Somewhere in Port au Prince, Haiti, there are ten white American Evangelical Christians sitting in a jail cell, wondering how they came to this fate. The American “Missionaries” from New Life Children’s Refuge were charged Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take 33 “orphans” across the border into the Dominican Republic; they’re also exhibit A in the trial of colonialism, evangelical fervor, and designer adoption chic.
The whole incident becomes even more startling when you consider that the bulk of the group are not seasoned missionaries, but just regular church folks who felt “called” to get involved. These laypersons, who have never gone on a real missions trip and have no formal training, belong to churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention whose missionary work in recent years has been suspect. Their case has taken over news of earthquake relief efforts; indeed, you can bank on ten white Americans Christians in a Haitian jail receiving more press than the 200,000 estimated dead in Haiti, plus the millions still trying to get fresh water, food, and a roof over their heads. Even more trying is the fact that after all the media hoopla about violence in Haiti, who ends up in jail? Ten white American Christians. The irony is epic.
Better Yet, Stay Home
The misplaced missionary impulse to save the heathen children and impart “civilization” by loading a bunch of Haitian kids in a bus and heading for a resort with a swimming pool, to share the “good news” and be adopted, is simply ludicrous. No reputable missions organization works that way. Still, despite the group’s irresponsible and crude behavior, I suspect that many in America thought that the missionaries would be on a transport home by now.
Frankly, if anyone in the group had even bothered to read Haiti’s Wikipedia page, they might have thought twice about a plan to take black children out of the country without paperwork. By disregarding even the most basic history of slavery, missions, or colonial activity in Haiti, their missionary impulse failed them miserably. With all of the missions already on the ground in Haiti, what made them think they could just take children out of the country? The ignorance and naïveté of this group is staggering, except when considered from the perspective of the evangelical imperative of Go ye into all the world. Last time I checked, however, that scripture did not mean take children and make them Christians by spiriting them away to be adopted by other families.
Unfortunately, Missions history shows otherwise. In the United States, and many other countries, families of non-Christian groups were subjected to Christian missionaries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who took children away for adoptions or at the very least to attend church schools. Many were never reunited with their parents, and some came to hate their parents as a result of the indoctrination. Haitians are well-attuned to missionaries, as several missions’ organizations have been in the country for more than fifty years. So before the Haitian government is criticized for arresting the New Life group, remember: they understand what it is like to have the United Nations and many religious relief organizations operating within their country—and they know what’s legal.
If the New Life Group had really wanted to help these children, they could have done it right there on the spot, rather than going to the remote community of Calebasse and taking children into the Dominican Republic. Better yet, send money and stay home; let professionals handle the situation. It wasn’t as though Haiti was bereft of missions groups.
Moreover, the leader of New Life Children’s rescue, Laura Silsby, has had serious legal problems in the past, most recently losing the house she bought for the ministry to foreclosure at the end of 2009. The fact that neither of the churches involved with the missions group vetted her thoroughly before leading a missions trip will open them to lawsuits, above and beyond the legal fees and costs incurred from the current incarceration. Silby’s motives are also suspect in part because she seemed to realize what she was doing, stating in an interview on Monday that the group did not intend to offer the children for adoption. “We intended to raise those children and be with them their entire lives, if necessary,” she said. It also seems that a plan was in place for an orphanage long before the earthquake occurred.
In addition to the missionaries themselves, the Southern Baptist Convention should be held accountable for the colonialist statement put out by Morris H. Chapman, who stated in a press release that “The Haitian government and the international community immediately interpreted their actions in the worst light possible, alleging that they were trafficking in children. As the story has unfolded, it has become more and more apparent that these ten individuals were driven by the true selflessness of altruism. Moved with compassion, they acted.”
If altruism is an attempt to grab a busload of kids by showing them pictures of a luxury hotel with a pool, I’ve got some swampland to sell the SBC. All I have to say to Mr. Chapman is, 19th-century Baptist missionary Lottie Moon would have known better. She lived among the people she served, and did not offer them hotel and a pool in exchange for Jesus.
The real crux of the issue is this: these ten do-gooders walked into the trap many well-meaning white evangelical Christians fall into: those poor brown/black/yellow/red people need My help. Jesus wants Me to help them. To much of white American Evangelical Christianity, the We often means Me. It’s what God Called Me to do. It’s what God would want Me to do. The problem with the Me mentality of much of conservative Evangelical Christianity is that they often can’t see the We—the people of Haiti—who love their kids so much they’re willing to let some white people who claim to be “Christians” take them away to what they promise will be “a better life.”
The focus on Me takes away from the real ways that people in disasters can be helped without the insertion of well-meaning, clueless interlopers into their story. The New Life group is now finding out what living in an impoverished and earthquake-ravaged country is like. Perhaps now they will begin to understand what it means to live alongside the poor, as opposed to swooping into a disaster for a quick “feel-good Christian moment” designed to make them feel better about themselves. Hopefully, other groups will rally to do the real work that is still so urgently needed, and make a long-term commitment to bring life and stability to Haiti and its children who are in desperate need of it.
Tags: colonialism, haiti, haiti earthquake, missionaries, southern baptist convention
Sympathy for arrogant Christian colonialists comes hard. These pathetic women took children, who were not orphaned, in a place known for the relentless corruption of its government, police, judiciary, and other institutions. What did they expect to happen?
A few decades of prison in a stifling, filthy tropical prison might teach these self-important but benevolent lay Christians to take more care when I do missionary work. Maybe, the Southern Baptist Convention will muster brides sufficient to release these well-meaning but naive Christian invaders.
Bribes! Though who knows?
Make no mistake, these children were going to be the bread and butter of somebody, most likely the ringleader. Churches guilt their congregations into big time support for these types of "missionaries" who are claiming to "save the lives and souls of children". In reality, these kids end up giving the "saviors" an income.
This happens all the time, and I am so happy these ones have been caught and charged. Let's hope they do time.
At least four decades, one hopes.
The Haitians need money, and New Life is a money raising group that right now needs to find a way to save face. It should be easy for these two to find the moves to reach accommodation and disentangle their pawns.
Well, let us hope that they, their local congregation, or the powerful Southern Baptist Convention are not able to bribe these Christian criminals from their responsibilities
What these women did was harsh and heartless.
bribe authorities to save these criminal Christias from facing consequeneces for their crimes.
Look at your lack of mercy upon lack of mercy in the mirror. How punitive and pharisaic!
I find it sad that this is necessary to mention, but I think he story wil have more 'legs' if this point is mentioned. Modt Haitians are already Roman Ctholic -- it is simply ignorance that makes Americans think that all Haitians are practitioners of Voudoun.
Pointing out that most of them are, in fact, Catholic, and bringing up the question as ti whether the SBC considers Catholics 'true Christians' might reverse some of the sympathy that I am sure these missionaries will receive from the fundamentalist groups and places like WND.
The stench of pretentiousness is overwhelming.
Missionary work has historically been fundraising on one sides of the world, and running the mission on the other, and the two sides were always kept apart. Now in the internet age all is revealed.
In what way?
It's pretentious to walk into a foreign country with only a preconceived notion of what that country is all about and think you can do whatever you like with its children.
Yes, it is. Thanks.
Once you get past the Gateway to the West (Pittsburgh) one place is pretty much like another, except for the cities and natural wonders, which are pretty darn thin on the ground in both Ohio and Idaho. The whole idea of an SBC church in a non-slave state is just bizarre.
Could you please, please not resort to such sweeping generalizations about the Midwest? Contrary to what people on the coasts might think, it's not all dueling banjos, backwards cultural beliefs, and tractor pulls out here.
Spend some time in the Twin Cities. You might be pleasantly surprised. Check out the political background of Minnesota and you'll find that it's not terribly different from my home state of Maryland—an East Coast "blue state."
Minnesota was also one of the first states to provide civil rights protections for not only lesbians, gays and bisexuals, but also transgender people. That was in 1993, by the way. I'd like to see how many states on the coasts can beat that.
So again, could you please refrain from these kinds of generalizations? If you can't do it for me, do it for Dorothy and Toto. ;-)
Oh, and when I lived in Maryland, I did a lot of traveling because I hiked quite a bit. Once you leave the Baltimore-DC metropolitan area, the local culture turns pretty darned conservative. The same is true for the non-urban areas of Pennsylvania, too.
Thanks to Prof. Butler for this wide context in which to view these Americans. We should all work with well-established groups in Haiti, and educate ourselves carefully. Nice work, it gives much food for thought.
I am sorry they are going thru this..at the same time..i hate it that their main mission is to make converts out of these poor innocent children. I hope they don't become myrtrs..in the name of christianity because of this. they should have educated themselves on the ways of the hatians and their laws before even attempting their agenda.
"No reputable missions organization works that way."
"All I have to say to Mr. Chapman is, 19th century Baptist missionary Lottie Moon would have known better. She lived among the people she served, and did not offer them hotel and a pool in exchange for Jesus."
I don't care how well it's done - the motive is always the same - to save the pagans/infidels. Proselytising is the mandate, especially for Evangelicals.
Missionary sacrifices would be noble if it didn't show a complete disrespect for other people and cultures.
Nevertheless, I feel sorry for these missionaries especially because there's a young girl among them. And they still have to face their own people back home whom having been put in a bad light, will probably turn out to be their worst critics.
If you know anything about these people at all, you will know they are not criminals, very often naive but with good intentions.
Granted this will send a strong message to all missionaries around the world and will no doubt prevent othes from making similar, and costly, mistakes.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions". Not my words but it seems they apply here.
If they are correct in their beliefs, all they have to do is pray for God's intervention and as they believe, God will answer them. Pray, Pray, and pray some more. They should never forget what they preach to all who will listen, God answers all prayers. Live by a delusion, die deluded.
If they are part of a organization with good intentions, from the ever top down, I wish them release. However Religions all to often exploit people for their own gain. Anyone who assist exploiting others, even if deceived into thinking they are not when they are, are exploiters too. That is what the law/s they are accused of violating are intended to prevent and punished. SS
There's another proverb: "A story seems right until you've heard the other side."
What makes normally law-abiding citizens do crazy things like this? What turns an otherwise rational person into a suicide bomber? There are deeper questions here about religious indoctrination and what it does to people.
And need I say it again; there's a kid involved!
The religious people I know are not trying to exploit people, on the contrary they're trying to help.
They were wrong yes, they should be punished (not the kid because she was just doing the bidding of the adults). But they still have a right to a fair trial instead of a hung jury.
Here we have another example of the ugly American. Dare I say that it is, and I say this in the same vein as is meant in the aforementioned cliché, the ugliest of ugly when it involves evangelicals? They literally believe that they own everything and are entitled to do as they please as long as they claim it is in the name of the lord.
On a side note, Mr. Crispen, you don’t get out of the house much, do you?
Why is everyone calling them missionaries? They're people who belong to a few Baptist churches, whose "leader" decided that she wanted to save the children of Haiti, and convinced nine people to go with her. Beginning with the second CNN interview, I assumed that the story was a sham. The "leader" contradicted herself, and others, again and again. She continued to dig a deeper hole everytime she opened her mouth.
It's quite possible that the other nine were duped by her. She handled all the arrangements, and they seemed to trust her. While I feel just a little sorry for them, my true sympathy lies with the little kids. First they were traumatized by the quake, then they were taken away by strangers, and now they are living at an orphanage while the state decides how to handle a return to the parents who handed them off to strangers.
The "leader" appears to be a very troubled woman, with financial and legal issues, and undoubtedly mental health issues. Unfortunately, her actions have led to negative repercussions for 33 Haitian kids and their families and 9 Americans and their families.
There is no way these people are guilty of being naive or stupid or misguided. They have told WAY too many lies for that to be true.
First, they told the media the kids were orphaned or abandoned. Then we find out that's not the case and they knew it ... they'd spoken with the kids' parents.
Second, they told the parents they were going to give them a free education and bring them back. Then we find out they had an adoption operation and had even advertised it on the Internet.
Third, they claimed they didn't know they needed Haiti's permission to remove them from the country. Then we find out that Dominican officials had warned them they'd need permission.
Fourth, they claimed they "needed" to remove the kids from Haiti in order to "save" them from appalling conditions. This is belied by the fact that many other bona fide relief agencies have been helping Haitians inside Haiti and the only Haitians being removed are medevac cases (and the last I knew, those had stopped).
If these people were genuinely trying to "help" the children and had simply been caught doing what they shouldn't have, they would not have lied as often as they have. Clearly their motives are nowhere near as pure as they've said.
Given their lies, I no longer care what their motives were. They might have just been trying to help, but if that were the case, the lying makes no sense. They might have been gathering souls for Jesus, by finding "easy prey" among the chaos of post-earthquake Haiti. Or they might have been in it for the adoption fees, again without regard to the legality of what they were doing.
Really, though, whatever their motive is, no longer matters. There is no GOOD motive for what they've done, which both explains what they did, as well as their many lies about it after the fact.
Enough already. I'm not giving these people the benefit of the doubt. I do not, for one moment, believe any of these people had any "good intentions" toward these children. Either they were a way to make money on adoption fees, or they were quick, easy guaranteed, forced conversions to their own Southern Baptist dogma.
No one else should give them the benefit of the doubt either. It's time to leave them to Haitian justice and have done with the matter. They've earned whatever it is they get.
Yes, the Haitian authorities need to take care of this problem.
Thanks for sharing this story, and for your boldness! God Bless them for helping but they should have known better. For more on the bible check out my new blog...
It does it really make a difference if they researched Haiti's history, or if the country has a history of slavery.
No country in the world, developed or developing, will let you kidnap their childern.
It's a no-brainer!
Humanities people always run that old devil colonialism around the block. If they can throw in some slavery so much the better. History, like silly putty, can be shaped into all sorts of brickbats.
Better to address present problems with present solutions. A person or a nation can rise above a terrible childhood.
I will put my efforts and resources into helping UNICEF and Red Cross provide help. These people have a culture that is as old as our own, they can read and teach their children to read and make their ownd decisions about faith on their own. Bribing the most desperate into joining your flock is unseemly at a minimum. They need water, food, shelter, medicine, doctors, hospitals. They need to prepare for the hurricane season, repair their environment, build schools, raise sustainable food crops. They don't need evangelicals, although I wish we could send a bunch someplace. We have too many here.
As far as I'm concerned, the religious zealots could put their zeal into seeing to it that the oil corporations lining up to do business in the Caribbean put their immense resources to good use, and that they're not allowed to exploit the Haitians' desperation in coming years. I'm not holding my breath, though.
This is such a sad situation. I feel for these children, removed from their parents, sitting in an orphanage waiting to find out if they will return home. I wonder what the "missionaries" told the parents? I sure it will all come out. I do think some of these women were innocent of evil intentions. I think they were duped by their leader into believing they were coming to Haiti to save orphans. I am not sure what the troubled leader was up to. Acting without thinking in the name of Christianity is obvious. I think the article had one great point - To often the Christian puts "Me" before the true gospel of Christ. I think these people need to be forgiven for their stupidity and impulsive behavior and if worse intentions come to light they should pay for their crime. I think the teenage girl should be returned home. I hope many learn from these women's actions. The only thing Christians are to do is serve others with the Love of Christ. The gospel is really that simple.
I loved this article. I believe that most Americans believe these "missionaries" represent the American attitude of 'entitlement' and feel they can do whatever they want because they think Americans are somehow superior to everyone else. They could have given the families of these children the money it cost to fly back and forth to Haiti, but that wouldn't be self-serving enough. They wanted to take home 10 'prizes' to be photographed with in the media. 10 little brown children that they 'saved' from being Haitian. Children that they could parade around their congregation and in front of the media to further their deluded idea that Baptists are superior and they are the most "Godly" most "superior" to all other religions, countries, and people. The fact that their 'leader' and her 'assistant' are lying about everything now proves that they were not acting in good faith. It proves that they are, in fact, kidnappers. For the sake of all of the Americans that ARE helping Haiti, respecting Haiti, their culture and people, and doing everything they can to feed, clothe, shelter, and reunite families, I hope this "leader" Laura and her lackey assistant get put in jail for decades. They have embarrassed the people of the United States of America.
Just who do these missionaries think they are anyway. Do they think they can do anything they want just because it's in the name of Jesus.
These misguided people just have to get over themselves. Maybe a few years in prison will do the trick!
Official Cleanse
I have never really heard anyone use it, but now...yeah. It is kind of annoying.
Maybe these folks will soon be home. I hope that they will go home and stay!
I work for the State of Idaho. I stalked a nice woman for ten plus years because she pissed me off. I believe it is our inbread Idaho right to hurt other people especially if we can use our job in a state office to do it.
I have caused after ten years of changing her documents, her to be restrained from her only home. I feel great happiness in her pain. It is an Idaho thing to back stab and steal chindren and happiness from other females, they were after all mothers without husbands. And she is a slut and deserves pain and suffering.
Inbread? I thought you were inpotato in Idaho. Since you say this is a nice woman why don't you do something about this situation.
Because it makes me such a better person knowing I let the world know that sluts have no place in our neighborhoods. I feel good and that is all I care about.
There has been so much focus on this incident which was basically a misunderstanding. Yet very little interest has been shown for the Christian Missionaries who made the ultimate sacrifice in serving the Haitian people.
On January 12 a 7.0 Richter scale earthquake struck the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, bringing widespread death and destruction to the western hemisphere’s poorest nation. The earthquake killed at least 200,000 people, injured at least 300,000 others, leveled at least 250,000 residencies, and destroyed or severely damaged at least 30,000 commercial structures. It was Haiti’s largest and most destructive earthquake in more than 200 years.
Beyond the statistics, the human suffering is amongst the most heartbreaking the world has seen in some time – the break-up of families, the orphaned children, the lack of food and water, the emotional and physical pain, the fight for daily survival.
This tragedy, however, has born witness to the generosity of Americans once again and others throughout the world who have given of themselves financially – donating roughly $528 million as of late January. But long before the earthquake put Haiti on the world radar screen, it stood out for its dismal standard of living. For generations Christian missionaries have come to do what they could. They were there on January 12 before the bottom fell out. A few of them even made the ultimate sacrifice. We wanted to honor these individuals here and welcome your additions and suggestions if we have missed anyone.
Jeffrey J. Rodman, President and CEO of Here-4-You Christian Grant Consulting is featuring the stories of devotion and achievement which inspire all of us on the Christian Grant Writing company’s website at https://npfunds.com/blog/?p=380.
What's worse than spam? *Christian* spam.
Perhaps the 10 white Americans were naïve and misguided. But to associate these probably well-meaning people in this particular, tragic circumstance with the colonial project, slavery, etc., and then to go on to interpret their action as the inevitable result of an unreflective egoism (the Me mentality fed by evangelicalism), is unsympathetic and speculative nonsense. This mostly ad hominem attack should be taken with a grain of salt. Ps. stop smugly putting words like ‘missionaries’ and ‘called’ in quotes.
You probably are right. The idea that people would be in Haiti at this moment doing this sort of thing just hit me as over the top. Maybe I have overreacted to their conduct. At the least, they seem to have had no sense of what is right or fair. I suppose long prison terms might be too much, but they were about to ruin the lives of many children under the guise of being Christian. That they did was not right.
I think taking kids away from families for material reasons is misguided. A child belongs with their family. As Christains, I don't think it is our place to go look for poor kids for the purpose of gaining material possessions.
Working with families to keep them intacted is a much higher calling. I wonder if the families who would've adopted these kids would have known these kids have parents. This story makes it scary to adopt even from a religious organization.
This guy is the biggest crook in Idaho, who helps, other crooks like DA Bazzolli, in Idaho, fired ex judge, commit insurance fraud,and a list of other crimes it is all on my website the proof of these crimes, (http://americaneaglecivilandhumanrights.com), please read my stuff, so he is not ever elected again for public office, or the crooked Governor, Butch Otter, 2/26/10, thank you internet, sincerely Robert Heizelman
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