In Haiti Tensions Grow Between Old & New Missionaries
Tue, February 16, 2010 
A Haitian man carries a sack of rice in front of a painting of ‘The Lasrt Dinner’ in down-town Port-au-Prince Feb 13, 2010Apart from our ongoing discussion of the 10 missionaries in Haiti, I want to acknowledge the article in yesterday’s NYTimes Missionaries Go to Haiti, Followed by Scrutiny.
I have no qualifications to comment on what was right or wrong in Haiti before the earthquake. All I know is that more NGOs and aid organizations were operating in Haiti than in any other country. Missionaries were highly committed to Haiti before the earthquake and have descended on the island since.
According to the NYTimes, everyone is in town:
Devotees of Supreme Master Ching Hai, a Vietnamese spiritual leader, wore fluorescent yellow vests on their way into quake-damaged Haiti. Mormons wore their trademark white shirts and ties. And an array of others — Scientologists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Jews and Muslims — each printed T-shirts of a different hue declaring which faith had inspired them to help save Haiti.
There is little reporting on this aspect of religion’s arrival in Haiti. After all, what media organizations wants to open up that can of worms. All gestures are good ones, right?
If anything positive comes out of the mess of the 10 missionaries led by Laura Silby, it would to reach an understanding that a good heart might bring harm to Haiti and other countries like it. When former President Bush said ‘send money’, he was referring to money and not food, shoes, blankets. I wonder what he thinks about missionaries.
Sarah Wilson, spokeswoman for Christian Aid, a British organization that receives much of its financing from church members and has a longstanding operation in Haiti, did sum up the view of many people on the ground in Haiti: “People shouldn’t come down here for an experience. They should stay home and write a check.”
All concerned parties agree that religion has done great work in Haiti, filling a vacuum left by notoriously unstable governments (for a variety of reasons including outside interference) and widespread impoverishment.
Christian missionaries run more than 2,000 primary schools in Haiti attended by about 600,000 students, roughly a third of the country’s school-age population, according to the Haitian Education Ministry.
The Adventists in Carrefour literally run a small city, providing an entire civic infrastructure.
The arrival of well-meaning folks in Haiti has created a different story, however, one that may not just be cases of old vs new missionary in town. With all the pleas for money in Haiti, I never heard a call ffor volunteers, as would happen when the spring floods required sandbagging along the Mississippi.
Motives are in question, and they go beyond wanting to do God’s work. Many missionaries are interested in returning to their homes with stories of good works. A Google search of this topic brings up few stories ab out what the Laura Silsbys of the world are actually accomplishing in Haiti, besides getting in the way and perhaps shining a well-deserved look on the subject of Haitian adoptions and now sex-trafficking.
Google is full of hometown stories of shining stars on the ground in Haiti. There are very few stories about what was actually accomplished, or whether the missionaries actually sapped resources. Reading Laura Silsby’s plan of action for her Haitian rescue was a joke, especially for someone who is supposedly s competent business plan.
One couldn’t give a successful dinner party, following Laura Silsby’s blueprint for gathering up children, as if they were organic vegetables at the Union Square market.
“The new or short-term groups see themselves as being there to save souls first and lives second,” said Jonathan J. Bonk, director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven. “The older, less conservative missions often see it the other way around.”
In my own reimmersion in this subject — along with so many other women’s rights topics at Anne of Carversville — director Bonk’s comment does run true. I don’t understand the balance of past missioonary work, regarding the balance between lives vs souls.
The more I study the topic as a layperson, it seems that saving souls is the primary mission today, even moreso than in the past.
As competition for souls increases worldwide, many people are asking who governs these people; who evaluates their effectiveness; who is able to step in to tell well-meaning folks that they’re actually doing more harm than good in Haiti or anywhere else in the world?
The answer, my friends, is blowin’ in the winds … because few people who could assess the situation worldwide want to step into that catbird seat. Even Mr. Aflac can’t talk his way out of that quagmire. Anne
More reading: Missionaries Go to Haiti, Followed by Scrutiny NYTimes
Paperwork | Procedure Never Part of Published Haitian Orphan Rescue Plan
Update | Laura Silsby’s Very Big Vision for Haitian Orphans
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