1) The children were not orphans and they knew it and they lied about it.
Parents have come out of the woodwork saying that they entrusted their children to the missionaries out of their desperation to provide for their children. In some cases, they were convinced by brochures they were shown with swimming pools and and other amenities. The place in the brochure was not their destination and by their own admission they had not yet built their "orphanage" or even hired personnel to work with the children.
2) Taking children from loving parents simply because they are poor does not help children or their parents.
The assumption that the children would be better off apart from their parents and in the custody of white Americans is racist, classist and imperialistic. These missionaries showed no interest in Haitian people, culture or society, and have no interest in strengthening Haitian families - counter to the so-called family values trumpeted by social and religious conservatives.
3) There was no orphanage in the Dominican Republic.
The missionaries lied about taking the children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. They had not built or staffed an orphanage, had hired no child care specialists, no one certified to treat traumatized children, or (as far as I can tell) had any medical personnel whatsoever. They had simply rented space in a hotel.
4) The missionaries knew that a letter of permission from a local pastor was insufficient to cross a national border.
The missionaries were told at every turn not to try to take children out of the country without passports and visas. The missionaries knew that they needed passports and visas to cross borders, but claimed white privilege in Jesus' name to kidnap those children - illegally transporting those children under false pretenses and attempting to cross a national border.
5) Neither Jesus nor Haiti needs those kinds of Christians or their dubious help.
Children are the most vulnerable and most impoverished people on this planet and that is particularly the case in Haiti. Helping the poor and disenfranchised, especially when they are children in a central tenet of Christianity. Breaking up their families because their families are poor and desperate and profiting of of children - whether financially or not - is an abomination.
They neither know nor care about the cultural context of Haiti. Their actions actually deepen the problem of restavec children, children who are sent away from their homes to wealthier people, sometimes relatives, in hopes that they will have a better life, at the price of broken homes and frequently broken bodies. Restavec children are regularly physically and sexually abused.
6) These white Christian missionaries demonstrate an unmitigated disdain for black families and culture.
These white Christian missionaries demonstrate the links between white supremacy and Western Christianity. They believe that they have the right to do anything they want with black bodies based on the written word of a white man. They completely disregarded the legal authority of every black Haitian authority who told them something contradictory to their imperialistic desires.
7) White Christianity sanctifies white imperial desire.
Since they decided that what they wanted was good and God-sanctioned, every opposing opinion has been demonized. So the missionaries justify their lies, deceit and crimes in the name of Jesus under the sacred canopy of good intentions and clutch their bibles in their jail cells singing hymns.
I want to know if they would rescue/traffic all of the poor children in Haiti. If they are so committed to poor black children, what are they doing with/for the poor black children in the US? What is their mission plan for the families, parents and sexually active young adults of reproductive age? Will they put an end to sexual reproduction after they have depopulated Haiti of children?
I believe that these children were trafficked, that they were going to be made available for adoption under false pretenses for a fee (based on CNN's reporting). I am horrified by their actions and hope they rot in an underfunded Haitian jail in this life and in hell in the next. And I don't even believe in hell. But for these Christians, hell just ought to be an option.
Update: Eight of the jailed missionaries slipped a note to an NBC producer claiming they were lied to by their leader Laura Silsby. All of the evidence CNN has uncovered points to duplicity and deception on the part of Ms. Silsby. It appears that she misled her own people. She sounds like the worst kind of zealot. Not content with risking her own life, she has endangered the lives and cost the freedom of her trusting co-religionists as she schemed to steal black children to
I hope it's okay if I share your post. You've said many of the things I've thought and felt this week, and put them together in a way people need to read.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Please feel free to share widely.
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