For the last few weeks, those of us here in Iowa have been following the story of a missing University of Iowa student named Mollie Tibbetts. She was staying in her boyfriend’s home to watch his dog while he was gone for a few days to work. She went out jogging one evening this summer and never came back. There were rumors followed by rumors. One farmer in the area, a known stalker, became the primary focus of the investigation and was heavily investigated. I did not realize that this had become national news as well, but evidently, it had.
On Tuesday, a body was found in Poweshiek county and word leaked out that it was Mollie, even before the identification was confirmed. At 4 PM on Tuesday the investigators held a press conference at the Poweshiek courthouse and gave the details. Just before the presser word also leaked out that a suspect was in custody. At the press conference, the investigator went over the details of the case. The man who was under arrest was of Hispanic descent and was an illegal alien, Christhian Rivera.
I knew as soon as I heard that exactly what would happen. It did not take long for “The Five” on Fox to begin making hay from the fact that the murderer of this cute white girl was an illegal immigrant. See, we have to close the borders so that these illegals won’t kill our daughters. True, there have been some highly publicized murders committed by illegals across the country and when that happens FOX and others use them to beat the drums about how dangerous immigrants are and how we need to build the wall and deal with the immigration problem.
The family of Mollie Tibbetts released a powerful statement asking people not to politicize their daughter’s death after Donald Trump used the tragedy to fan the flames in the immigration debate. Mollie’s aunt, Billie Jo Calderwood, said this on Facebook.
Please remember, Evil comes in EVERY color. Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire ordeal by friends from all different nations and races. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
I hope we heed her words and avoid painting all Hispanics, even those here without documentation, as evil and dangerous, just because one committed this heinous act.
I believe we need border security (not sure a wall is going to help, but that is a discussion for another day). As a sovereign nation, we have the right to control our borders and to keep people from crossing them illegally. And I believe that people here illegally who commit violent crimes should serve their time and then be deported. But it is wrong to use a situation such as this to create the fear that all illegals are violent criminals. This is a common political tactic. We use the misdeeds of one member of a group to paint the entire group in negative light. A Muslim commits a crime – all Muslims are radicalized. One illegal commits a violent act, all illegals are dangerous. It is a fear tactic exploited by politicians. Let’s call it condemnation by category. There’s probably another term for it. But when we condemn an entire race or people because of the misdeeds of one or two or even a small group, it is wrong.
We reject it when “they” do it against “us.” When there is a school shooting and the anti-gun folks begin chanting their gun control mantras, we say you shouldn’t penalize a law-abiding gun owner because of the misdeeds of criminal or some mentally ill person. Don’t condemn the whole group of law-abiding gun owners because of a few bad actors.
On August 17, an American “Missionary” named Jimmy Taylor was arrested in Uganda for a violent and racist outburst in a hotel. Here is a link to a site that has the video. Many left-wing sites picked this up and shared it because of the content. Warning, the video is rough – some very foul language. If you want to watch it, follow the link – I will not post it here.
Shaun King, a columnist and a promoter of Black Lives Matter, said this.
Yeah – this is Jimmy Taylor, an American citizen, and “Christian Missionary” in Uganda. He’s now under arrest. To be real, he is a very honest depiction of much of American Christianity
A person who uses the Twitter handle @skepticNikki said,
Lol. The next time I hear “Christian is synonymous with good” I’m pulling out this gorgeous little gem.
Jimmy Taylor is not with any board or agency. He’s a self-appointed “missionary” and from all I’ve read, severely mentally ill. I have seen Christians behave very badly in my nearly forty years in ministry, but folks, even Pulpit and Pen doesn’t do stuff like this, do they? This guy is not a representative of evangelical Christianity but those who hate us choose to see all of us in his shameful misdeeds. They gleefully point a finger and say, “See?”
I don’t like it when they do that. If I don’t like it when the gun-control people paint all gun-owners as dangerous, unhinged nuts and if I don’t like it when the liberals paint a mentally ill and delusional man as a representative of all evangelicalism, I shouldn’t paint Christhian Rivera as representative of all Hispanics. We should treat people as individuals.
The condemnation by category thing – it really needs to stop.
