Just a quick follow up to my previous post about the Baptist missionaries who were arrested in Haiti. It seems that they have been charged and a judge will hear evidence in the case. A verdict is expected sometime in the next three months.
Much has come to light since all of this has happened. It appears that the leader of the group, Laura Silsby, knew that what she was proposing to do – take Haitian children across international boundaries – was wrong. It also seems that there are questions back in the States about some of her financial dealings (which raise frightening questions about her motives in this child trafficking).
Various people (from their lawyer to American pundits) have been claiming that the other nine involved were ignorant that what they were doing was wrong, that they were trying to help, and that the meant well.
None of which means that they aren’t guilty.
First, ignorance of the law is no defense. This is well-known. Even if these nine other people were ignorant of the law, they still proposed to break it. And that makes them guilty. Maybe, if there is evidence they were ignorant, it would suggest leniency in the sentencing, but it doesn’t make them innocent. And they should be punished for their crimes.
Second, they should have known better. Independent of the legality, how is taking children out of their home country, children that by all reports were NOT from Port-Au-Prince, a good idea? How is that the moral thing to do? Why not make sure they are orphans? Why not try to find ways to help them stay in their country, rather than finding the fastest way to spirit them out of the country, and into adoption?
Of course there may yet be some diplomatic escape hatch for these people, but I think it would be good for their moral education of they suffered the consequences of their willful ignorance.
Here’s the latest report from the AP: No early release for US missionaries in Haiti
Tags: adoption
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