In this Sunday’s first reading the prophet reminds the people that they can choose between “life and death, good and evil,” but that God does not command anyone to act unjustly nor gives anyone “license to sin.” The recent fatal shooting of a Texas missionary on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border has reinforced the impression that the region is falling into the hands of drug runners, thieves, and others those who feel they have license to kill.

Evangelical missionary Nancy Davis, who had worked in Mexico for decades, was shot in the back of the head by gunmen in a pickup truck who had pursued her and her husband for miles near the border. For decades the Davis' have run a charity--the nondenominational Gospel Proclaimers Missionary Association in Weslaco, Texas--that raised money to build churches, hold revivals, and distribute Bibles in poor Mexican villages, mostly in the states bordering Texas.

The couple generally drove an older model car while in Mexico to avoid attracting carjackers, but that vehicle had been in the shop so they took their 2008 Chevrolet pickup truck. The police in Pharr say they think that choice made them a target, but police chief Ruben Villescos said the motive for the attack remained a mystery.

The number of U.S. citizens killed in the border region has increased in recent years. The heaviest toll is in the El Paso area, where many U.S. residents cross the border regularly to conduct business or visit family in Mexico. Officials with both governments are quick to point out that the great majority of Mexico remains safe for foreign travelers and tourists.

Source: An article by James C. McKinley, Jr. for the New York Times