Our Neighbors Are Everywhere

I appreciate Derek Webb’s zeal for doing what’s right, but I wonder just how many latrines and wells Webb has gotten his hands dirty digging (“Nashville’s New Groove,” by Bob Smietana, April 2009). As a missionary working with the poor and oppressed in my own country, with our First Nations people, I am offended by Webb’s flippant comment that “if you don’t follow Jesus to places like Africa, India, and Asia, you might want to check whether or not it is Jesus that you are following.” Remarks like this insult the thousands of missionaries working in “third world” conditions in our country and yours with the same “neighbors” Jesus and Webb speak about.

I applaud those who work diligently, out of the celebrity limelight, with the love of Jesus in those foreign lands Webb speaks about, but our “neighbors” are sometimes not far from our front doors and deserve the hands-on agape love of Jesus as well as any in far-off lands.

Richard Greer, Moosehorn, Manitoba, Canada