After the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, one Christian charity (I've forgotten the exact name and won't try to guess because it closely resembled a more respectable Christian relief organization) promoted a program in which they promised to pick up 300 orphans in Indonesia and bring them up as Christians. I checked into that group and found, among earlier good deeds they did was to go to Jerusalem to "exhort" (encourage) the brethren (Christians) there, and to Nepal to speak with pastors there. One of the group visiting Nepal sadly noted that this time they couldn't afford to climb "the mountain" (you know which one) but possibly they could during another visit to encourage the "brethren", The young father spent time walking in the beautiful foothills nearby (begging the question of why that man's ticket for the flight was even purchased). BTW these travels were paid for by donations from churches and individuals. Is your tithe going to let a "Christian charity" sponsor expensive vacations? I'd make sure I found out, if I were you.
So this time a church group has been caught trying to take 100 Haitian orphans out of Haiti. They do not seem to be anywhere near as full of themselves as the organization seeking 300 Muslim orphans in Indonesia in the waning days of 2004 and early 2005 (the Indonesian government wisely denied their request to take charge of any 'orphans' and many groups noted that not all lost children did not have family members who could care for them with the proper aid).
But still even the Bible and smart pastors encourage Christians to look inside themselves and seek other motives that may be in there. So I'll do a little of this for these folks.
An AP article on the subject clears up who was going to running the Dominican Republic orphanage to which the group was taking their 100 orphans. The group itself apparently controlled a resort in DR that they would be converting to an orphanage. (I can't find as yet, whether the church had recently purchased or rented the resort, especially as lately as after the earthquake.)
The resort meme stands out there. Like Pastor Chuck Smith used to tell us "ask yourself what you really want" because God is judging your heart. Resort living while running an orphanage in a nation with few controls and cheap labor. Not bad work if you can get it, and the Church will finance you. (and the taxpayer will help since donations to churches for such work are tax deductible.) You have to ask yourself how much these women knew about running an orphanage or even keeping children healthy. The AP report notes that already some of the children were sick and dehydrated.
Another one of the problems I have with most Christian charities in poor countries is that they go on and on and the poor of those nations are not helped to a better life by them except as wards of the church, while other Christian activities promote right wing governance and business practices that force the poor into more and more dire circumstances. If the church wanted to promote a better life for poor people in foreign countries then they should promote more liberal governance like even the Protestant church did for much of the 19th and early 20th century and Catholic church did much longer (though the US Catholic church has become supportive of politics that promote excessive capitalism as the GOP has promised to end legal rights to abortion and birth control). Weirdly the charity that does the most to keep poor people dependent on handouts is the one that is tied to promoting right wing economics, or, to put it bluntly, the churches own charities. Sad, really.
One of the reasons that over 4000 Americans are still missing around PauP is that there were thousands of charities there doing little things to patch the most visible poverty in some Haitians lives and teaching the true religion of Capitalism. Yet, Haiti was only improving a little because of the same Capitalist demands by the US and IMF for cheap cheap cheap labor. Such is the capitalism-globalism going on in the world today. I never see the church trying to promote more equitable economies in such nations to force the rich local and multinational businesses to pay fair wages.
Is Haiti a vacation spot? Well, when there's subzero weather in most parts of the US, yeah, it could be, even in the midst of the crowded capital city. Churches I've been in offered similar chances to go 'build houses' in "Baja" (BC, Mexico) during the winter. I guess each Mexican on the Peninsula has ten if them by now. I wonder if Haiti has supplanted Mexico since our neighbor to the South turned into a Narco state that isn't safe outside of resort areas for much of anyone (as noted in an earlier report on the kidnapping and execution of an American visiting Mexico during the Christmas holidays for being in the wrong place at the wrong time). So all those houses built did nothing to stop the nation from sliding into more extreme problems.
continued>>>
http://dotcommonsense.blog-city.com/stealing_children_for_christ.htm
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