The "Ugly" Baptists

Last Thursday, I warned about the dangers of rushing to help the children of Haiti in a paternalistic way, bordering on imperialistic. Now, it seems to have happened in the case of the group of American Baptists who took it upon themselves to "rescue" 33 children by smuggling them into the Dominican Republic without any documents or authorization of any kind.

As is often the case with people who claim to "do God's work", they heard His call to action and, thus, had no time to waste with legal procedures or what the Haitian government might have to say about this. Acting like the missionaries of old, who went to backward countries to civilize and convert the natives, these do-gooders crossed the line between Christian charity and the "ugliness" of American naked power.

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