Summary
WASHINGTON - Anyone sitting in a dank, fetid Haitian jail for any reason probably deserves at least a measure of sympathy, so in that sense I feel sorry for the Baptist missionaries from Idaho charged with kidnapping 33 "orphans" and trying to take them out of the country. But what the do-gooders allegedly did was not just misguided. It could be criminal, and Haitian authorities are right to hold them accountable.
Even in the midst of a terrible natural disaster, spiriting away a busload of kids in that manner - with vague plans to worry about the "paperwork" later - is no act of charity. The missionaries' misadventure can only make the work of those truly interested in the welfare of neglected or abandoned children more difficult.See the full content of this document
Extract
No Act of Charity: The Arrested Baptists in Haiti
It doesn't help the missionaries' case that their leader, 40- year-old Laura Silsby, has, according to The Idaho Statesman, "a history of failing to pay debts, failing to pay employ...
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