From the My-What-Balls-We-Have file in today's
Washington Post:
Group Says It Relocated 300 Orphans
A Virginia-based missionary group said this week that it has airlifted 300 "tsunami orphans" from the Muslim province of Banda Aceh to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, where it plans to raise them in a Christian children's home.
A little more below...
There has been a lot of news coming out of the region about aid scams, looting and even some gunfire. Certainly lots has been said - and some things are being done - about the threat to children from those who would prey on them for the sex and slave trade. What about those who would prey on them for the ideological and religious foothold that they may represent?
"Normally, Banda Aceh is closed to foreigners and closed to the gospel. But, because of this catastrophe, our partners there are earning the right to be heard and providing entrance for the gospel," WorldHelp said in an appeal for funds on its Web site this week.
The appeal said WorldHelp was working with native-born Christians in Indonesia who want to "plant Christian principles as early as possible" in the 300 Muslim children, all younger than 12, who lost their parents in the tsunami.
"These children are homeless, destitute, traumatized, orphaned, with nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. If we can place them in a Christian children's home, their faith in Christ could become the foothold to reach the Aceh people," it said.
For the record, I am not "of-a-faith" and this kind of crap is one reason why I don't have any tolerance for proselytizing "Christians." However, I do know that the taking of children is a guaranteed way to turn a person, a nation or a movement against you. Even if it doesn't happen - and the government of Indonesia has no idea what WorldHelp is talking about - isn't just the fact that these arrogant believers want it to happen enough to squash efforts to further understanding between people of any faith?
We donated the Red Cross early on. Please, if you're giving to any smaller "Christian" charities, please be careful about the motives that may be behind the "charity".