The devastating January 12th earthquake in Haiti has left Port Au Prince in ruins and the death toll is unofficially estimated at 200,000. We've seen pictures of total destruction and chaos, but there have also been amazing stories of survival and the triumph of the human spirit.

Amid the myriad tragedies that continue in Haiti, the story of these 10 Baptist missionaries from the New Life Children’s Refuge has the makings of a giant tragedy all on it's own.

Kidnappers for Jesus? A group of Evangelical church folk from Idaho, led by personal shopper Laura Silsby, Executive Director and founder of New Life Children Refuge, descended upon the earthquake ravaged country of Haiti last week, to snatch and grab 100 orphans off of the streets and from orphanages. The Baptist group’s mission statement was to “share God’s love with these precious children, helping them heal and find new life in Christ.” However, they were only able to “gather” up 33, some of whom weren’t even orphans. The evangelical do-gooders became alleged kidnappers and child traffickers when they loaded the Haitian “orphans” on a bus and attempted to take them across the border to the Dominican Republic to the New Life Refuge orphanage, with no documents from the Haitian government. Well, the so-called orphanage turns out to be a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the Dominican Republic that the group was renting.

This is the part that makes my blood boil. These "missionaries" believe that they were sent by God and that perhaps somehow their faith put them above the law:

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive says the ten Americans, although they may have had good intentions, are “kidnappers.” “God is the one who called us to come here and we just really believed that this was his purpose,” said Carla Thompson, one of the group’s arrested members.

The misguided Baptist church group, with their proselytizing “Great Commission” to save the souls of children from a deeply Catholic country, has also exposed the controversial practices of evangelical missionaries, who seek to religiously convert the recipients of their charity. The two Idaho Baptist churches supporting the mission, Central Valley Baptist Church and the East Side Baptist Church, made their intentions clear. Read on...

I believe that every person on this planet should have the right to worship (or not) in any way they see fit, but the actions of these misguided people clearly illustrate the dangers of religious zealotry. I sourced this post from this article at Chattah Box and I highly recommend clicking through and reading the whole thing. It is well sourced and digs deep into just how this entire thing started and more background on the people involved -- most notably, it's leader Laura Silsby, who appears to have a long history of bad judgment.

Wow. Just wow.

KOCO 5 (Oklahoma City):

An Oklahoma church canceled a controversial gun giveaway for teenagers at a weekend youth conference.

Windsor Hills Baptist had planned to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle until one of the event's organizers was unable to attend.

The church's youth pastor, Bob Ross, said it's a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event. The church expected hundreds of teenagers from as far away as Canada.

"We have 21 hours of preaching and teaching throughout the week," Ross said.[..]

"I don't want people thinking ‘My goodness, we're putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn't respect it who are then going to go out and kill,'" said Ross. "That's not at all what we're trying to do."

Ross said the conference isn't all about guns, but rather about teens finding faith.

What Would Jesus Do? Give a semi-automatic weapon to a teenager, naturally. Makes perfect sense to me. (/sarcasm)

Topeka Capital Journal: (h/t J & BillW)

A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday ordered liens on the Westboro Baptist Church building and the Phelps-Chartered Law office.

If the case presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett is upheld by an appeals court, the church, at 3701 S.W. 12th, and the office building, at 1414 S.W. Topeka Blvd., could be obtained by the court and sold, with the proceeds being applied toward $5 million in damages Bennett imposed on church members for picketing a military funeral.

The $5 million penalty is the result of a lawsuit filed against three of the church's principals by Albert Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, whose funeral was picketed by church members. Read on...

It's too early to know how this will be resolved, but I'm hoping the appeals court upholds the ruling and the family of the fallen soldier prevails. These vile people drag their kids along to picket soldier's funerals and spread hatred around the country. For a good laugh check out this brave dude who Rick Roll'd the Phelps clan as they attempted to get their hate on.

Susie Bright's Journal (not always safe for work):

Let me introduce you to the swan-song poster girl of the abstinence education movement: TV actress and celebrity-sister, Jamie Lynn Spears. She's pregnant.

Jamie, raised to be a Baptist Good Girl by her devoted Church Stage Mother, was "shocked" to learn she was expecting, according to her tabloid confession.

Jamie is so... typical.

...The abysmal failure of purity balls and chastity rings and "Just-Say-No" is one of the most under-reported stories of the year. The numbers are in, and they are deafening. Read more...

Open thread below...

We haven't done a Holy Crap at the blog round-up for a while, and lately the great blog Talk2Action has had some doozys:

An evangelical group promoted by the Pentagon to "entertain the troops" has violent, homoerotic t-shirts available.

Reverend Wiley Drake, former Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention (yeah.) is calling for "imprecatory prayer" against church/state separation advocates Americans United. Wiley mentions that his followers should pray for God to "smite" the AU folks. Punchline: Drake was challenged by AU for using church letterhead to endorse Mike Huckabee.

I was having a hard time holding back the laughs before, and then the General wrote one of his special missives to Drake.

The Heretik : A surge of BS...and squalid, cowardly, despicable demagoguery

Radar Online: An Iraq war translator's inside take on America's failure to communicate

A Tiny Revolution: If we find ourselves at war with Iran, it won’t just be Bush’s responsibility. It will also belong to a Democratic-controlled Congress.

Nieman Watchdog: Before Walter Reed there was Fort Stewart and Fort Knox, and...

Nuestra Voice: Look out for an attempt on the part of Gonzales supporters to call on the Latino community to somehow frame the pressure on Gonzales as racially motivated.

Church-Burials
PZ Meyers:

At a meeting of the Christian Right, we hear from a Baptist minister.

"Lusk warned adversaries: "My friends, don't fool with the church because the church has buried a million critics. And those the church has not buried, the church has made funeral arrangement for."...read on"

How wrong is this quote?

I guess only republican judges can sit on the bench for republicans. Apparently-Moveon.org is a criminal organization because they sell all those evil t-shirts.(false) Has Dick DeGuerin lowered the standard again? Am I watching a case on Law and Order? Oh wait, Tom Delay is mad at them too. Remember Judge Greer? Greer is a republican appointed judge and a deeply religious man who handled the Terri Schiavo case. He was hated because he didn't rule the way some republicans and extreme anti-abortionists wanted. A bounty was put on his head and he was even kicked out of the Baptist church that he attended.

(UPDATE): DeLay's Lawyer Lies About MoveOn:"According to MoveOn’s Washington director Tom Mattzie, this claim is false. Mattzie told ThinkProgress this morning that MoveOn has "never sold any t-shirts with Tom DeLay’s mug shot" on their website or otherwise...read on"

Westboro Baptist Church is part of the extreme religious right. Sorry Circus Clowns, he's one of your own. Deal with it.

DC Media Girl has this Phelps letter: "Why did your son die in Iraq? Because you raised him for the devil and Hell. You hated him. You taught him "It’s OK to be gay," and other God-rejecting lies, that brought the wrath of God Down upon this evil nation. Why did your son die in Iraq? Because God hates America and has purposed to destroy her. They turned America over to fats; they’re coming home in body bags."

Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.... The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays...read on"

This Circus Clown is definitely in the "Hall of Fame." Will the media cover this or protect Phelps because he aligns himself with religion?