Comments on: Baptists Kidnap 33 Haitian Children in the Name of God

By: Intellectual elitism : Ansel Chen Shan Santosa

Intellectual elitism : Ansel Chen Shan Santosa — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:38:20 +0000

[...] more serious note, how about the mother who starved her one year old to death for not saying amen, the Baptists that kidnapped 33 Hatian children in the name of God, the Virginia state delegate who says that disabled children are God’s punishment for [...]

By: rmarc

rmarc — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:25:10 +0000

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

By: Mary Smith

Mary Smith — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:56:40 +0000

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?

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:04:55 +0000

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.”
…
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.
…
“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)

By: Cher

Cher — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:10:49 +0000

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.

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:43:11 +0000

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.

By: crazysquid

crazysquid — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:21:48 +0000

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.

By: Foxdove

Foxdove — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:07:11 +0000

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.

By: PAtheist

PAtheist — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:52:10 +0000

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.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:22:58 +0000

@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.