Baptists with good intentions

I saw the story about Baptists kidnapping Haitian children over the weekend. The headline seemed odd given what I knew of the situation in Haiti. Apparently, a Baptist group gathered up orphans tried to relocate them to a orphanage in Dominican Republic. In the process, they were arrested for kidnapping. I thought the story sounded like a mistake. I waited before deciding to post. The more I waited, the more it looked like a clown circus, a Baptist clown circus.  These people should not be shocked their arrest. They caused their own problem. It is possible they had good intentions, but their execution was horrible.

While I was in China, the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti was the lead story every hour. It was overwhelming. One story sticks out. A truckload of babies was shown by the BBC. They had nobody to care for them. No baby formula. No diapers. Hell, no mothers, fathers, aunts, or uncles either. They were orphaned with few prospects and sick. The reporter asked, “What are we to do?” The Baptists responded to the call for help. I believe they wanted to help. We must remember this when writing about how poorly they executed their mission.

The Haitian government wants us to believe that criminals are stealing babies for use in the sex trade or for illegal adoption. However, they offer no proof and the media allows them to keep making the assertion as if were fact. At the same time, the Haitian government is doing to little to help the orphans. They have bigger issues and limited capabilities.

The Baptists…. they are well meaning idiots. Only the most incompetent and self-deluded people would think they could pick up a bunch of kids and transport them to a better place across an international border. From what I’ve read, they did not even vet the children to see if they were economic orphans, earthquake orphans, or real orphans in need of a home. No… they mixed their mission. Instead of helping children in need, they instead saw an opportunity to save kids for Christ. It is the same kind of corrupt thinking that causes Christians to think abstinence only education is the answer to teen pregnancy.

Now I see they are resting comfortably in custody waiting for their day in court. Good for them. They need a wakeup call.

U.S. embassy officials visited the Americans over the weekend at a jail near the airport in Port-au-Prince, where they are being detained. They are being treated well and are holding on to their faith, the Americans said

…"God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort," said Carla Thompson, one group member. "We have our Bibles and we are OK."

Is their faith really being tested here? No…

As time passes, the story gets more confusing. Especially when we find out that they did little to find the parents of the children they were tying to help.

"Some of them for sure are not orphans," he told CNN. "Immediately after she arrived here, a girl -- she might be 9 years old -- was crying loudly, 'I am not an orphan, I do have my parents, please call my parents,' " he said.

The cynical voice inside my head keeps telling me to question the Baptist’s story. Were they really trying to help? Or did they see this as an opportunity they could not pass up? I really want to believe the former but I think we will find out the latter is true.

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• Ten Americans Held in Haiti on Child Trafficking Suspicions (inquisitr.com)
• Americans held in Haiti to go to court (cnn.com)
• Baptists Say Members 'Falsely Arrested' in Haiti (nytimes.com)
• US Missionary 'Child traffickers' held in Haiti (harlemworldblog.wordpress.com)

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