\nThe term "trafficking in children" conjures up the worst of all possible scenarios…bad people taking children away from their families for nefarious purposes, such as the labor or sex trade.\n<\/p>\n
\nBut can children be trafficked for religious purposes by deeply misguided people who think they are doing "good?"\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nAccording to the United Nations, human trafficking is defined as<\/a>:<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe \nAs I hear more about the story of the group of Baptist church members from two congregations in Idaho that attempted to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic without papers and absent any legal process, it strikes me that in fact they were trafficking these children for religious purposes.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe first reports on the group suggested that the children were orphans and that the American Baptist group was "just trying to help."\u00a0 According to the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>:\n<\/p>\n \n\tOne of the detained Baptists, Laura Silsby, told the Associated Press \nBut the road to hell is, as they say, paved with good intentions, and this response struck me, from the beginning, as deeply naive and even dangerous.\u00a0 Even if the children were orphaned and even if the country was devastated by an earthquake, you do not–you can not–just parachute in from Idaho and take children out of their country with no process, no permission, no legal review, no effort to find or communicate with any living relatives just because you think it is the right thing to do.\n<\/p>\n \nIt turns out, however, that most if not all of the children were not orphans and in fact have relatives–parents, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, grandparents–alive\u00a0 in Haiti.\u00a0 Some had been separated from their families in the aftermath of the earthquake, some may have lost one or both parents but still had extended family.\u00a0 Some had been brought by their own parents to orphanages where, the parents apparently hoped, they would get priority for scarce food supplies. In the aftermath of such a devastating national disaster, people do what they can to survive until they can regain a stable footing.\u00a0 Placing children in orphanages is one such strategy.\n<\/p>\n \nBut the Baptist group went one further, because they were actually in direct contact with the parents of some of the children.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tSeveral parents of the children in Callebas, a quake-wracked Haitian \nWhat possessed the American Baptist group to try take them away from parents likely still in shock, and out of the country so swiftly, without permission from authorities?\u00a0 Religious beliefs, it seems, drove this group to feel it was above the law, but also to take these children for the purpose of converting the children to their own form of Christianity.\n<\/p>\n \nAbout half of all Haitians identify as Roman Catholic<\/a>, \nThe majority of Haitians, however, practice voodoo alongside \nThe voodoo religion, adopted from practices in Africa brought to Haiti by slaves, is one aspect of "animist" religious practices which the Catholic church and evangelicals have long sought to banish from Africa, Haiti and elsewhere, because they are seen as incompatible with true Christianity.\n<\/p>\n \nBut "true Christianity" is what the American Baptist group wanted these children to practice. For example, a flier used for fund raising purposes <\/a>by the group in Idaho states that:\n<\/p>\n \n\tNLCR is praying and seeking people who have a heart \nThe flier also suggests this may not have been the only trip they intended to take children out of Haiti. Their flier states:\n<\/p>\n \n\tGiven the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon \nMoreover, the New York Times<\/em> story<\/a> from today reports that\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tsome \nWas it clear to the parents what exactly these missionaries had in mind?\u00a0 It doesn’t seem so.\u00a0 Isn’t it a form of coercion to ask people so devastated by a tragedy \nThese children were clearly being abducted for the purposes of religious conversion, a strategy that may have been indirectly propelled by a broader religious movement to expand adoption internationally for the purposes of religious conversion.\n<\/p>\n \nA report in the Associated Baptist Press<\/em><\/a>, for example, quotes Russell Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and \nABP relays Moore’s reaction upon hearing the news of the 10 Americans being held in Haiti:\n<\/p>\n \n\t"I thought, ‘Oh no, this is going to cause all kinds of derision to \nLast year Moore published a book titled Adopted for Life<\/em><\/a> \n\t"The Bible tells us that human families are reflective of an eternal fatherhood (Eph. 3:14-15)," says a website<\/a> \nThis is sensitive territory. Untold numbers of children languish in orphanages in countries throughout the world, waiting for a safe and secure home. And when a child is without parents or any family and has no recourse, it is assumed that the best thing for that child is to be placed in a loving home through adoption.\n<\/p>\n \nBut the link between adoption and prosyletization is troubling.\u00a0 In Haiti, for example, I would imagine that parents, rather than being so bereft of food, shelter, water, health care and other profoundly basic needs that they feel compelled to give their children to orphanages or to strangers promising them a "better home," never to see them again, would prefer to be assisted right there to rebuild their lives, maintain their families intact, raise their children according to their own traditions and see them thrive.\n<\/p>\n \nBut learning about their own heritage and history is not part of the "gospel-driven" religious movement.\u00a0 Moore, for example, is the father of two children adopted from a Russian orphanage.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nIn his book, Moore said<\/a> \n"We have done just that," he wrote.\n<\/p>\n \n\t"Now, what most people probably meant by this counsel is for us to \nMoore and others, therefore, have strongly criticized the tactics of the Idaho Baptist group in large part because they are concerned about the backlash against their own efforts to expand "gospel-driven" adoption. .\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\t"I’m worried that this news is going to give a black eye to the \n\t"[It] is going to cause people to \nSimilar sentiments were expressed in an interview conducted by Moore with Jedd Medefind, president of the \nMedefind, a former aide to President George W. Bush who led <\/a>the \n\tThe group’s mission statement says<\/a> \nIts easy to get caught up in the moment of devastation to say that rescuing children by taking them "away" from their parents and their country is the first, best response. According to the New York Times<\/em>,\u00a0 for example, the \n\tIn an interview earlier this week, Ms. Silsby said \nBut was it really, given their own materials?\u00a0 And what does that really mean when you have a religious agenda for children–many of them with living family– who are being taken away from everything they know to serve your own notion of what is right in the world and your own notion of "God?"\u00a0\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\trecruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt
\n\tof persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other
\n\tforms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception,
\n\tof the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability
\n\tor of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to
\n\tachieve the consent of a person having control over another
\n\tperson, for the purpose of exploitation".\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\n\tthat the group had not obtained the proper Haitian documents to take
\n\tthe children. But she explained that the group was "just trying to do
\n\tthe right thing" to help.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\n\tvillage near the capital, told The Associated Press Wednesday they had
\n\thanded over their children willingly because they were unable to feed
\n\tor clothe their children and the American missionaries promised to give
\n\tthem a better life.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nabout 15 percent as Baptist, 8 percent Pentecostal and 3 percent
\nAdventist, with the rest identifying as Muslim, Christian Scientist,
\nMormon or other religious affilations.\n<\/p>\n
\nChristianity (most commonly with
\nCatholicism), and the voodoo religion keeps a strong hold on the
\nbeliefs, traditions, and worship practices of the population.\u00a0 In
\nshort, voodoo holds that all living things–from people to trees and
\nplants–have spirits.\u00a0 According to a report by the U.S. State Department, voodoo is
\nfrowned upon by the elite, conservative Catholics, and
\nProtestants.\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tfor God and a desire to share God\u2019s love with these precious children,
\n\thelping them heal and find new life in Christ.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\tour hearts the need to go now vs. waiting until the permanent facility is built. He has provided an interim solution in nearby Cabarete, where we will be leasing a 45 room hotel and converting it into an orphanage until the building of the NLCR is complete.\u00a0 This interim location will enable us to provide a loving environment for up to 150 children, from infants to 12 years old.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\n\tof [the] parents said the Baptists had promised simply to educate the
\n\tyoungsters in the Dominican Republic, and said the children would be
\n\table to return to Haiti to visit their families.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nto given up their children for some unknown "better life" without offering to better their lives right there?\u00a0 Why take them away?\u00a0 And if your intention is to bring these children to the DR and put them up for adoption to "loving Christian homes," how does telling their parents they are just going to get an education and can "come back to Haiti to visit" make you much different than the labor or sex trafficker who promises a woman that she is going to find lucrative work abroad in a new industry, only to be trafficked for other purposes?\u00a0 While these children might be adopted to "good homes" that does not obviate the lies, deception and abduction in which the group engaged to secure access to these children.\n<\/p>\n
\ndean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological
\nSeminary, as decrying the efforts of the Idaho Baptist group to "remove children from earthquake-stricken Haiti without proper
\ndocumentation [because it] could give a black eye to a budding movement of
\nevangelicals who view adoption as a means of spreading the gospel."\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tthe orphan-care movement and to what the Holy Spirit is doing in
\n\tchurches all across America and all over the world in having a heart
\n\tfor orphans,’" Moore said, sitting in<\/a> as guest host for seminary president Al Mohler.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\ncalling on Christians to adopt children as a "Great Commission
\npriority." On Feb. 26-27, the seminary in Louisville, Ky., is
\nsponsoring an "Adopting for Life" conference<\/a> aimed at creating "a culture of adoption" in families and churches.\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tpromoting the event. "We know, then, what human fatherhood ought to
\n\tlook like on the basis of how Father God behaves toward us. But the
\n\treverse is also true. We see something of the way our God is fatherly
\n\ttoward us through our relationships with our own human fathers. And so
\n\tJesus tells us that in our human father’s provision and discipline we
\n\tget a glimpse of God’s active love for us (Matt. 7:9-11; cf. Heb.
\n\t12:5-7). The same is at work in adoption."\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nwhen he and his wife were adopting their boys they were encouraged by
\nsocial workers and family friends to "teach the children about their
\ncultural heritage."\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tteach our boys Russian folk tales and Russian songs, observing Russian
\n\tholidays, and so forth," Moore explained. "But as we see it, that’s not
\n\ttheir heritage anymore, and we hardly want to signal to them that they
\n\tare strangers and aliens, even welcome ones, in our home. We teach them
\n\tabout their heritage, yes, but their heritage as Mississippians."\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\n\torphan-care movement in the same way that some of the really
\n\trambunctious, lawbreaking aspects of the right-to-life protester
\n\tmovement did to the pro-life movement," Moore said on Monday’s program.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\thave increased skepticism toward what I think is a genuine movement of
\n\tthe Spirit of God among God’s people."\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nChristian Alliance for Orphans, and David Platt,
\nsenior pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala.\n<\/p>\n
\nWhite House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, now heads
\nan alliance of orphan-serving organizations and churches promoting
\nChristian orphan and foster care and adoption and adoption ministry.\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tit exists to "motivate and unify the body of Christ to live out God’s
\n\tmandate to care for the orphan." The Alliance’s vision statement is
\n\t"every orphan experiencing God’s unfailing love and knowing Jesus as
\n\tSavior."\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nAmericans, their lawyers and members of their churches have said they
\nare innocent of any wrongdoing, and said the imbroglio was "a huge
\nmisunderstanding."\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\tthe group had come to Haiti to rescue children orphaned by the
\n\tearthquake, and that \u201cour hearts were in the right place.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n