Baby Love Child has published stunning blog today: Adopting Kids Out of Satan’s Haiti for the Glory of His Kids & The Slowing of Child Export Flights. It is separate from her ongoing Hatian series.This is by far the best piece I have seen anywhere (and I’ve downloaded lots of stories and blogs) about babylifting, it’s impetus and purpose. This is a long piece that will turn the stomach of anyone concerned about the ethics and purpose of adoption. This is a small excerpt:
This from the “religion” section of their page on Haiti:
“Mission work in Haiti faces enemy onslaught as this is a country that is yearly dedicated to Satan in a contractual form. There are voodoo practices and worship of the dark.”
While some may find that statement rather stunning, it is sadly a more common attitude within the evangelical and “missions” subculture than many would care to think. Pat Robertson’s comments along these lines were merely a reflection of a commonly held belief across numbers of people within his subculture.
An historic explanation of the role of Voudou symbolism, language, and drumming is beyond the scope of this post, suffice it to say, all played a role in Haiti’s revolution, a fact that was not lost on slave owners in the United States and elsewhere.
The deliberate suppression of Voudou thus became important politically and culturally to as a means of maintaining control. After centuries of “demonizing” indigenous African religious practices brought to the west, few should be surprised when people in for example, Texas begin using such as a basis for “saving” children from countries and culture they are religiously unwilling to coexist with.
The flight of For His Glory’s kids out of Haiti must be understood within this missionary context- they are not merely removing children from Haiti and placing them with American would-be-adopters, they view their adoption ministry work as removing children from a “Satanic” and “dark” land.
BLC’s blog also gives sickening details on the two babylifting “orphan ministries” I’ve written about in my last two entries: Maison de Enfants de Dieu ala For His Glory and HIS Home for Children.
As some of you know, one of my big interests outside of adoption is theocracy and theonomy and the emergence in the US of a theocratic state doctrine. Adoption theology plays a huge role in the evangelical promotion of that ideal state. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to articulate without a lot of Biblical and cultural context, both of which BLC puts into this piece.
This information needs to go out!
Addenda: Earlier today I signed up for the Maison de Enfants de Dieu email list. I to got my first mailing this evening. Kim Harmon, president of For His Glory Outreach calling for a nationwide day of prayer and fasting on January 28, to release the orphans of Haiti from the clutches of the evil Haitian goverment and UNICEF:
Unfortunately, there now seems to be a mountain standing between the orphans who remain in Haiti and the safe and loving homes of their adoptive families. That mountain is the Haitian Government’s new, and still undefined, exit process for children with foreign adoptive parents. With limited resources available to Haitian orphanages, this process has stopped the departure of orphans with humanitarian parole status and directly affects our ability to care for those children orphaned since the earthquake…
The press release is also published on the For His Glory website.
Thanks again Marley!
One tiny note, this actually isn’t part of my ongoing series- it was just too important to not blog in a timely fashion.
I will get back to the series, but with details coming through so quickly, sometimes simply writing pieces such as this take precedence.
Again, thanks for the support. You pulled precisely the portion I feel is crucial.
Here’s something funny. I woke up at 5 this morning with the same thought. It’s not part of the series. I’ll correct that later this morning. This is getting to me!
OT: An AFP article I just saw says that there were not 380,000 “orphans” in Haiti before the quake, but rather 20,000.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100127/pl_afp/haitiquakeorphansadoptionus
Of course, there is no reference to how they calculated this number, like usual.
I am way behind in the news, but this jumped out at me.
Some more Haiti-adoption related snippets:
“Traffickers targeting Haiti’s children, human organs, PM says”
“Haiti is trying to locate displaced children and register them so they can either be reunited with other family members or put up for adoption, Bellerive said.
But, he said, illegal child trafficking is “one of the biggest problems that we have.”
Many groups appear to be legitimate, “but a lot of organizations — they come and they say there were children on the streets. They’re going to bring them to the [United] States,” he said.
Bellerive said he’s trying to work with embassies in Port-au-Prince to protect Haiti’s children from traffickers.
“Any child that is leaving the country has to be validated by the embassy under a list that they give me, with all the reports,” he said.
Speaking at his temporary headquarters in a police station near the Port-au-Prince Airport, Bellerive said the first thing Haitian officials seek to confirm is whether the children have adoption papers before they leave the country.
In Washington, the State Department said Wednesday it is moving cautiously on the issue of adoptions from Haiti.
“We want to be sure that when a child has been identified, that due diligence has been done to make sure that this is truly an orphan child and not a child that actually has family,” said State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley. “Sometimes if you push too hard, too fast there can be unintended consequences. So we are being very, very careful.””
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/27/haiti.earthquake.orphans/
A rather bizarre story:
“New internet game encourages children to make their characters wear sexy lingerie and buy ‘trophy’ orphans
“A new web craze where young girls make their virtual characters adopt children as fashion accessories has outraged parents’ groups.
The controversial My Minx game also sees girls as young as seven giving their characters contraceptives and morning-after pills.
Players clothe their virtual minxes in sexy lingerie and other revealing outfits and buy ‘trophy orphans’ – named after children already adopted by celebrities.
…
In even worse taste, gamers can adopt children from earthquake-ravaged Haiti.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245980/New-internet-game-My-Minx-sees-children-dressing-characters-lingerie-buying-orphans.html
And here’s a story that relates to this post:
“Haiti quake raises fears of child-eating spirits”
The earthquake that shattered Haiti has unleashed fears that child-eating spirits, mythological figures entrenched in Haitian culture, are prowling homeless camps in search of young prey.
The ‘loup-garou,’ which means ‘wolf man,’ is similar to werewolf legends in other parts of the world, but in Haitian folklore it is a person who is possessed by a spirit and can turn into a beast or even a dog, cat, chicken, snake or another animal to suck the blood of babies and young children.
…
“After the earthquake, the loup-garou fled from prison. He was bragging that he was in jail because he was caught eating children … During the night he went into the tents and tried to take someone’s child,” said Michaelle Casseus, a camp resident.
In another camp, residents described beating a man almost to death after he tried to take a baby during the night.
Night-time patrols have been set up to deter the spirits, who are also called ‘lougarou’ in the Creole language.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100127/wl_nm/us_quake_haiti_spirits