectively conduct foreign policy. We certainly do not want countries determining how they relate to us based on hunches or feelings. We want, and expect there to be sensible, fair, dispassionate laws to govern those interactions.

To immigrate to the US, a person must have a passport and then make an appointment with a US Consulate office for a pre-visit, or immigration interview. The cost for that interview can be significant, depending on the number of people in your family. In addition to the “official” costs, there are costs for required medical exams, hotel stays, meals in transit, etc. Add it all up and the cost just for the appointment process can run into the thousands of dollars. 

All of that must be paid in advance, with no guarantee of your approval, sort of like a lottery. Imagine saving for years, paying all of your fees and then being told no.

Let me put that in perspective for you. For a family of four, that cost could easily reach $5000.00US when you include everything. That’s about half of the $10,000.00 family GDP in Mexico.⁴   Conversely, with the average US family GDP at $52,000.00, that family of four in the US would have to pay approximately $26,000.00 to have the same burden as a Mexican family.⁵ How many families here in the US can afford to play in such an expensive lottery, risking half their family income?

But rules are rules, and I get that. Just understand, that the rules are pretty stacked against the poorest of the poor, the ones who truly need a helping hand to feed their families, those that are sneaking across the border to put a few extra tortillas on the table, ala Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables.”

But Dave, people ask, aren’t illegal immigrants taking jobs from able bodied Americans?

Again, the answer to this question is multifaceted. I’ve stated that I have hired illegal workers in the past. That was primarily when I was in the construction industry in Southern California. Here’s a simple truth I encountered. Without this workforce, construction in So Cal and many other areas would grind to a halt.

Builders have to make a profit, or else they will not build. There is always a maximum amount a builder/developer can afford to spend on production and still make their margin. Contrary to what people may wish to believe, there really are caps on what people will spend on real estate, even in sunny Southern California.

No builder can pay a salary that makes the house he just built more expensive then the market will bear. The problem is this, hard as it is to hear, and even say… fewer and fewer Americans will work at the rate the builder requires to make his profit in the marketplace. A good example of this is the housing market in Southern Nevada. Currently the timeline from start to finish of new home construction is slower than normal and what would be most profitable for a developer. The reason for this? Lack of qualified workers in the construction trades, due partly to a net drop in immigration to the US from Mexico.⁶ 

When asked the obvious question, about whether higher pay rates would make up that difference, Keith Lynum, President of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors put it bluntly recently on KNPR, explaining that the increase in wages would drive prices beyond what people would pay.⁷ Simply put, it is often more profitable to use labor that will work for a wage that some will consider sub-par. Not illegal, but sub-par.

For years I managed a crew of primarily painters, working for $15.00 an hour, plus the taxes we paid for them. They lived together, pooled resources and saved money for the day they could buy their own homes. Again, many Americans will not work, or live like that. In the Los Angeles area, where simply renting a room in a middle class neighborhood runs upwards of $750.00 a month plus utilities, a job paying roughly $2400.00 a month before taxes will not go very far.

Today, everyone of those guys who worked with me is married, has kids, is legal and just like when they started, contributes to the American economy.

Let’s look at another example, farming. We are told to listen to those in the know, and for agriculture, that means farmers. Overwhelmingly they report that without immigrant labor, much of it illegal, they would be unable to harvest their crops at a reasonable price. Many farmers speak of leaving fields fallow for want of people to process the harvest.⁸

Farmers too have a maximum they can pay their help and make a profit. And that maximum resides in our pocketbooks. Most of us already believe we pay far too much for the trip to the grocery store. What if you were told right now you’d have to pay an additional 30% on every piece of fruit or vegetable you bought? Again, the experience of farmers is that most Americans simply will not do the back breaking work necessary at the rate they believe they can pay, and the market will support, and still make a profit. 

The bottom line is this… America is addicted to cheap labor and that cheap labor primarily comes from the hands of immigrants, legal and illegal. Think our addiction is not true? In 2011 the Texas State Legislature was working to clamp down on the hiring of illegal immigrants. The author of a proposed bill made sure to grant John Q. Public an exemption from fines and potential jail time for personally hiring illegal workers to work in his private home.⁹ 

In other words, this Texas legislator was ready to penalize corporations for hiring illegal immigrants and paying them subpar wages, but not someone living down the street, further feeding the addiction.

Be it farming, construction, gardening at your house, or even the twice a month cleaning lady, we simply talk a better game than we are willing to realistically face, especially if the issue hits us squarely in our pocketbooks. 

Why can’t they just work in their own country? Why do they have to come here?

To be sure, the short answer is a lack of good paying jobs in many parts of Mexico. But let’s look a little at how that came about. Years ago many men worked in the corn industry of Mexico. But US subsidies paid to our farmers soon radically changed that market, making it almost impossible for Mexican farmers to compete in the world market. Now with the planting of GMO corn imminent in the birthplace of corn, we can expect even more problems.¹⁰

I’ve written more on this specific issue both here and here, exploring the link between US practices as they relate to both the corn and sugar cane industry in Mexico and employment.

Suffice to say, yes, Mexico needs more jobs. But US actions have contributed to the unemployment for which many criticize Mexico. Here’s what Sidney Weintraub, a political economist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC., had to say about US practices in the agricultural world when they challenged the legality of what the US was doing… “The Mexicans never had a chance because their argument was based on fair play, and the US [argument was based] on law.”¹¹

Make no mistake, Mexico has employment issues. Too few people are able, despite educational gains, to find real, family supporting jobs. Official estimates run as high as 25% for the “underemployed” rate. In areas where I work, primarily indigenous villages, I think leaders would love to see a 25% rate. Few of the men in these areas have any kind of regular work. As the economy has struggled to recover from the world economic crisis of 2008 we are now seeing the peso getting crushed by the dollar.¹² Additionally, the employers, both private and public have been slow to embrace technology, perhaps knowing that will eliminate even more jobs, further exacerbating the situation.

Let me give you an example. 

I went to a papeleria, or a stationary store, recently in Mexico. I was greeted at the door by one worker and directed downstairs to find what I needed. I asked at the counter for poster board. The employee told me they had it and the price. I asked for five sheets and she wrote up a ticket. I then went back upstairs to pay and when I brought back the receipt, the employee directed another employee to get my five sheets.

Wrapping them up as I waited, they were then given to another employee to take them upstairs and confirm again that they had been paid for. I was finally given my poster board but before I could leave, the security guard had to check my receipt one more time. All told, 6 employees were involved in my transaction, valued at less that $5.00.

Technology and a better understanding of how to use workers would have undoubtedly cut down the number of people involved in my transaction. But that would mean fewer workers, and as we have seen across the globe, millions of idle unemployed young people, frustrated at the situation and the powers that be, can lead to social disaster. It’s the idle hands theory.

At some point, leaders in Mexico will have to address the situation in a real and practical way. Until that happens, we will continue to see the pressures of immigration, both legal and illegal from our southern neighbor. The question is in the interim, what should the US and Mexico do about it?

Many advocate for a simple, unilateral approach. Build a wall, send everyone home and call it good. It is after all, our country. America, love it, or leave it! 

This approach, while appealing to many on the surface simply denies the above realities and will only manage to anger our neighbor to the south, a major US trading partner and a source of serious economic activity in the US.¹³

That does not mean we should stand aside, do nothing, bury our heads in the sand and hope for the best, a charge leveled by many critics of comprehensive immigration reform. I believe we need a system that not only works to limit illegal immigration, but also deals compassionately, fairly and equitably with those who are already here.

I also think that any approach must be grounded in reality, be both operationally and politically workable, and ultimately, be seen as a net positive for all involved. It must also be honest about the 11 million who are already here.

There is absolutely no way we are going to be sending 11 million people back to their home countries, no matter how much people like Donald Trump, your neighbor or any other presidential candidate wishes it to be so. Strictly speaking, to do so would require an airlift not seen around the world since the days of the Berlin crisis, involving over 22,000 full Boeing 747’s to get everyone home.

So, what should we do? Or, as the original question asked, what are my thoughts on resolving this difficult issue? I do not have the solution, but I know this. Any solution that does not consider the above thoughts, is going to fail.

A final note...

The issues related to immigration are very personal to me, because I deeply love many people in both the US and Mexico who hold legitimate views on all sides of this difficult issue. As a missionary in Mexico, I believe it is my role to learn and understand as much as I can about the issues facing the Mexican people in their daily lives.

Part of that is understanding the politics, culture and history of the people I serve. Part of being effective when working within a short term framework, is putting those realities in context for the mission participants who serve alongside me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts...

1. Arce, Mark Stevenson and Alberto. "Mexico Now Deports More Central Americans than the US." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 18 June 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

2.  "5 Facts about Illegal Immigration in the U.S." Pew Research Center. N.p., 24 July 2015. Web. 04 Sept. 2015. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/24/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s

3.  Krikorian, Mark. "On Immigration, Fighting the Last War." National Review Online. N.p., 1 Oct. 2015

4.  Pineda, Martha. "Home." GAIN Report, Mexico. http://gain.fas.usda.gov/, 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 04 Sept. 2015.

5.  Noss, Amanda. "Household Income." (n.d.): Household Income:2013. U.S. Department of Commerce, Sept. 2014. Web. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acsbr13-02.pdf

6.  Barrera, Ana Gonzalez. "More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S." Pew Research Centers Hispanic Trends Project. N.p., 19 Nov. 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

7.  "Las Vegas Real Estate Prices Stable As New Homes Come On The Market." Nevada Public Radio. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

8.  Tomson, Bill. "Farmers: Trump Terrible for Agriculture." Politico.com, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/donald-trump-2016-farmers-fear-argriculture-213201

9.  Riddle, Debbie. "82(R) HB 1202 - Introduced Version - Bill Text." 82(R) HB 1202 - Introduced Version - Bill Text. Rep. Debbie Riddle, n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2015. http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/82R/billtext/html/HB01202I.htm

10.  Bayless, Rick. "A Sad Day in Mexico." Rick Bayless. N.p., 22 Aug. 2015. Web. 05 Sept. 2015. http://www.rickbayless.com/a-sad-day-in-mexico.

11.  24, August. "WTO's Sugar Ruling Leaves Mexico Bitter." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2005. Web. 05 Sept. 2015. http://articles.latimes.com/2005/aug/24/world/fg-sweets24.

12.  Irwin, Neil. "How a Rising Dollar Is Creating Trouble for Emerging Economies." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

13.  Villareal, M. Angeles. "U.S.-Mexico Economic Relations: Trends, Issues and Implications." U.S.-Mexico Economic Relations: Trends, Issues, and Implications (2015). www.fas.org. Congressional Research Service, 20 Apr. 2015. Web.

Holy Saturday... living in the tension between Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection on Sunday morning

In his book "The Orthodox Heretic: and other impossible tales"  Peter Rollins imagines a story of a group of early followers of Jesus. 

Living alongside Jesus, they followed him, learned from him and were trying to order their lives so as to give witness to what they saw in Jesus everyday.

And then something happened that changed everything.

Jesus was apprehended by the authorities and put on trial. Being found guilty, he was sentenced to death on a cross, where he died.

After Jesus was buried, this little group of followers left the area to try and live out the ideals of Jesus as they had learned from him when he was alive. His death did nothing to change their love for him, or their desire to follow him and his teachings.

Their little community lived in relative peace for over 100 years. Until one day a Christian missionary from Jerusalem found them. As this missionary and some of the leaders of this community were talking, the missionary quickly learned that this community had no idea that while Jesus had died on that cross, he had also risen from the grave.

That evening there was a huge party as the group celebrated that Jesus has won the epic battle against death, and because of that, they would experience life in eternity with him. As the party was going on, the missionary noticed one of the leaders was missing. He soon found him in his tent, on his knees praying, with tears streaming down his face.

He sat with him awhile and finally asked the leader why he was crying. Didn't he understand the importance of Jesus resurrection? What was the matter?

The leader looked at the missionary with his swollen eyes and then he spoke. "For 100 years, my people have followed Jesus unconditionally. We have tried to live as we believe Jesus called us to live, simply because we believed that was his will."

"Now" he said, "I fear my people will live instead for the resurrection."

What the leader was saying was that his people would no longer live for Jesus, but for themselves. What he was saying was that faith for his people would soon change. Gone would be the focus on Kingdom now, traded in for Kingdom later.

Rollins brings us to Holy Saturday, the day between Jesus death on Friday and resurrection on what we celebrate as Easter Sunday. How he asks, might our faith be different if all we knew was Jesus life and his death? What would life look like if we lived it on Saturday, instead of in the light of Sunday.

In essence, he is asking the most pressing of questions. If there was no resurrection, would we even follow Jesus? Would living a life totally devoted to Jesus and his teachings be null and void if the resurrection never happened?

We are forced to look deeply at the motivations for faith, and our decisions to follow Jesus. Do we follow Jesus because what he called us to do was right on Holy Saturday when he was dead in the tomb? Or, did it only become right with the resurrection, on Sunday?

I hate questions like this, because they call into question my motivations for following Jesus. If I am being honest, these are the type of questions I wrestle with everyday. Ask my wife! She will frequently ask me what I am thinking, and out of fear, I'll say "nothing really" because the questions, and the answers scare me.

This week as we enter Holy Week, many of us will attend one or more remembrances of the last few days of Jesus' life here on earth. Maybe it will be a Maundy Thursday service that looks back at the Last Supper. Perhaps some will take time Friday to remember the crucifixion. Almost all of us will be celebrate his resurrection on Sunday, and then perhaps we will break bread together, at either a potluck, or with friends at a local restaurant.

But what about Saturday? Do we follow Jesus because he called us? Because he was the son of God, not just in the resurrection, but in his death as well? Or, do we follow him because, as the leader in Rollins' story feared, we want want eternal life? Are we into God and Christianity because of what we can get? 

Tough questions during the holiest of weeks for believers. Tougher still when we stop and consider how and what we, as missionaries for Jesus, communicate to others about the central truths and reasons for our faith.

Eloxochitlán, Oaxaca, a tale of jealously, hate and revenge... all tragically lived out on December 14, 2014

“They came to kill us!” Those are the words of Elisa Zepeda trying to explain what happened in her village of Eloxochitlán on Sunday, December 14, 2014. 

It’s a story as old as David and Saul. A tale of jealousy, hate and revenge, all lived out in a village high above Oaxaca City in the Sierra Mazateca, known by locals as San Antonio Eloxochitlán.

The town center of Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón

December 14, 2014 will stand as their 9/11, the day everything changed. It is the day that a new normal would be ushered in with a hail of gunfire, beatings, attacks with machetes, shovels, rocks and even pieces of rebar. At the end of the day 7 people were incarcerated for their role in a series of attacks that left 2 dead, many wounded, destroyed cars, businesses, homes and lives shattered across the town.

The story goes back years to a young farmer named Acasio Zepeda and his wife Gregoria who lived in San Antonio Eloxochitlán, or as locals simply called it, San Antonio. Located almost directly between Puebla and Oaxaca, San Antonio is a small village without much to recommend it.

Hours from any real population center, literally above the clouds, San Antonio is not that much different from hundreds of other small primarily indigenous towns that dot the Mexican landscape. In place of a formal state, or federal government, local law is based on a centuries old tradition known simply as Usos y Costumbres. Through this system, most legal matters are handled by town elders, their own elected officials and the people are largely self governing. This was the world, for better or worse, of Acasio Zepeda, father of six boys and one girl. 

Elisa Zepeda, roasting locally farmed coffee at her home before it was destroyed

Acasio was a farmer, growing mostly coffee, and at times corn, beans and chayote in what essentially is a cloud forest. Farming in the best of conditions is hard work. It is also not a job that generally is not going to make you rich. In the mountainous indigenous areas of Mexico, under local customs, a farmer is usually only able to plant and care for just enough land to feed and care for his family. It requires hard work and long hours. It is often lonely, and many a farmer from San Antonio would end his day of work with a little too much aguardiente, the local “firewater” distilled from fermented sugar cane.

Knowing how hard the work was, Acasio was determined to give his children another option. As each one of them came of age, he gave them a choice. They could stay and work the land, as he and his ancestors had for years, or they could leave San Antonio, choose a career, and study. But there was a caveat. If they left to study, there was no coming home. They were to stay in school and figure out how to make it through.

That is the path almost all of his children took, including his oldest daughter Eusebia and Manuel, the fourth of his children. Both of them chose to become teachers, not so much because of a calling, but because it was the least expensive career to enter and the family never had much money.

After graduation, both Manuel and his sister Eusebia returned to San Antonio to find love, and begin their careers as teachers in the town of their youth. Manuel soon fell in love and married Malena Laguna Ceballos of Tenancingo, while Eusebia met and married a man by the name of Jaime Betanzos Fuentes from Eloxochitlán.

Over the years, life in this tiny mountaintop village carried on without much fanfare. Manuel and Eusebia taught in the local schools for many years. However in addition to teaching, like his father, and many of the other men in San Antonio, Manuel became a man enamored with aguardiente. Cheap and powerful, often running to 120 proof, it might have proved to be his undoing. 

Then a man named Gaspar Camaal Chablé entered his life. 

Fresh out of the George Lacy Baptist Seminary in Oaxaca City, Gaspar, or Pastor Chablé as he is known to many, became a spiritual mentor to Manuel. It dad not take long for Manuel to give up drinking and become a regular member of the small church Gaspar was starting.

It was a friendship that lasts to this day, stretching across almost 20 years.

Over the years, having cast aside his tendency to over imbibe, Manuel became a strong force in the church. His story of how God had saved him from himself and gave him the strength to improve his life became a powerful witness in a town that had known him mostly as a teacher who drank too much.

Manuel Zepeda's trout farm in Eloxochitlán

Having taken his last drink, Manuel soon discovered an entrepreneurial spirit deep inside himself. He and Malena sold the home where they had raised their children Manuelito and Elisa, and bought a plot of land on the banks of the Petlapa River. As he built a new house for his family, he also started a small trout farm.

Over the years that trout farm has grown to include nine tanks that when fully utilized, are stocked with almost 500 trout. Trout that his wife prepares in her kitchen and are served to people on the patio restaurant of their house. Trout that go a long way to help feed the townspeople.

Meanwhile, as Manuel and Malena were were expanding their trout farm, Eusebia and her husband Jaime were busy building their own life. 

Both families, extremely ambitious, aspired to win the votes, and the love of the people of Eloxochitlán. Manuel eventually won election in 2009 and Jaime in 2013 was elected to the position of assessor. A sort of assistant to the President of the community. But by then, their relationship had been poisoned by a previous election.

Jamie, running for office against his own brother Raul Betanzos Fuentes came up short on the vote count. He went to Manuel, his brother-in-law, and asked him to stand with him against Raul. He believed that between the two of them, they could prevail in a move to contest the election.

Manuel however felt differently. Looking at the vote totals, and the facts, he simply believed that Raul won, fair and square, and that it would be better for Jaime to wait his turn. Feeling betrayed, Jaime was angry and the seeds of anger and jealousy were sown deep.

Over the ensuing years, Jaime was never satisfied with the political leadership of the city, convinced he could always do better. When his brother-in-law Manuel won election in 2009, the stage was set for a full scale confrontation.

Over the next few years, until Jaime finally won election, the two sides of this familial and political divide traded numerous accusations. As is often the case in Oaxacan village politics, both sides have been accused of treason, brutality, murder and corruption. 

The marketplace of Eloxochitlán, where people gathered to vote. 

On Sunday, December 14 the people of Eloxochitlán assembled in the town square to vote for the new mayor, a largely ceremonial position charged with settling property and land disputes. It is a job that requires lots of work, many complaints and little or no pay. 

It was a slightly sunny day, a rare surprise in a place normally dominated by clouds and rain. But the weather was not to be the only rarity on that day. As the people gathered for the noon meeting, a small group, led by Jaime Betanzos, had a much more ambitious agenda.

He and his small group of leaders wanted to settle a few old scores against his brother-in-law and former President of Eloxochitlán, Manuel Zepeda.

Dave Miller, Manuel Zepeda and Abisia Camaal, son of Gaspar, in Manuel's house as electricians work to repair damage.

As the assembly began, word started filtering out to those still arriving that there was a group of hooded men armed with shotguns, machetes, shovels and rebar sticks. Soon there were explosions and shotgun blasts emanating from the city center.

It did not take long for people to scatter, fearing for their lives. The panic was evident on their faces as they ran. All the while, explosions could be heard rolling across the green hills of the city. Soon large clouds of black smoke could be seen rising from the area where the town meeting was to be.

Regardless of the cause, this is what is now known.

Elisa Zepeda, the daughter of Manuel and Malena, was the one the armed group was seeking. Long active in the human rights struggle for the people of Eloxochitlán, she had become a thorn in the side of those currently in power, led primarily by her uncle, Jaime Betanzos, the husband of her father’s sister, Eusebia.

When it became apparent Elisa was the target, she took refuge behind the house of her friends Gilberto and Noemi, shielded by her uncle Vicente. Hiding in a small closet, they both feared for their lives because the armed mob had, in addition to guns and machetes, molotov cocktails, loaded with gasoline.

This is the closet where Vicente and Elisa hid.

As the group approached, Vicente and Elisa, knowing there were the typical tanks of propane stored in every Mexican home stored nearby, made the decision to abandon their hiding place and make a run for her dad’s house.

Elisa did not make it.

As they ran, she was grabbed by the mob, now numbering in excess of 50 people, and was savagely beaten. The final words of the group, widely reported across Mexico, were “This is where your dreams end asshole. Don’t stick your nose in the town’s business again.” And with these words, they left her to die.

That’s when the mob turned to destruction.

This was part of the living room of Gilberto's home.

Gilberto’s home and restaurant where she sought refuge was quickly engulfed in flames, as was a local grocery store owned by Elisa’s uncle Vicente’s son-in-law, Gamaliel and his wife Dolli. As the home and businesses burned, they turned their attention to the families’ trucks, showering them with gallon sized molotov cocktails. Proceeding across the street, they completely gutted the local cyber cafe, owned and operated by Vicente and his wife Eudoxia and burned it too. This was the cloud of black smoke everyone was seeing. While all the windows of Vicente and Eudoxia’s house were broken by rocks thrown by the mob, mercifully, they chose not to destroy their house.

The former storefront for Gamaliel and Dolli's grocery store.

By now, the once tranquil city resembled a war zone set upon by an armed mob. As the group moved out from the city center, people ran, screamed and sought cover where ever they could, fearing for their lives.

Inside the former store of Gamaliel and Dolli.

Many of those running, relatives and associates of Manuel Zepada, father of Elisa, sought refuge in his home, a two story structure about 500 meters from the town center. They locked themselves in the kitchen, and as religious people, began to pray.

That’s when the bullets began to fly through the doors and the rocks began to fly though the windows. Miraculously, Elisa, not dead after all, had made her way back to her childhood home and what she hoped would be the safety of her parents arms. It was not to be.

The doors of the house were no match for a group determined to kill and humiliate as many members of Manuel’s family as possible. As the attackers entered, some looked for cover and others fled out a back door, only to be caught between two sides of the same mob.

Gaspar Chablé with Gregoria, both victims of the violence in Eloxochitlán

Elisa was beaten again, even as her mother Malena sought to protect her. Covering her with her own body, Malena took several blows in this new beating. Even today, it is not known if she will ever see again from her right eye. Pastor Gaspar Chablé was also beaten at the house, receiving numerous cuts on his head from the machetes and rebar. Manuel’s 86 year old mother, Gregoria, pleading with the attackers to stop, was also beaten, receiving cuts to her scalp. Gaspar remembers the group talking about killing them all as he collapsed behind an old cistern that now is permanently marked by his blood.

But it was two men who paid the ultimate price. When the mob set upon Manuel’s house and the house of his daughter Elisa, they came across Manuelito, the town mechanic. Manuelito was known as a standup guy. Regularly fixing cars and charging very little, he saw his work as a way to give back to the community. His taller, or garage, was on his father’s land, next door to his sister’s home.

He was taken, tortured and beaten in an attack that rivals anything the Ku Klux Klan ever did in America. All to send a message. One other man, Gustavo Andrade, the sole member of the local police force to stand up to the mob, also died, giving his life to protect Elisa. 

Manuel leaves a wife and two children. Gustavo, a wife and four kids.

Gamaliel and Gaspar inside Vicente's burned out cyber café.

With bodies strewn everywhere across the city, and with numerous houses and businesses burning, the mob couldn’t resist the cars and trucks of Manuel, his family, Pastor Chablé and others. More molotov cocktails were tossed on every nearby vehicle they could find.

At the end of the day, Gilberto and Noemi lost their home, truck, and business. Elisa and her husband David lost their home and Elisa’s car. Gamaliel and Dolli lost their business and their truck. Vicente and Euodoxia lost their cyber cafe. Manuel and Malena had their house looted, their money stolen, much of their furniture destroyed and their restaurant ransacked.

Manuelito and Gustavo lost their lives and their families now have no way to support their suddenly smaller families. Pastor Chablé lost his truck, one of 19 vehicles burned that fateful day and was sent to the hospital with numerous gashes on his scalp requiring stitches.

Elisa and Malena, by far suffering the worst of the injuries, were beaten to within an inch of their lives. Both of them spent days in the hospital, in and out of comas. Both of them face months of both physical and emotional rehabilitation. Many of the scars may never heal.

All of the ringleaders of the attack are now sitting in prison in Oaxaca under order of the Attorney General of the State. In addition to former mayor Jaime Betanzos Fuentes, and the current mayor Alfredo Pacheco Bolaños, local police, Fernando Martinez Gavito, Wilfrido Salazar Herrera, Omar Morales Alvarez and Ruben Jimenez Cerqueda are also in custody. A seventh man, Monfil Avendaño, was also involved and is being held. All seven men are awaiting trial for their involvement in the events of December 14, 2014 in Eloxochitlán.

The rest of the attackers, and Jaime’s wife, Eusebia, the older sister of Manuel, remain in hiding across the region known as the Cañada de Oaxaca.

Recently I was in Eloxochitlán. For this story I talked personally to each and every victim. I saw their homes, walked among the destruction of their businesses and listened as each one told me their stories, many as the tears fell from their eyes.

I saw the closet where Vicente tried to shield his niece Elisa from her attackers. I also saw the holes that a shotgun made in that closet, moments before they fled. I saw the remnants of buildings that people will never be able to rebuild, because the fires burned so hot, the concrete encased rebar melted.

The front of Elisa Zepeda's burned out home.

Locals told me the stores, buildings, cars and trucks smoldered for days. They spoke of looking into the eyes of the aggressors and seeing a level of hate they had never experienced. They spoke of men, drunk on power and aguardiente coming at them with machetes, determined to kill. It was chilling to hear their stories and experience the violence from each of their different perspectives.

As I walked and talked with people, I kept trying to get at the spark that caused the uproar. Was it political? Yes. Was it religious? Yes. Was it personal? Yes. But finally, as I continued to peel back the layers of the onion, I started to understand.

This was about respect. 

Jaime Betanzos and his family were old school. They liked things the way they were. Thinking back to that first election he lost, he wanted to “fix” it, for years a Mexican tradition. When his brother-in-law Manuel, the college graduate and local business leader, would not go along, he felt disrespected. He took it personally. 

A few of the 19 damaged and burned out vehicles from that fateful day.

Thousands of years ago, David, the boy who vanquished Goliath in the biblical epic, became the darling of the kingdom. Saul, the current king, saw that the people were giving much more of their love and respect to David, than to him, the current king. In him burned a jealous desire to set things straight. 

In an attempt to recapture the glory and respect among his people he once had, Saul set about to destroy, and ultimately kill David. He unleashed scores of his soldiers in an attempt to find and finally remove the one person he could never vanquish or conquer.  

Jaime, like Saul, quietly steamed for years. Finally, when he was elected, he decided to get the respect he had always felt he was due. If he could not earn it, he would take it, violently, if need be. Working with many of the other local authorities, Jaime used the town budget to recruit the mob that would ultimately wreak havoc across the town. 

The monument to Ricardo Flores Magón, in the heart of Eloxochitlán.

Ironically the town recently changed its name from San Antonio Eloxochitlán to Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón after the activist and one of the most revered intellectual leaders of the Mexican Revolution, Ricardo Flores Magón, who was born in the small village.

It was that spirit of change, the same activist spirit that motivated Flores Magón, that inspired Elisa Zepeda and her family. 

Many of the people with whom I spoke shared that they were eager for their little town to get back to normal. They liked it quiet and without much fanfare, or drama. But all them were forced to accept a new reality. Their town could never go back to what was normal. December 14 will always be the day that changed normal for the victims and the residents of Eloxochitlán.

Where do they go from here? That depends on whether the people want to continue the long march into modernity that stands in front of many indigenous communities in Mexico, or if they will retreat, fearful of the kind of change that Jaime Betanzos and his group could never embrace.

Copyright © 2015, Dave Miller, All Rights, Photo and Written, Reserved