Collegiate Times

We’re going to take a break and role-play for just a moment.

I want you to imagine yourself as a small child who is much too small to fend for yourself. An earthquake has just left you homeless. Your family is missing, and although you can’t quite understand the concept, it is assumed that they are dead.

You wander along the street, remembering what your parents told you about the dangers of child trafficking and talking to strangers. You’re starving. Ahead you see a group of smiling people handing out bottles of water and fresh cooked food. A woman who fulfills your psychological need for a mother even offers you a place to live.

What do you do?

Well, I’d assume you’d go for it — and why not? You have needs, and these people will fulfill them. After weeks of hardship, you find yourself clothed and fed for the very first time. What could be better?

For the purpose of our little role play we will call the organization who has given you this new life the “Christian Rescue Crusaders.” They’re all seemingly good natured people who value helping others.

Yet, like all people, these charitable folks are ruled by self-interest. Still, you’re too young to understand the concept of self-interest. These people have to be the greatest people in the world — they’ve given you all you need.

Everything they have done for you so far is truly a wonderful thing.

After a night’s rest in a crowded room with many other children, you’re ready to start your first day of school. This will begin right after morning prayers.

A lovely young woman, Melissa, tells you about a man named Jesus and his evil counterpart. You were raised in another religion (perhaps no religion at all); however, the woman is speaking in such way where her faith in this person called “God” is an objective
truth.

Perhaps it was Satan who took your home and killed your family. You’re told that you can earn a right to see your mother again as long as you follow the teaching of Melissa and this man named Jesus Christ. Failure to do so will result in never seeing your family again.

How would a child react to such a message? I would react using only a single finger. However, it is unlikely that a small child would do the same thing. This is especially true for a small child who has lost everything.

We were role-playing a little. However, the character we’re discussing is quite real. And organizations like the fictional Christian Rescue Crusaders exist in reality, and come by many names.

After the horrible earthquake that struck Haiti, charity groups all over the world jumped to help those in need — I’m very thankful that the human spirit is capable of such compassion. I just wish the compassion came without the recruitment of desperate souls.

I received a phone call last week from a familiar young lady asking me to donate to her church group. She informed me that they were sending people to Haiti on a mission to set up a school and housing for orphaned children.

Like many of you, I am a broke college student. However, I agreed to give a small donation on one condition: keep religion out of it. The young woman on the phone was shocked at my conditional reply. “Why would we not teach them about Truth and Jesus Christ?” she asked me, as if I wished to pull wool over children’s eyes and deny them some grandiose enlightenment. 

I informed her that I didn’t like the idea of religious organizations using the plight of these orphans as a way of recruiting for religion. I admired the idea of setting up housing and schools, but I just wanted an assurance that these kids would be left to think for themselves.

After several attempts to get my point across, I gave up and was forced to end the conversation.

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A version of this article appeared in the Feb 3 issue of the Collegiate Times.