From the Daily Beast


Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti,
has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries' adoption mêlée. His diplomatic
efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group's
leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday,
Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to
find a way "to defuse the crisis."

As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with
kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third
World babies and convert them.

For the past week, the news from Haiti has been dominated by the story
of 10 American evangelicals from Idaho who were caught at the border of
the Dominican Republic attempting to take 33 Haitian children, many with
living parents, out of the country without documentation. The Americans,
missionaries with the recently created New Life Children’s Refuge, were
arrested and charged with kidnapping and criminal conspiracy—a reprieve
from the child trafficking charges they may have faced.

American evangelical churches are embracing a new orphan theology that
urges Christians to see adoption and “orphan-care” as an integral part
of their faith.

The details that emerged about the group’s plans and leader, Laura
Silsby, were unsavory. Although Silsby, the legally embattled CEO of a
personal shopping business, claimed that the group never intended to put
the children up for adoption, an itinerary for New Life’s mission,
published by an affiliated Southern Baptist church, bluntly described a
plan to “gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages”
onto a bus, then take them to a hotel in the Dominican Republic. There,
New Life hoped to build permanent orphanage facilities, including a
beachfront restaurant and “seaside villas” for prospective adoptive
parents—amenities that underscore their understanding of local adoption
residency requirements, even as they claimed ignorance of Haitian law.
Additional planning and fundraising documents described the group’s goal
to “equip each child” with the opportunity “for adoption into a loving
Christian family,” and help them “find new life in Christ.”

After the arrests, Silsby and supporters explained that they’d been
called by God to help orphans in Haiti, that they were “acting not only
in faith but God’s faith.”

The news of an adoption organization driven by missionary zeal surprised
many, but it shouldn’t. Although New Life’s illegal actions have been
condemned by other religious adoption agencies, their sense of calling
fits into a growing movement of American evangelical churches embracing
a new orphan theology that urges Christians to see adoption and
“orphan-care” as an integral part of their faith—and a means of
spreading the gospel.

This January, Christianity Today declared adoption the next culture war
issue, and a major theological development of 2009. Indeed, 2009 was
filled with news of adoption, as Russell Moore, dean of the theological
school at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, released his book
Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and
Churches, exhorting Christians to “be at the forefront of the adoption
of orphans close to home and around the world.”

Moore’s message came with both political and theological justifications,
both positioning adoption as part of a holistic “pro-life” stance and,
in a stunning admission, as a means for Christians to fulfill the Great
Commission: evangelizing and making converts of the nations. In fact,
adoption has become such a critical, though under-recognized, part of
the evangelical agenda that in 2008, The Wall Street Journal’s “Taste”
section advised Senator John McCain to highlight his adopted
daughter—once the target of an ugly smear campaign—as a means of shoring
up his lukewarm evangelical appeal.

This June, Moore helped pass a Southern Baptist Convention resolution
calling upon all 16 million members of the denomination to prayerfully
consider whether or not God was calling them to adopt. With both
domestic and international adoption described as almost “contagious” in
evangelical churches, with even small congregations boasting dozens of
adopted children, it’s evident that more Christians are feeling that
“call”—whether from God, or from leaders like Moore.

This November, hundreds of churches participated in “Orphan Sunday,” a
nationwide adoption event where churches focused their sermons on
promoting adoption as a Christian duty. And in 2007, Focus on the Family
estimates it reached 19 million people through its “Cry of the Orphan”
campaign. A number of upcoming conferences will further the message,
including the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit this April, which
will now focus on Haiti, promoting adoption as a “long-term response” to
the crisis and the best way that “ordinary people can make a lasting
difference for orphans.”

In the wake of the New Life fiasco, Russell Moore worried the news would
“give a black eye to the orphan-care movement,” as anti-abortion
vigilantes had to the pro-life movement—a lawless take on a shared
agenda. But there are larger problems with the call for American
Christians to adopt en masse. Among them are the widely misunderstood
definitions of orphans, which lead to ever-ballooning estimates of
children in need of adoption. Another is the strong taint of colonialism
in casting American adopters as saviors and focusing on adoption as a
solution for impoverished communities. In some countries in recent
years, including Liberia and Ethiopia, religious adoption organizations
have been singled out for censure by national authorities, accused of
using church ties to legitimize unethical practices.

To be sure, many Christians and non-Christians involved in adoption keep
these considerations in mind, and while the activist group Christian
Defense Coalition is campaigning for the release of New Life
missionaries, many other Christian groups have distanced themselves from
a plan some denounced as “child trafficking.” But the wholesale call for
Christians to adopt as a solution for poverty and disaster—often at a
cost of up to $30,000 per child—and particularly for purposes of
proselytization, seems destined to lead to more people jumping headlong
into a perceived “calling” to care for orphans without understanding the
complex ethics that surround all adoptions.

On Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:52:56 -0500, Harry
wrote:

From the Daily Beast


Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti,
has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries' adoption mêlée. His diplomatic
efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group's
leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday,
Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to
find a way "to defuse the crisis."

As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with
kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third
World babies and convert them.

How very unsurprsing. Ve vill make you von of uz, evin if it killz u.

Missionaries have been doing this hundreds of years.

"jps" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:52:56 -0500, Harry
wrote:

From the Daily Beast


Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti,
has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries' adoption mêlée. His diplomatic
efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group's
leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday,
Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to
find a way "to defuse the crisis."

As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with
kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third
World babies and convert them.

How very unsurprsing. Ve vill make you von of uz, evin if it killz u.

Missionaries have been doing this hundreds of years.


It is, therefore, Obama's fault.

--
Nom=de=Plume

On 2/7/10 10:24 PM, jps wrote:
On Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:52:56 -0500,
wrote:

From the Daily Beast


Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti,
has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries' adoption mêlée. His diplomatic
efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group's
leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday,
Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to
find a way "to defuse the crisis."

As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with
kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third
World babies and convert them.

How very unsurprsing. Ve vill make you von of uz, evin if it killz u.

Missionaries have been doing this hundreds of years.


Yup...and they ought to be arrested for it, wherever they go. If you are
going overseas to help the stricken, poor, whatever, that's fine. If you
are going with the intention of religious conversion, stay at home.

On 2/7/10 10:52 PM, nom=de=plume wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:52:56 -0500,
wrote:

From the Daily Beast


Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti,
has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries' adoption mêlée. His diplomatic
efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group's
leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday,
Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to
find a way "to defuse the crisis."

As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with
kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third
World babies and convert them.

How very unsurprsing. Ve vill make you von of uz, evin if it killz u.

Missionaries have been doing this hundreds of years.


It is, therefore, Obama's fault.



The funny thing is, Jesus wanted and had nothing to do with conversions.

Harry wrote:
On 2/7/10 10:52 PM, nom=de=plume wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:52:56 -0500,
wrote:

From the Daily Beast


Bill Clinton, who is helping relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti,
has stepped in to the U.S. missionaries' adoption mêlée. His diplomatic
efforts may free all but one of the 10 jailed missionaries. The group's
leader, Laura Silsby, will likely still be held. During a visit Friday,
Clinton said he believed the Haitian government would likely want to
find a way "to defuse the crisis."

As Clinton works to spring the U.S. missionaries charged with
kidnapping, the case highlights a new evangelical strategy: Adopt Third
World babies and convert them.

How very unsurprsing. Ve vill make you von of uz, evin if it killz u.

Missionaries have been doing this hundreds of years.


It is, therefore, Obama's fault.



The funny thing is, Jesus wanted and had nothing to do with conversions.
The funny thing is, you are correct. It's all Obamas fault.

On 2/8/10 6:23 AM, Harry wrote:

The funny thing is, Jesus

- - -

ID Spoofers: No balls, no brains, no clues.