The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 101 Issue: 1 - Monday, February 01, 2010

Invasion of the Baby-Snatchers

This morning, I googled the words, "Haiti Christian children traffickers" just to see how the headlines would read.

For the most part, the news is treating the story as if the 10 Americans arrested in Haiti were attempting to steal the 33 orphans from Haiti for some nefarious purposes.

One story, headlined, "Hotel Room 'Orphanage'" tried to make the case that the group was operating under false pretenses.

"Although Silsby said she was taking the children to an orphanage the charity group operates in the Dominican Republic, no such orphanage yet exists. . . .A report in the Idaho statesman notes that the group had only been in the process of building an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, before the quake hit."

AHA!  Caught them red-handed!  They hadn't finished building it yet! 

Again quoting from the Idaho statesman,

"Group leader Laura Silsby said the group paid no money for the children, whom she said they obtained from well-known Haitian Pastor Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries."

(So the group didn't buy the orphans they were taking to the orphanage -- maybe that's something in their favor.)

Some of these accounts completely ignore any background on the 10 Americans, apart from the fact that they were arrested and charged with attempting to traffic in Haitian orphans.

Noted MSNBC, "Prime Minister Max Bellerive told the Associated Press that he was outraged by the group's "illegal trafficking of children" in the country long afflicted by this scourge and by foreign meddling."

MSNBC was careful to note, "whatever their intentions, other child welfare organizations in Haiti said the plan was foolish at best."  In other words, (even if the Baptist group meant well, which we clearly doubt, they were stupid.")

Not only that, but in keeping with the tone of the piece, MSNBC said the quake "apparently" orphaned many children, as if there were some doubt as to whether the children were actually orphaned or stolen.

The child traffickers under arrest are Baptists from Idaho, not pedophiles or criminals planning to sell them into slave labor, but that seems to be working against them in the press. 

If they were pedophiles, or if they were criminals planning to sell them into slavery, then the newspaper headlines would have read "alleged" child traffickers, but since they are Christians, there is no need to be concerned with such niceties.

The official death toll in Haiti now stands at 150,000 people, with about 100,000 people or so believed to be missing. The numbers are not firm, because the population of Haiti is largely the result of guesswork.

So, what would be the first natural reaction to hearing of a Christian group attempting to take 33 orphans between the ages of two months and 12 years to safety where there is medical care, clean water, and food?

If you are a member of the mainstream press, the first natural reaction is skepticism, à la the BBC headline, "Haiti Kidnap Accused Were 'Trying to Help'".

Sure they were.

Assessment:
I was thinking to myself while I watched the coverage of this on the news, that if this had been any other group, the headlines would've been much different.

Gayle offered this confirmatory observation: "if this had been a Muslim group, the headlines would more likely have to have read;  "An Heroic Rescue Foiled by the Haitian Government."

But of course, for that to have even been possible, there would first have to have been a Muslim presence among the rescuers.

I googled the term "Haiti Muslim rescue". I didn't find a single story that actually addressed an Islamic relief effort, except one  press release issued by "the American Muslim" that attempted to make the case that Islamic charities were doing the best they could.

At best it could list only individual donations and some minor efforts by some Islamic foundations. Apart from that particular press release,  the rest of the returns from Google all highlighted Israeli charities, and rescue and relief efforts.

Most of those were positive, albeit grudging.Typical was this headline from New Zealand, "Israel's Compassion in Haiti Can't Hide Ugly Face". 

"But the remarkable identification with the victims of the terrible tragedy in distant Haiti only underscores the indifference to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza," opined one liberal quoted in Haaretz.

Taken together, what we have are representative worldviews both from and about what the world calls the "three great monotheistic religions".

A Baptist group attempting to rescue orphaned children has been arrested for human trafficking, if one is to judge f rom the headlines.

Israeli efforts to rescue those trapped in the rubble pale in comparison to Israel's ugly face at home.

The total absence of any meaningful, organized Islamic charitable effort is more or less ignored, despite the fact that Islam boasts almost a billion and a half adherents worldwide and controls most of the world's oil wealth.

The situation serves to highlight the current state of spiritual warfare spilling out from the spiritual realm into the here and now.

The Bible says that during the last days, the antichrist will unleash such persecution against the Jews and the tribulation saints that according to Jesus, were the days not shortened "no flesh would be saved".

Taken from a spiritual perspective, one observes something very interesting. Here we have Christians and Jews attempting to help in the midst of one of the worst human disasters in living memory.

Their reward is to be arrested, maligned by the press and made the object of international scorn.  The Israeli relief effort in Haiti provides the foundation for another anti-Israeli rant about the suffering of the residents of Gaza while carefully avoiding mention of why.  

No mention of the thousands of rockets fired into Israel (which is WHY the Israelis are so skilled at search and rescue operations in collapsed buildings.)

The only mention of any genuine Christian efforts in the sense that Christ was remotely involved is characterized as a Christian 'kidnapping' effort.  

It wasn't so many years ago that being a good Christian was a positive character reference.  Having a solid Christian reputation was an asset whether one was in politics or in business. 

It wasn't so many years ago that the Jews of Israel were seen as victims of the Holocaust turned defenders of the Land of Promise, rather than as the oppressors of Palestinian terrorists.  

(Indeed, it wasn't that long ago that terrorists were considered to be the bad guys, rather than victims of Judeo-Christian oppression crying out for sympathy.)

However, this is the situation forecast for the last generation before the return of Christ.  The Bible speaks of the rise of a global religious system that will have a 'form of godliness', while denying God's power.  

The dominant religious system will ultimately turn on the Jews and the Tribulation saints with a ferocity unseen in human history.  

The kind of ferocity described in Scripture doesn't arise overnight.It takes years of conditioning and constant public vilification to develop that kind of white-hot hatred.  

But as this story demonstrates, the efforts thus far have already started to pay dividends.