An Ugly Spiritual American : The Case of Laura Silsby

Laura Silsby came home to Idaho yesterday. After three and a half months in a Hatian jail, the “Idaho Ten” leader was convicted, sentenced to time served and released.

The picture on the front of today’s Idaho Statesman is downright angelic. Silsby sings hymns, eyes raised to the sky, surounded by friends and family. She does acknowledege that she’s lucky to be out of a third world jail. The charges against her for illegally moving children across international borders carried a maximum sentence of 3 years. The prosecuter wanted 6 months. All in a Napoleonic judicial system. For the uninitiated in this legal set-up where a defendent is guilty until proven innocent. The onous is on the accused to prove they didn’t do it, not the prosecution to prove they did.

Silsby and her 9 companions went to Hati, bibles blazing, a couple of weeks after the January 12th earthquake. They tried twice to get 33 children over to the Dominican Republic. All 10 were arrested. Sislby the last to be released. An Atlanta based pastor originally from Hati awaits his legal outcome. He skipped out of the shattered Carribean island before the authorities could find him.

So is Laura Silsby a kind, but stupid woman who didn’t do her homework before jumping on a plane? Did she knowingly deceive Hatian parents, police and others to get what she wanted for her own religious objectives? Her actions last winter hindered other necessary relief efforts at the height of the natural disaster. In the end she did not set up her beachfront orphanage and convert selected Hatian youth to Christianity. Apparently she did give testimony to many of her cell mates. She returns to Boise with a bucketload of personal problems:  legal and financial meltdown of her business, a custody battle for her two dependent children. In a statement to the press she said she just wanted to be with her kids, friends and family. She should have thought of that 5 months ago and kept her Ugly American, “We evangelicals know best” spirituality at home.