Is Evangelism A Motivation for Stealing Children? Update
Feb 04 2010
View CommentsReligion Central Valley Baptist Church, Central Valley Baptist Church Meridian Idaho, Haiti, Laura Silsby
The Dominican consul general Wednesday rejected the claim from an American church leader that she thought her paperwork was in order when she attempted to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, saying he had told her it was not.
“I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking,” Carlos Castillo said he told the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday.
Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince.
“This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal,” Castillo said.
A CNN reporter attempted to get reaction to Castillo’s comment from the jailed Americans, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to questions by singing “Amazing Grace” and praying.
Told earlier that many of the children had living parents, Silsby said, “I did not know that.”
She added, “In our hearts, our intention was to help children that had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents.”
But the interpreters the group had used said the conversations between Silsby and the parents in the Haitian town of Calebasse made clear to them that Silsby must have been aware of the children’s status.
SOS Children’s Villages, an Austrian charity, said that it has determined that at least two-thirds of the children are not orphans.
Authorities on Wednesday questioned a Haitian police officer who works at the Dominican Embassy about whether he provided illegal paperwork to Silsby and the other Americans to facilitate their efforts as alleged by interpreters who had translated for the Americans…
It seems that the Church group knew what they were doing was illegal.
The group leader is using the “in our hearts” defense to defend their taking children that were not orphans. (as if taking children that WERE orphans was OK)
This defense is often used by religious people to justify most anything. “In my heart” I believe I did the right thing. (right thing being anything and everything from adultery to murder to child stealing.)
Supposedly Americans believe in the rule of law. Even the Christian religion teaches that civil law is to be obeyed. (Romans 13)
While I am not ready to call the Church group traffickers in children I do hope they will drop the phony “we are like the Apostle Paul, in jail for the sake of the gospel, defense.” It is time they own up to their error, confess it, and ask for leniency from the Haitian government.
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