Sunday, February 7, 2010

Clinton, Haiti Kidnappings, and Evangelism

A diplomatic deal brokered by Bill Clinton over the 10 American missionaries jailed in Haiti on child abduction charges may lead to the release this week of all except the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, according to legal sources in Port-au-Prince.

A month after Silsby founded what is now being defined as "her" charity, the New Life Children’s Refuge, last November, her Idaho home was repossessed. She also faces several lawsuits over unpaid bills and employee wages relating to an internet business she had founded, PersonalShopper.com.

So, it seems she solicited the help of the church to build the orphanage she was planning in the Dominican Republic. Her plan was to "acquire" children from Haiti to broker at her orphanage and adoptive parent village in DR. She sped her plans up after the quake - perhaps in the belief that she would cash in on all the news coverage and would give hr project free advertising -- people would send her thousands of dollars in donations for her "good deeds."  She got publicity indeed, albeit not the kind she may have sought.

It is not yet clear whether she succeeded in buying the property, but she allegedly told Haitian police that was where she was taking the children. Her father, John Sander, has told reporters that the project was “just in the making”.

Are her followers innocent?  What about ignorance being no excuse?

I agree they should get a lesser sentence than the "ring leader" but not off scott free. 

Focus on the bigger picture, the evangelic push for adoption, Kathryn Joyce has written: "Evangelicals' Adoption Battlecry" at the Daily Best. Definitely one to read!

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