So these ten missionaries from Idaho, apparently led by a woman named Laura Silsby, show up in Haiti last week, in the devastating aftermath of the massive earthquake which leveled most of the capital city.

Their mission: To stock the orphanage they are developing in neighboring Dominican Republic with children who were left orphans by the quake. Silsby quickly makes contact with a local religious leader who just as quickly sends out the message that there is a humanitarian group preparing to take children to safety and better living conditions. The families are told that this is a camp, not an orphanage, that their children are not to be given away and that the families will be permitted to visit them.

Thirty three children, from several months to teenagers, are rounded up and placed on a bus, along with the missionaries. Silsby is apparently warned by a Dominican representative that she doesn’t have the required Haitian paperwork. She does have Dominican paperwork.

When the bus reaches the border, guards search and soon discover that the bus is loaded with undocumented children, who Silsby declares to be orphans headed to their new home. Interviews with some of the children reveal a different story, and the entire group is detained.

A few days later the entire group of ten are charged with attempted kidnaping. They remain in Haitian custody.

The pastor of Silsby’s church said this:

“We believe that the very best thing that could happen - not only for our loved ones who we miss dearly, but also for the people of Haiti - is for their government to release them as quickly as possible, allowing the world’s attention to be focused where it should be, on helping a nation that experienced a devastating earthquake.”

Former President Clinton said this:

“I think what’s important now is that the government of Haiti and the government of the United States to get together and go through this because the government of Haiti, as I understand it, is not looking for a fight. They just want to protect children.”

First, the government of Haiti is getting exactly what they want and need from all of this publicity: Awareness of the awesome and awful problem of child trafficking. Nefarious agents swoop into situations just like this one and steal children away to lives of labor or much worse.

Silsby and her cohorts had no such motives, of course. No, their motive was much more pure: To take as many children away from the world of Voodoo religion and bring them over to the world of Christianity. They weren’t “technically” orphans, but wouldn’t they be so much better off in a different place, learning proper religion? Weren’t Silsby and her cohorts on the side of Right, on the side of God?

Laura Silsby, where is your God now?

What sort of sick, psychotic God would let you get all the way to the border, inches from Dominican soil, where you would be free to enact your plan - only to have you instead detained in primitive and hostile conditions, indefinitely, charged with serious crimes?

Oh, what a sick God He is. What a terrifying prankster.

Or perhaps he’s locked in an existential battle with Satan, represented in this case by the Haitian government, protectors of the Voodoo religion. Poor Silsby and cohorts, stuck in-between God and Voodoo, left to fend for themselves, seen by both sides as important chips in a game which is so much larger than these mere humans.

Who were, after all, only trying to do Good.

So the children get brought back, re-united with their families. Silsby and her cohorts find themselves locked in one of the few buildings still standing, the local jail. Oh, the irony. And murmurs start to gain strength: These are people of God. They meant no harm. Their intent was to save children. Who can fault that? They should be freed.

There’s been talk of failed bribe attempts. A lawyer has been fired. This mess seems to get deeper by the day.

On the other hand, there is some sort of fairness in Silsby and cohorts being stuck in a Haitian jail. After all, ALL Haitians are stuck in the quake’s aftermath; ALL Haitians have instantly been transformed into the most primitive of humans, lacking access to even the most basic elements of civilized life: food, shelter, waste disposal, electric power.

It is somewhat fitting that Missionaries who considered Haitian law to be non-existent are now caught up in the reality that they were wrong about that. Haiti gets to demonstrate their sovereignty, their ability to protect their citizens and defend their borders. They get to demonstrate national pride. They get to kick somebody in the ass.

Silsby and cohorts should go through the proper Haitian legal process, however long it takes. And the government of Haiti should enjoy the immense publicity this case has brought them, to allow them to remind the world that this is still a viable, functioning society that, much like New Orleans a few years ago, just needs some time to get back on its feet.