Did US Baptists 'cross the line'? Gee, ya' think?

Here are two interpretions of the situation regarding the missionaries taking the kids, who already have parents, across the border from Haiti to Santo Domingo. Polar opposite views, but similar in that both are critical of how the missionaries thought they could avoid the proper paperwork regarding orphans.

The 700 Club is critical that they did not seek the proper paperwork. I don't see Pat Robertson exactly standing strong with these missionaries.

For the record, outside of the pastors who supported Laura Silsby, I'm not exactly seeing the Southern Baptists, or any major Christian group, taking a strong stand in favor of her efforts.




This article takes a more tougher stance. It does show how those not affiliated with the Baptist, or evangelical, subcultures view their efforts to 'dominate' the world because it's commanded in the bible. Actually, the great commission doesn't exactly say 'dominate', but that never stopped 'em from trying!

Yes, they were wrong, but to condemn their actions absent the criticism of the arrogance embedded in most Christian (not just fundamentalists, mind you) organizations, is hypocritical.

Article: Did U.S. Baptists Cross the Line Between "Good Intentions" and Child Kidnapping In Haiti? by Michael Rowe.

Excerpts:

> It appears that a significant number of American evangelical Christians believe that the world outside the borders of the United States is little more than their personal Biblical coloring book, with God on one page and the Devil on the opposite page, and bright colors for everything.

> The children in question were not orphans and the Baptists had no right to take them anywhere. One of the children, 9-year old Benatine Poulimé was weeping hysterically and insisting she wasn't an orphan, and that she wanted her mother.

> "I said I wanted to get off the bus," Poulimé said, describing how the missionaries told her that she had to remain. The little girl told CNN that the Baptists loaded her onto the bus just yards from her home. "I was crying. I said I wanted to go to my mother."

> While the desire to "save" the children is admirable, and easy for anyone with a shred of human empathy to relate to, the execution of that impulse, in this particular case and fashion, plays into the most grotesque stereotypes of American arrogance abroad--the notion, however specious, that Americans go where they want, do what they like, and take what they please, be it land, culture, or even, as in this case, children.

> If indeed there are further, harsher clampdown on legitimate foreign adoptions because of this case, the New Life Children's Refuge and the pastors of their respective churches can take some of the blame for the needy, legally adoptable children who may never find loving homes outside their broken country.