Baptists Kidnap 33 Haitian Children in the Name of God

Apparently, Christian sects are stealing children all over the place. First it was the Mennonites. Now, it’s the Baptists, some of whom are pictured below.

This story is quite possibly more disturbing than the last.

A group of Baptists kidnapped children from Haiti — some of whom were separated from their family because of the devastation there, not because their parents had died — in the name of Jesus.

Ten U.S. Baptists detained trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti without government permission say they were just trying to do the right thing, applying Christian principles to save Haitian children.

…

Prime Minister Max Bellerive on Sunday told The Associated Press that the group was arrested and is under judicial investigation “because it is illegal trafficking of children and we won’t accept that.”

…

The church group’s own mission statement said it planned to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government.

…

“One (8-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, ‘I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.’ And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that,” [orphanage spokesperson George] Willeit said.

It would be so much harder to attack Christians who funnel their donations into food and water and other useful things.

When they mix it with proselytizing, separating kids from their parents, and circumventing the legal system, that becomes the focus and deservedly so.

The group and their church are saying this is all a big misunderstanding. I hope they’re telling the truth, but Christians who proselytize don’t have a good track record when it comes to being honest about their intentions.

When God calls you to a certain mission and a specific action he’s not going to let it fail,” [father of a detainee, Mel Coulter] said. “I’m convinced that nothing will stand in the way of Him accomplishing his purpose through this whole team. I know even as we speak and the 10 people sitting in the Haitian jail are convinced of the same thing.”

That’s not helping. Just stick to the proper story: you wanted to help kids not take them away from their families, you’re willing to go through proper legal channels, you’re not trying to brainwash these kids into your faith, etc.

Unless that’s just not true. In which case, leave these kids alone and just offer your support from a distance.

(Thanks to everyone for the links.)

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DGKnipfer

Maybe some proper jail time for being lying asshats is Dog’s plan.
ScholarlyActor

Wow, that is really sad.

I am dumbfounded…
beckiwithani

Three of those men are my cousins (a first cousin, the husband of another first cousin, and his son). Having known them well for many years (and having been a fundie with them until I was 20), I can safely assure you that they do think they had good intentions.

I have been stuck to the news all day, online and on TV, waiting for more info. I’m worried to death, naturally. But I am also so angry. SO much harm can be done in the name of god, by people who think they are anointed to do the lord’s work. Why not go to Haiti and work with one of the existing NGOs there, one that already has relationships with the Haitian government? But no, they want to start an orphanage which has, as part of its stated mission statement (available on their website, or at least it was until recently) the plan to give the children a Christian education. It’s all about saving souls. And these people got in way, way, way above their heads in their zeal.

They were not trying to kidnap. They thought they were doing the right thing. But they are so insulated, so misguided, so completely blind to the world around their tiny little community … I’ve never been as ashamed of my fundamentalist past as I am today (and that’s saying a lot).

Guess this is what it takes to get me to stop being a lurker on your site – I enjoy it, by the way. (P.S. Sorry if this submitted more than once – keeps giving me an error message when I try to put it through.)
PrimeNumbers

Stealing children is just terrible. Yes indeed, if you want to help orphan children you go through channels and do it properly. There’s no excuse I can see for not doing that.
medussa

Damn this server, just ate my lengthy response…

2nd (shorter) try:

I read about this a yesterday, and it sounded more like a paperwork snafu. Supposedly the kids were already living in an orphanage, and the formal paperwork got lost in the quake craziness. And if that is true, at least the kids are being cared for by people who have their best interests at heart.

BUT, if, as Hemant pointed out, they are as full of shit as so many other proselytizers, I hope they rot in a Haitian jail. For a long, long time….
Demonhype

“When God calls you to a certain mission and a specific action he’s not going to let it fail.”

/ELWOOD BLUES/

They’re not gonna catch us. We’re on a mission from God.

I think we all know how that eventually worked out. 😉
Robster, FCD

Well, if they were following the old testament and had conquered Haiti, then they absolutely would have been following biblical principles.
Hugh Kramer

I’ve been watching this story and the problem seems not to be one of just carelessness about seeing if the children were actually orphans or forgetting to get proper permission. My impression is one of complete arrogance; of people so convinced they were doing God’s work that they couldn’t even conceive of the idea that they might be doing anything wrong or that not everyone would see it their way.

As Laura Silsby, the group’s leader, said after her arrest, “I was going to come back and do the paperwork.”

Right, Laura. God wanted it done that way.
jemand

I feel sorry for the girl in the blue shirt… I believe 18 and therefore a legal adult, but just look at the expressions in the photo, of the self satisfied smug adults, and contrast them with her… Obviously not the one calling the shots, or even probably having any say in the operation at all. They didn’t just steal other people’s children, they forced their own to be criminals.
beckster

I hope they get put in jail. This is child trafficking and as an adoptive parent of a child born in another country it angers me to no end that these people would dare to try to separate these children from their biological families.
Victor

I’ve been seeing weird comments on message boards lately that seem to be under the impression that all the parents in Haiti are dead and the kids down there need to be rescued. I wonder if there’s a meme traveling through the Christian communities that the Haitian children need to be “rescued” by Christians.
Erp

To Medussa,

I believe in Haiti many children in orphanages don’t lack parents or other relatives but they are there because the relatives lack at that time the ability to feed them properly and better the orphanage for a time than starving. The relatives probably hope to reclaim them when they can.

Haiti also had a major problem even before the quake of children being adopted without their parents’ consent.
PsiCop

I’m not buying the “it’s a little paperwork snafu” line. The group claims it went and got all the proper permissions from the Dominican Republic in order to set up their “orphanage.” This indicates not only that they’re aware they need permission from the countries they’re in, to do what they plan to do, it also means they possessed the skill and knowledge to have successfully navigated the bureaucracy of at least one of them (i.e. the D.R.).

But at the same time they claim they had all the needed permissions from the D.R., they simultaneously claim not only that they needed none from Haiti, they never even bothered to look into it.

Sorry but it doesn’t work. It’s not consistent. It makes no sense for them to have worked so extensively with the D.R. government, but to have done absolutely nothing with Haiti.

A more likely explanation is this: They simply hoped to scoop up the kids and be out of Haiti before anyone was the wiser. Since they would be staying in the D.R. at least for a while, they made sure they got the D.R.’s permission. But if they planned to be in Haiti only for a few days or maybe a week, long enough to gather up 100 kids or so, they didn’t bother getting any permissions since (they expected) they wouldn’t be around long enough to get caught.

That’s the way it looks to me anyway.
Judith Bandsma

But this is not the first time christians have actively stolen children they consider to have been born into demonic families.

Starting right here at home with native american children taken to be educated by ‘civilized’, christian groups. Ditto Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

And anywhere in the last 20 years that there’s been a disaster in a country with mainly brown, non-christian populations, charges have been made of child stealing. This just happens to be the first group that’s been caught.
village1diot

This group got caught. It makes me wonder how many other groups did not. Parents looking for their children, thinking they are dead. And for all the suffering the parents have to go through, the children are going to have to suffer an almost as bad a fate, “Bible Belt Christians”

I hope they all get life in a Haitian prison. They are sick, sick people and don’t need to be among us.
Sakura

“When God calls you to a certain mission and a specific action he’s not going to let it fail,” [father of a detainee, Mel Coulter]”

>_> so…if that’s the case…why are there 10 of the Baptists sitting in jail and being charged with crimes…wouldn’t their god have prevented them from being found out or something so they could complete their so called “mission”?
jemand

@village1diot all of them, life in prison? I agree some should get that, but… that’s a group of 10 people. In one report, there was a mother and daughter, 18. Tell me you think that girl raised in bible belt Christian home really had any choice or was calling *any* of the shots? There are leaders and followers, and I am not at all convinced that *all* of these people deserve life in prison, in fact, I would be quite surprised if that were actually the case.
Jenny Bliss

hmm well to be fair the whole ‘i was just a follower’ wouldnt be a valid exuse, hasnt been since the nuremberg trials both in military action and civil actions, thats basicly remained unchanged more or less, that said basing it on our own news here, it seems as if there wasnt any malicious intent (i mean as if they were the other kind of child trafficers) but they did openly lie about having permission at the border which aint exactly gonna help them wat ever happened to ‘thou shalt not lie’ heh ahh wait i forgot about that, the rules only apply to other people right?
Ex Partiot

They need to be booted out on their collective asses to make room for some people that will actually do some good. Haiti does not need a bunch of worthless godbots right now
beckiwithani

I have to agree with what Hugh Kramer says – this problem stems not from a malicious intent to kidnap children, but from “pure arrogance.” However, part of their intent was certainly to convert these children – and while they don’t consider that malicious, I do.

It’s been interesting watching my family on Facebook and the blogosphere as they prepared for this trip (see my previous comment for my relationship with 3 of these 10 individuals.) Lots of posts about “Yeah, things in Haiti are awful, but here’s this one example of someone coming to the Lord, which makes it all okay…”

My dad wrote a blog post yesterday about his 3 nephews, asking for his readers’ prayers as they go before a judge today. His post begins, “I suppose it’s inevitable that, in certain circumstances, right actions lead to painful consequences.” It took me many years (even after losing my faith) to be able to clearly see the arrogance portrayed in statements like this, which my Southern Baptist pastor father has been making my whole life. How, as he has been watching the news, can he still call these actions “right”? But, of course, to doubt it would put him on a slippery slope, since God told my cousins to go on this trip…
Carlie

It’s arrogance in a lot of ways – not just that their version of Christianity is better, but that America and their middle-class lives are better than anything the children could have in Haiti. Basically, it’s an attitude that the children would be better off with money than with their real families, in their home culture; it also feeds into a personal saviour complex, that they are such good people for sharing their lives with a refugee. It’s nasty cultural imperialism when you scratch the surface on top of the Christian superiority bit.

If they really wanted to help, they’d roll up their sleeves and help clean up in Haiti, and help families get reunited, and fund agencies that help spur economic development there. But of course, that takes sacrifice without being able to parade a cute little brown kid they saved off at church every Sunday.
Lagunatic

@ beckiwithani
I’m glad you got to the point where you ‘saw the light’, but I’m sorry to say, I really hate your cousins. This kind of thing makes me very angry and spiteful. I can get along with people of faith until this do shit like this…REAL harm.
Jeff P

I agree that it is arrogance. They should be helping the Hatian people help themselves. Not trying to “save” them.
beckiwithani

@Lagunatic I don’t find hate to be particularly helpful when dealing with True Believers (just encourages them to feel persecuted), but I know where you are coming from. I still haven’t quite sorted out the mixture of anger, horror, shame, and worry that has been roiling inside me since I woke up to this news yesterday morning.

If I didn’t know these people personally (and their families, temporarily (?) abandoned to this reckless endeavor), my only real emotion would just be royally pissed off. But I do love my family, even when angered by them … so there’s a lot of anxiety mixed into this situation for me. It’s a weird cognitive dissonance.
Frank

I have to wonder, can a meaningful distinction be drawn between this and the actions of a certian judge in Texas a couple of years ago with regard to several hundred children of FLDS parents? Cause I know I supported that judge.
jemand

@Jenny Bliss, that surprises me… I thought in cases such as medical neglect, there was some legal work done to see whether the parents were equally culpable, or if one was the instigator and the other just failed to stop it. There are differing levels of jail time for sex abuse and the partner who just didn’t stop it. There should be a legal understanding of the very personal dynamics of an overbearing and arrogant middle aged mother and her barely legal-adult child, who she’s brainwashed for her entire childhood. If there *isn’t* such a legal distinction, our laws are incredibly unfair.

I also wonder if their fundraisers and supporters in the states should also be held culpable to some extent… raising money for terrorism is a crime, wouldn’t raising money for kidnapping also be?
Jeff P

The facts seem perfectly clear to me. God sent them on a mission of mercy to save those kids from almost certain temptation by the devil. With God’s help and guidance they almost completed their mission when the forces of evil conspired to interrupt their plans and keep the kids within the dominion of the voodoo practicing devil worshipers. Even though the faithful Baptists are currently detained in jail within Haiti, they have the satisfaction that the Lord is with them and is still walking besides them. I’m sure as Fox News concentrates on this story, the Baptists will eventually be released and return home as God’s champions (and heroes) and will eventually find themselves involved with saving children during a future natural disaster area (which is really just an opportunity given by the Lord for saving children against the forces of evil, false religions, and godless atheists).
/sarcasm
Ted W

lol at Jeff, tying these self righteous fundis. with Fox news
Ted W

@ Becki, I admire your strength and courage to follow your convictions. I am sure your decisions have caused a lot of alienation from your family. You are a strong and caring individual and with this situaation going on involving your family, it must be a very trying time right now in your life. Hang in there and best of luck to you
beckiwithani

@Ted, thank you. I really appreciate your words.
mingfrommongo

Haiti is under martial law during this emergency. There are no courts to sentence these kidnappers or prisons to hold them. They’re lucky that it’s the U.S. military doing the enforcement.

This group arrived in Haiti on Thursday, and were arrested on Friday. How much effort could they have made to identify 33 orphans and get their paperwork in order? Stupid. Arrogant. Illegal. And now some of our government officials will be busy rescuing them instead of helping the victims of the earthquake. The Palermo protocols (the international law against human trafficking) have been ratified by the U.S., but I’ll bet that our State Department invents some new song-and-dance to avoid punishing these criminals. That would be a shame.

beckiwithani, please understand that my cognitive dissonance is that I believe that kidnappers should be punished, while I wish you and yours a quick end to your anxiety.
Shannon

beckiwithani, I’m sorry for what you’re going through. It’s hard to know what to think when family does stupid stuff that gets them in trouble like this.

As to the situation – for everything I’ve read so far it doesn’t sound malicious, just stupid and, yes, arrogant. Which doesn’t mean I think they should be let go scot-free, but I don’t think life in prison is the answer either.

And that picture – that girl in blue is 18? Wow. She looks so much younger to me. Poor kid.
Spiffy McTankerous

All religions terrify me.

Now, I’m talking about and organized group of people “making converts” “spreading the word” “doing the bidding of whatever their version of a supreme being is”. They’re just plain dangerous to the health and welfare of our planet.

I mean, we’re talking about fictitious deities constructed to waylay the fears of fellow villagers, means of imposing control over a group of people. It’s all so obvious that none of it can be possible, yet the forevermore argument will continue and wars and crimes will continue to be committed by people who are deluded into believing that they are right and just.

By their hands our world is doomed, unless common sense prevails and religious zealots see the light and discontinue the paths they keep being told they must walk.
muggle

This is getting to be a scary trend.
Valerie

Hello, I happened upon this sight researching reports on suspected kidnappings of Haitian kids. I share the opinions of almost all of you here. But what gripes me the most, is that I have read some reports of planes flying out of Haiti with some of the children on them. Since our U.S. military has pretty much commandeered the Haitian airport, is it not safe to assume that these likely kidnappings are being done with the knowledge of the U.S. military? I can’t imagine the horror stories these poor kids will have a few years down the road.

Is it not bad enough these children have been separated from their parents (who may be dead) and have endured a major disaster? To be plucked out of the center of it by people wishing to harm them or “brainwash” them shows that we are not evolving toward anything higher as a species, we are digressing to a Barbarian era.
starkwe

I don’t see anything benevolent about these actions at all. The idea that kids have to be saved from their Catholic or voodoo practicing parents is horrendous.

A letter published in Time calls for the US to step in and re-culture Haiti because otherwise they will continue to believe in voodoo and magic. It’s the same sort of arrogance there.
Vlad

Looks like religiots are running out of kids to faith-heal. All of their previous “patient’s” died of easily treatable and non-life-threatening illnesses, so they decided to import some to practice their “power of prayer” on. Dangerous delusional criminals, every single one of them.
OneHandClapping

Since most of the folks involved in this are from right here in Idaho, it’s all over the news – especially the local news. My wife (not originally from Idaho, or the US for that matter) sits in astonishment at hearing what happened as the story unfolds. She keeps saying “What the hell were they thinking?! You can’t just go to another country and start funneling children across international borders whenever you want!”. I took care to explain to her that there were two prevalent factors involved here:

1. Gawd told them to do it. Therefor, they are right (in their own minds) no matter what some silly Haitian authority claims.

2. They are (comparatively) rich white folk saving po’ black folk from themselves. If rich white folk don’t save them, who will?

Arrogant first world religious folks FTL. I certainly don’t wish them any ill will, but I hope they understand what they did was wrong, and pay appropriately for it.
Alex

This is actually exactly what happened to bring my adopted stepbrother, Doug, to the US about 12 years ago. Christian groups (in this case a local Church in Eastern Washington that was part of a missionary organization/network) literally go to developing countries and steal children. They steal them. From their parents and families. And drag them here. Doug is now sitting out a stretch in court-mandated rehab because, when he got here, his first “parents” didn’t realize he had a developmental delay, the church didn’t have the resources to help, and they put him out on the street.

So yeah, they’ll know you are Christians by your… stealing children and forcing them into poverty and crime in a country far away from their parents
Linda

The whole thing gives me the creeps. They should be ashamed of themselves, re-traumatizing those kids for their own selfish gain. Opportunistic vultures.
Fernando Marin

who said a “christian education” is what these children need?! im tired of ridiculous christians acting out in the name of the lord…if they truely cared and wated to help, they would have done things the proper way. The Crusades were also inspired by the those who wanted to do the “Right thing.”
kate

Intent does not even matter. What if these were your children? My children? We only know that these people broke laws and they must be held accountable for their actions. How dare anyone kidnap someone’s child. That is a horrific crime. I do hope the 18 year old is evaluated regarding her culpability. Attempted kidnapping is a serious crime. If I were the judge I would put an end to this “God’s work” defense in a NY minute.
anti_supernaturalist

Attempted alien abduction!

They descended from Idaho — sick, demented life forms with a dark cosmic worldview.

Well-nourished pasty white ugly dwellers of Ameristan, The Arrogant and Ignorant.

“Evil be thou our Good!” and lo! all was accomplished for they did evil and called it good.

What did you expect from xians? Intelligent design?
Cory

You kinda know Christian missionaries are child stealing creeps when 20/20 does a series on affluent baby boomers that is mostly geared towards Christian ideals and ruminates on a future scenario that involves large families where most of the kids in the future household are for someone else without giving a reason on why a future household would become that way.
Cory

It may not be 20/20 I saw that documentary on but it was creepy.
ELBSeattle

I, like Becki, lived through years of fundie xtianity. It took years to pull myself out. It was a world all unto itself, which viewed any opposing viewpoints as irrelevant at best and downright satanic at worst. Which is to say: if anyone disagreed with the pastor, s/he was called out, and often forced to have ‘demons driven’ from them. I was told I had many such demons, which were responsible for everything from laughing to enjoying jazz. (I’m not making this up.) Any closed system (i.e. fundie xtianity) grows stagnant. When all one knows is the rotten air one breathes, one can commit any number of atrocities and they will look rational, even ‘godly.’ Becki, congratulations on getting out.
Radz

I HAAAAAATE christian pieces of crap like this…
david

Your article title is deliberately misleading. Shame on you. I read your articles from time to time and you chose to write the title to be shocking. This was done with ill intent and is in poor taste. The title and many of the comments show the hatred and fear so many of you have of believers. (Please do not bother responding on how your hatred is justified. I am a christian and I too have serious problems with certain religions, beliefs, people and sects so I do understand and agree with some of the fear and hatred. Some of your more simple commenters should take care to direct their animosity against the beliefs, actions and philosophies not against the individuals.)

You equate them with what the Mennonites did. You know better than that but you are being evil. I do not believe that you believe these people went there to kidnap children. The Mennonites were well aware of the law being broke.

One of your commenters said they were arrogant and by-passed the paper work. If that were true I would agree with him and you but that does not seem to be the case. Not ALL of them were responsible for the paperwork. Most were likely in the dark about the technicalities and were there to help how the could. it is apparent to me that the problem lies with Laura Silsby, she did not file or receive the proper documentation. If the others were unaware of this they are not culpable.

@ beckiwithani, thank you for adding some sensibility to this article.

@kate, Intent is the difference between manslaughter and murder. Intent matters.
lebigmac

And i thought the christian organization that sent useless solar powered bible audiobooks that cost over 92000$ as “relief” was bad…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdPNT5he1rs

Seriously. They just cant see it from another perspective. If muslims were caught doing this, christians were the first to go ballistic about this
FallenKnight

Of course these fine people were doing the Lord’s work! I think they were just following rules set down by the Almighty Himself:
Leviticus 25:44-46

Might as well get em young & get more use & value!
Goose

Did they forget “thou shall not steal (other peoples children)?”
Bob

@david,
Let me get this straight: An insular group of religious zealots from Idaho arrives in earthquake-ravaged Haiti on Thursday, rounds up a bunch of kids (allegedly orphans, but with sparse documentation) and gets arrested trying to cart them across a national boundary the next day.

What part of “Baptists Kidnap 33 Haitian Children in the Name of God” is inaccurate or sensationalist? The group is admittedly Baptist and claims to be told by God to do what they’re doing. They tried moving 33 Haitian children across a national border with no paperwork. I expect it would take more than 48 hours to get permission to move 33 unrelated children across state lines in the US in non-disaster conditions – as foreign nationals in a poor nation operating under martial law due to disaster conditions, they expected faster approval?

So unless they are skull-implodingly stupid, I can only conclude they were counting on the chaos in Haiti to let them avoid whatever proper channels & protections exist for moving these kids out of the country. So yes, “kidnap” sounds very much like the proper word to use for what they were doing. The words “traffic” or “smuggle” might work just as well.

Why the rush? Why not work with an existing aid agency? Surely there are plenty of existing in-country orphanages the kids could be placed with. Granted, those orphanages are probably Catholic-run given the history of Haiti as a French colony and the Baptist view of Catholics is well known. But surely they could have placed the kids in an in-country orphanage or at least kept them cared for in-country while they made arrangements for a legal movement out of the country.

So no, David, this is not sensationalized believer-bashing. A bunch of extremely stupid or moderately evil people tried absconding with a bunch of kids for whatever reason and got busted. Their religion is irrelevant aside from providing motivation and a thin excuse for unbelievably bad behavior. That many many others have engaged in similar bad behaviors and have similarly used this religion in the same way – as motivation and weak justification – it is completely reasonable to ask if there’s something about this religion that drives otherwise normal people into taking incredibly stupid or evil actions.
PAtheist

From CNN, “Some of the detained Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters said Wednesday that they were present when group members spoke with the children’s parents. Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children over to the Americans, who promised them a better life and who said they could see their children whenever they wanted to.”

I believe that would be considered trafficking regardless of whether their intentions were good.
Foxdove

The world is meaningless, there is no God or gods, there are no morals, the universe is not moving inexorably towards any higher purpose. All meaning is man-made, so make your own, and make it well. Do not treat life as a way to pass the time until you die.
Do not try to “find yourself”, you must make yourself. Choose what you want to find meaningful and live, create, love, hate, cry, destroy, fight and die for it. Do not let your life and your values and you actions slip easily into any mold, other that that which you create for yourself, and say with conviction, “This is who I make myself”.
Do not give in to hope. Remember that nothing you do has any significance beyond that with which imbue it. Whatever you do, do it for its own sake. When the universe looks on with indifference, laugh, and shout back, “Fuck You!”. Remember that to fight meaninglessness is futile, but fight anyway, in spite of and because of its futility.
The world may be empty of meaning, but it is a blank canvas on which to paint meanings of your own. Live deliberately. You are free.

Let the bastards stay in jail and say that they are being rescued from their dementia.

The Jesus thing to do; my arse.
crazysquid

If ANY of you have ever been to Haiti, before the quake, then you would understand the UGLY truth behind this tiny little split-country island (Border with the D.R.)
These people HATE Americans and all that America stands for. They are absolutely one of those countries that DO NOT WANT Democracy. They have been living in a semi-martial law state for years since Papa Doc lost power. And for those of you who do not know who he was, GOOGLE him. They practically worshiped this sick piece
of waste material.
The people have been trying to join the Cuban nation for years, in so much so that the Hatian refugees were NOT trying to make it to the U.S. but to Cuba. Cuba thought so highly of them that they had a “Sink On Sight” policy that I witnessed while serving in the U.S. Navy engaged in LEO Op’s. (Ask A Sailor). We had the misfortune of anchoring in their coastal waters to drop off Detainees that the Coast Guard picked up because there were 70 people on a craft that was designed for 10, and they were in peril. (Our mission is also to first,last and always render aid to those in peril)
Not only did we have to stage repel border alert, man all the guns and watch every side of the ship, but as soon as we turned over the “Prisoners of the Haitian State” they took them to shore, out of sight and executed each and every one of them.(In the Haitians eyes, if you desert from your country, you are an enemy of the state, and that is automatic execution. We stopped taking the “Haitian Boat People” back to Haiti and opened up a Detention Center in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, hence forcing the removal of all military dependents to leave the little chunk of paradise to accommodate all the Haitian people that heard they actually CAN escape to Cuba. Castro said to shoot on sight, so we had to take them. The Haitian government has no respect for human life. If you think China is over populated, then go to Haiti and see what it’s like to live everyday like it was people-rush hour in New York City. The quasi government has been looking for ways to thin out the population for years, It’s only their luck that Mother nature did it for them, and as the Ex-President George Bush said on national T.V. “The Haitian Government does not want your food or blankets, they need your money”. He was dead on right. The HAITIAN GOVERNMENT wants YOUR money. Not to give to the “Poor” (They were always poor)But to boost their own pocket books.
Heather

If these idiots were doing God’s work, then it’s even more serious than I thought. God’s work, according to the “Bible”, was to let his own son get nailed to the cross, then call the rest of us sinners. Oh really, Great Invisible Master? What a bunch of crapola. I can’t believe how many people are still buying into it all. Whenever I think of the Bible (and yes, I read it years ago to educate myself) I am reminded of the age-old classic book, The Emperor’s New Clothes….If you recall, he was told that only “fools” could not see his new finery, but when the whole town came out and laughed their collective heineys off, he started to wonder….then if memory serves me well, he came home and looked in the mirror and couldn’t see them either!!! What a great story that is. I truly wish that religion will someday be seen for what it is….a fairytale so removed from reality, and so full of death, betrayal, and nonsense, It’s hard to imagine that anyone with a brain can believe it as fact. The “immaculate conception?” Hello!!!I would like to mention on more important detail in this child kidnapping scenario. The “troubled teen industry in this country is the secondest largest growing and money making industry in the nation, our nation” I am a freelance journalist who has been researching this topic for several years. The Dominican Republic is home of thousands of these “boot camps” for teens and young children. Most all of them are run by Christians, Baptists, and are quite lucrative. The parents of these so-called unruly kids send them off to these countries, and take out life insurance policies on them beforehand. Nobody knows just how many of these kids have died…it is truly the silent Halocaust. Tranquility Bay in Jamaica is particularly gruesome. Kids are locked in closets, tortured, sexually abused and turned into robots, trained to turn on each other and receive special treatment for doing so. Thousands of these kids have committed suicide or been killed at the hands of Jamaicans, Dominicans, who are just happy to have a job of anykind. The so-called orphanage that these kids were going to was a “hotel” in DR. That is exactly how Tranquility Bay started, in an old abandoned hotel. WWASP is the organization which started this horror. It stands for World Wide Association of Specialty Progams. Do some research on the web and you’ll start to understand what this is really about. It is definitely child trafficking, brainwashing, abduction and sale of children, not to mention money made from insurance policies taken out after adoption. If you think this sounds crazy, think again. It’s a huge industry that many people know about..but feel powerless to stop. Thanks for letting me have my say.
Cher

In the baptist fanatics defence, Haiti is the poorest country in all the Americas. Their government is corrupt, and their standard of living is aweful. Their orphanages are probably ill staffed, and ill run, without many necessities needed to properly care for children. On top of that the Haitian government is notoriously unwilling to allow inter country adoption even under normal circumstances. So yeah, these radicles were trying to circumvent the obstacles and get the children into a better situation, and I can totally understand that. I wouldn’t wish a Haitian Jail sentance on anyone but child molesters and murderers.
Steve

I heard about this event yesterday and began to research it today. As I read all the posts before mine, I pictured how easy it us for those of us posting here to vent about our feelings and complain about what is going on in the world around us when most of us could care less about leaving our comfortable lives here in the US or where ever you reside and actually going to help those in need in Haiti. I understand that if many of you had the opportunity to go I would imagine that you wouldn’t. Ask yourself right now that if you were given the opportunity to go to Haiti to help, would you? Many of you could obviously not go because of family and other things that would hold you back. Sure, I’ll admit it was easy for me to get upset and shake my head at those “kidnappers.” However, if they really are kidnappers than they definitely deserve to face the punishment that the government will place on them. However, if these 10 people had the documents needed and something perhaps fell through with the Haitian gov. or paperwork was misplaced, then I would imagine that many people would need to apologize for the statements made.
I feel that the only reason this story has received so much hype is mainly the word “Baptist” in the headline. This made me think more about it (I just took out the word Baptist & inserted it with “people” & deleted any affiliation of church groups/words.:

Ten “people” detained trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti without government permission say they were just trying to do the right thing, applying principles to save Haitian children.

…

Prime Minister Max Bellerive on Sunday told The Associated Press that the group was arrested and is under judicial investigation “because it is illegal trafficking of children and we won’t accept that.”
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The group’s own mission statement said it planned to spend only hours in the devastated capital, quickly identifying children without immediate families and busing them to a rented hotel in the Dominican Republic without bothering to get permission from the Haitian government.
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“One (8-year-old) girl was crying, and saying, ‘I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.’ And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that,”

It’s obvious that the media needed to hype this with religion to get ratings/attention. The truth will come out and I am definitely looking forward to seeing what will happen. Please comment on what you think about this post. I have so much more to say but I’ll leave room for others. Thank you.
-S.R. (Follower of Christ)
Mary Smith

Imagine what would have happened if, after Hurricane Katrina, Haitian Voodoo Priests prowled New Orleans, snatched random children off the streets and smuggled them out to Mexico.

How could they think that child-snatching-for-Jesus is any different?
rmarc

I hope the US government minds it’s business for ONCE!