I’m heading out the door, but given the interest in the Idaho Southern Baptist do-gooders who headed down to Haiti to help children and wound up arrested, I want to post this update.
A Haitian attorney says 10 Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the Jan. 12 earthquake have been charged with child kidnapping.
Edwin Coq says the Americans also are charged with criminal association.
It appears the leader of the group, Laura Silsby (I cannot use the term missionaries) was to be in an Idaho court next week.
The group will be tried in Haiti and if convicted will face lengthy jail terms. They were arrested January 31 at the Dominican Republic border with a busload of children. BBC
Jean Sainvil, a Baptist minister who helped the group take children is back in Georgia.
Early reports also say they have been charged with conspiracy.
If convicted they could face up to 9 years in jail.
They are tried before a judge, it can take up to three months for a verdict.
Maybe I’m too squeamish, and I am just as appalled at this fiasco as anyone, make no mistake, but I’m thinking long jail sentences for colossal blind stupidity, under chaotic conditions too it must be remembered, is a bit much? Unless they had deliberate criminal intent, which doesn’t seem to be the case here as far as I can see, unless I missed something. I’m wondering what the justice system is like in Haiti, hope it’s better than in some 3rd world countries, and I hope it can function properly given the post-earthquake conditions there. Maybe a more fitting punishment would be a few weeks in stocks in the public square where everyone could throw rotten tomatoes at these numbskulls.
I feel sorry for these people. They let emotion run ahead
of reason and became hostage to their feelings.
There was no leader or mentor to guide them or
dissuade them from even venturing into the very
unsettled situation that is the Haiti of today.
These people are going to experience a rough
patch in their lives and it’s entirely their own fault.
Many times when there is a call for help, the
response isn’t always thought through before
stirring to action.
Why their church and the larger Church didn’t
provide leader/mentorship is beyond me.
I wonder also just how many older Haitians
are remembering the Marine occupation and
the American plundering of the Haitian through
most of the 20th century.
And these people expect service on a platter
as has been reported by various sources?
The issue of leadership is a very good point – who was responsible for adequately preparing the missionaries, who was resonsible for the legal aspects of this endeavour, etc, and will they be held legally accountable? It’s a very common practice with many churches for inexperienced, ordinary members of their congregation to go on church-organized “missions trips” outside their own country, many of them quite young – surely there must be more experienced leadership who would bear a certain amount of responsiblity in such cases? Haven’t had the time to look into this too deeply, but from what I’ve seen, the whole thing seems like it’s just a bungled, amateurish attempt to do something that needed more competent know-how. If so, I just hope it all gets sorted out in a fair and just way.
Haiti, according to some newspapers, has a big problem with not only abduction of children but also child prostitution, and all that that entails. Pick on the weak. There is therefore a predator mentality that lurks within its borders. Africa, with its problem of Aids, is finding itself in the quagmire of horror with children being used because of there ‘purity’. Pick on the weak. The streets of most capital city’s are paved with child pornography, and the abuse of innocence in all its forms. Pick on the weak.
It makes us feel better to pick on the weak.
If Haiti is not careful then they will pick on the weak in this situation ie; the Americans ( for were they not also found to be weak) and deflect the horror there that Haiti itself has found defeating it.
There is a huge problem in every land of the weak being bullied and abused by those that are ‘stronger’. America has done its share of bullying and may now in turn be getting some itself. The backlash of the ‘hobnailed’ boots may take years to surface but you can bet that at some point it will. Missionaries are no doubt well intentioned people, but thats not enough.
Americas cultism has been, for years rumoured and had witness statements filed that children are being abused within its ‘walls’. India has a child welfare problem and so on. We are all in a mess of one sort or another whether we like to admit it or not.
So in Acts we see and hear of Jesus taking that which holds captives.
He was sayng during that time CLEAN UP YOUR ‘ACTS’. (and did so for them as he ‘walked’)
Its time as individuals, families, nations that we took a long hard look at ourselves and asked the Lord to SPRING CLEAN US good and proper so that what we carry does not trip up another and that the ‘vomit’ of our own lives does not clothe anothers.
There are an awful lot of American people and dollars in Haiti right now helping out in a right way after an earthquake America didn’t cause, maybe these American missionaries will reap a little of the mercy their compatriots are sowing. They reminded me of deer caught in the headlights when I saw them on the news last night.
There are not only good and effective US citizens on the ground, they’ll go about their work well and not get public attention. They don’t have time to read about clueless interlopers who are being fed, kept safe, have access to lawyers, diplomats and medical attention, and have a roof over their heads.
I am negligent in calling the 10 charged as Idaho Southern Baptists, one gentleman is from a church not affiliated with the SBC, Bethel Baptist Church in Topeka; and another is from a SBC affliate – Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo.
This group did not act with permission or co-operation with the SBC NAMB (North American Mission Board) or the SBC IMB (International Mission Board).
The organization set up by Laura Silsby is not a missions group.
Calling them missionaries (or the group self-identifying as such) does not make them missionaries.
I like what Richard Hall at connexions says:
“I’m sure their hearts were in the right place and they went to Haiti with the best of intentions. But you can’t just take children. You can’t.”
If an SBC church want to give or sanction a supposed leadership position to someone in legal financial trouble in the US, that’s their choice. And it was the choice of the others in the group to follow the leader.
Decisions about their actions are now in the hands of the Haitian justice system and the US State Department.
Hundreds of thousands are injured, hundreds of thousands are hungry, hundreds of thousands have no home.
All of us had a decision to make about how best we could and can help, and I have never seen such a well managed message getting out to the world on ways we can be effective after this catastrophic disaster.
And 10 do gooders who didn’t seem to bother to read a wiki page or the US State Department travel advisory, grab children and grab headlines.
Laura Silsby seems to be a law unto herself and needs a reality check and possibly a psychiatrist – where was her church oversight? Nevertheless, given the desperate and chaotic conditions on the ground there, and assuming they weren’t intending to profit from these kids in any God-forsaken way, I can’t see they deserve a long jail sentence. Good grief, I think there are enough real criminals there who are deliberately and knowingly exploiting the situation and children in unspeakable ways – how unfortunate Haiti’s police/court system is having to waste precious resources on something relatively idiotic like this at such a time. Maybe it would be doing Haiti a big favour to extradite these people home and let America’s courts deal with this mess.
How much of the Pat Robertson hype/hysteria and myth on curse of the Devil has played a role here?
I’ve been trying to locate online the church mission statement for this small community.
Was the flight response related more to proselytizing of youth than physical rescue?
I’m aware of the animosity which exists in certain circles of Protestant/Baptist thought towards anything outside their realm of understanding (tradition). Most especially those of note are pseudo-Christianity, pagan religions and the grand daddy of fundamentalist fears… Catholicism.
How innocent are these folks if their ethos is so unclear? Are we witnessing one more Landover flavor of Baptist? hoping the authorities get to the bottom of this!
Come on people, unless these people were really stupid I cannot see how they thought to go into another country and just help themselves to the children there. Good motives or not they had to know this was WRONG without the government’s permission. My 14 and 16 year old grandchildren even knew it was wrong. I think this church needs to train their people to have the same respect for other countries’ laws that they would want for their own. They were wrong and knew exactly what they were doing. They were even warned by a reporter and still went ahead and tried to do it.
Great Idaho Southern Baptists charged with child kidnapping in Haiti at Bene Diction Blogs On blog looking forward to reading more from you. Welcome First time bounded here on your site, founde on ASK. I do thank you with all my heart for sharing such wonderful words with me. I am taking your thoughts into consideration. It’s great to receive a neutral point of view for a change. Thank you again homestretch