What was the book The Ugly American about?
The Ugly American was an exposé of American diplomatic personnel who failed to represent their government well. Their lifestyles were anything but exemplary. The book conveyed that ambassadors and foreign service people should be visible representatives of Washington, so people in other nations could observe them and recognize a typical American.
Les explains that the book, which he recalls hitting the bestseller list in the late seventies, was more or less an exposé of many U.S. diplomatic people who were not real good representatives of the government. Their lifestyle was anything but exemplary. The whole idea, he says, is that ambassadors and foreign service people are to be visible representatives of Washington; the Japanese people, for example, should be able to watch them and say, “That is a typical American.” They are a representative. Les then applies the same concept to believers, who are left as ambassadors of their homeland in heaven, citizens of heaven because they belong to the Kingdom of Christ.