“God is the one who called us to come here,” one woman explains to the interviewer in a recent CNN piece about the ten American Baptists stuck down in a Haitian jail after trying to transport 33 children out of the country. And while the video leaves the impression that certainly the group had good intentions, and there can hardly be a doubt that there are tons of needy orphans in Haiti, there is something about the whole thing that makes my skin crawl.
Maybe it is the Baptists’ remaining clarity about their mission, even though it turns out a number of the children were not even orphans. Maybe it is the group’s intention to have each child adopted into “a loving Christian family,” that strikes me (full disclosure: I am not a Baptist) as a little complicated. I mean, yes, of course these children need help, and yes, even some of the children who were not orphans may have been turned over to the Americans because their parents were having trouble caring for them. (Apparently many children at Haitian orphanages are left there by parents who hope to return for them when their situation improves. In fact, many orphanages even offer regular visiting hours, as this recent New York Times article explains.) But still, there’s just something about it all—this idea of American Christians sweeping in and believing they have no reason to follow local or even international law, that what they were doing was so blessed by God that there could be no wrong to it—that harkens back to the whole sad history of the country in a way that is pretty disturbing.
A New York Times blog post about the subject included an excerpt from Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today’s religion blogger, that I thought summed up the screwy aspects of the situation pretty well:
“Imagine your nephew were suddenly orphaned, that strangers took him to another country without looking for you, and arranged for him to be adopted by a family that didn’t accept your faith. Would the Idaho Baptist mission group. . .been [sic] OK with their extended family being whisked away and reared in a nice, safe house by smart, kind people who never mention Christ?”
Find more of that post here. The comments, by the way, get pretty heated.
Or maybe it is just the group’s ignorance that is surprising. They were detained by authorities when the bus carrying the children was stopped at the border to the Dominican Republic and the guards discovered the children had no papers. When the interviewer on the CNN video asks the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, about this, she responds, “This is again probably a misunderstanding on my part, but I did not understand that that would be required.”
It’s hard to understand how such a thing could really just be “a misunderstanding.” But it’s also hard for me to understand people who would join a congregation led by someone who still doesn’t believe reports that claim some of the children had parents, as the AP reports about the Rev. Clint Henry of the Central Valley Baptist Church, where some of the detained Baptists were members. Apparently, his response to the situation was to ask his congregation to “resist the accusations of Satan and the lies that he would want them to believe.”
It makes me think of Under the Banner of Heaven, that really fabulous book by Jon Krakauer, and all of the many very strange things people do in the name of God. It also makes me wonder if these particular Americans really did believe that what they were doing was so unquestionably right thing (I think they probably did), and, if so, what that means about how they should be judged.
More on these topics:
adoption, Baptists, Cathy Lynn Grossman, Central Valley Baptist Church, CNN, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jon Krakauer, Laura Silsby, religion, the New York Times, Under the Banner of Heaven, USA Today
lisbrech says:
The entire story is disturbing on every level. I am a Christian, an adoptive parent, an employee at an adoption agency and a facillitator of trips to serve in other countrys. I think that what they did was unbelievable and demonstrated mind blowing ignorance! They have tarnished the international adoption community, American volunteers in foreign country's, and the Christian community! I am most disgusted with their leader, who had the responsibility to KNOW what is expected and what she was "getting others into!" That being said, I am disgusted with how it is being handled as well. Haiti has over 5000 convicted rapists and killers on the loose and they are spending all kinds of time and energy on this? Really?? Ok, stupid?? YES!! Should they ever be allowed into Haiti again? NO! Should they be fined? Probably! But Jail?? I don't think so!! If they were really smuggling them and child trafficking would they really just take them straight over the border with border control?? NO!! They would have actually smuggled them over the border or something a little more sneaky! Their stupidity and intentions are demonstrated simultaneously at the border! They went over the border like everyone else and were sent back! I am amazed at how little this administration is doing or NOT doing and with ALL of the American money from both the government, non-profit and religious non-profit. I can't believe that we as a country are not a little more disturbed about this! Geraldo Rivera covered this and was outraged by the Haitian government making such a spectacle of this case and refusing to see it for what it was and our gov. not doing enough at all! This was a stupid stupid stupid mistake that carries consequences of not getting to come back to Haiti and having to pay in fines for the time and energy spent on this and that is ALL!! They need to start paying attention to all the women and children getting raped in all their camps and children being kidnapped into sex trafficking and send these idiots home and actually catch the predators stalking their women and children!!!!!!
Dane Dahl says:
Ten Baptists arrested in Haiti: for NOT paying bribes???
Transparency International consistently ranks the Haitian regime as one of the most corrupt on earth and the current influx of financial aid to Haiti can do nothing but fuel criminality on a scale that is unimaginable to people in the United States. The enormous foreign aid already given to Haiti has ignited a feeding-frenzy of bribery and criminality. Now as earthquake aid floods their tiny, backward country, the Haitian government claims ten U.S. Baptists entered their country to engage in child trafficking. What nonsense! The same Haitian government that is making this charge -- is infested with criminals who control a horrendous slave trade called “Restavek”. These Restavek criminals control the courts and the police too: in Haiti the brutal truth is—if you want to do business, even Christian charity business—you should pay bribes, or you might end up in prison!
Dane Dahl, Author and Historian
jonesz says:
Reports are that Government officials in Haiti warned these people when they arrived not to do what they did, because they never hid their intent, so they knew the law, then they broke the law.. It's not an unjust law and I see no argument in these comments making that case. Speculating that the specific people involved here were corrupt, or bringing up the general state of humanity as it pertains to corruption, which pervades all societies for greater reasons than I suspect the previous poster's have even considered before, is pointless to the situation at hand.. It's wrong and unless someone is arguing that kidnappers shouldn't be jailed I mean... Yeah...