Has this whole spectacle of the New Lifer’s arrests in Haiti and the ensuing international incident taught the people involved any kind of lesson, led to any form of remorse (other than their remorse at being caught red-handed), or dissuaded them from their current intended course of actions?

Apparently not.

By way of keeping this post short and to the point, I’m going to focus tightly down to five quotes from two articles:

Baptist Pastor: We’d Do It Again in Haiti from February 2nd

and

Detained US missionary: I’d come back to Haiti which as I write this is less than 24 hours old.

You would think that sitting in a Haitian jail for a few weeks might help Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter pull their heads out of their collective asses as far as not becoming re-entangled in the complexities of child custody and the so called “orphan” trade and adoptions in relation to Haitian children, but no.

Not having the benefit of access to media in their cell, they apparently blithely want nothing more than to continue on with their adoption centered so called “Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission” upon their release.

Laura Silsby (from here):

…she wants to go ahead with setting up that orphanage…

Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter (from here):

…both of us would come back to Haiti…

&

We would definitely come back to help them once this misunderstanding or whatever you want to call it is sorted out.

In light of such personal delusion and failure to comprehend that they have done anything wrong, if the Judge releases them, I suppose we can expect to see these New Lifers headed right back into Haiti for “orphans round 2” the sequel, instead of experiencing new lives behind bars.

Then you have we haven’t learned a damn thing comments such as the below from the assistant pastor of the church that used its tax status to collect money to send their members Silsby, Coulter, Carla Thompson (the church’s “missions director”) and others to Haiti.

(Again, I remain convinced “New Life Children’s Refuge” is best described as Central Valley Baptist Church’s Haitian “orphans” mission, it being an almost wholy owned subsidiary of CVBC and CVBC’s members. )

Central Valley Baptist Church’s assistant pastor Drew Ham (from here):

Based on the information we have, I’m not sure that we would do anything different. I think they did handle it in the best manner possible.

Which again, comes back to that “we’d do it again” aspect of  the article, but goes further implying they wouldn’t do anything differently if given the chance (other than of course, the getting caught part.)

So, the question becomes, just how serious is Central Valley Baptist Church about doing it again?

That’s not a question I can answer, but it is a question the Judge should weigh heavily as he contemplates releasing these child traffickers.

Finally, you have the adoption industry’s reaction and response to the New Lifers, and how much their actions threw a wrench into the industry’s ongoing demands that Haiti ‘open up and make adoptions easier,’ that were commonly heard long before the earthquake.

National Council for Adoption’s (NCFA’s) chief operating officer, Chuck Johnson (from here):

…calls the Baptist group’s actions a “critical mistake” that could undercut efforts to expand adoptions.

Yeah, you heard that right, Johnson and NCFA can’t condemn Silsby and the New Lifer’s actions, all they can do is bemoan how these rank amateurs got in the industry’s way, essentially getting underfoot and tripping up the industry’s best laid plans at export expansion.

They drew too much attention to the issue at exactly the point Haitian adoptions are currently going through the roof, making it a bit more difficult for the industry on the public relations front, even as the child exports continue.

So, lessons learned?

Hell no.

If anything, all four want to come back for more Haitian kids (each in their own way, of course.)

It takes sheer unmitigated gall to get caught with your hand in the cookie jar only to proudly announce and promise that the minute watchful eyes are taken off you, you’ll be getting right back in there, all over again.