a1169: Re: Evangelicals in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: riwilson <RIWILSON@maf.org>

     I do not write often on the list, but I read it daily.  And I want to
     point out the fallacy of generalizations I read being used by many who
     claim that all evangelicals (I suppose meaning all non-Catholic
     foreign Christian workers) in Haiti are using food and medicine to win
     converts.  This is not so.

     I am director of a four year Bible Institute in Port-au-Prince.  It's
     patterned after any four or five year school you would find in the
     States.  Our sole objective is to train preachers for local churches
     and to start new ones.

     We do not offer any incentives for students to come.  We offer no
     scholarships, food, medicine or employment (with the exceptions of two
     student-guards and 3-5 translators who are paid by the week to
     translate for our teachers in classes).  Each class runs for five days
     for two hours per day for a period of eight weeks three times per
     year. Our tuition is 25 Gourds per trimester.

     This last fall we had seventy students enrolled.  Of these about
     twenty-five received scholarship help from sources other than the
     school at a rate of $50 U.S. while they are enrolled in school.  If
     they drop out or fail or graduate that money stops.

     So far we have graduated 62.  Of those, all but three that we know of
     are preaching in Haiti.

     We often have students and graduates come and ask us to put them to
     work in a "mission".  We continually emphasize to them that we do not
     do that.  We expect them to go out and start their own congregations.
     We also expect the Haitian's to support their own churches and
     preachers, without missionary or foreign support.  Any preacher can
     support himself with outside employment as well as with the
     congregation's help.  We do this to avoid creating or supporting "Rice
     Christians" and continuing to support or helping to foster a national
     dependency on foreign support (which is already endemic to the
     Christian community in Haiti, as well as around the world).

     To say that all evangelicals are guilty of using food and medical care
     to attract and make converts is patently wrong.

     Generalizations are drawn from specific instances.  But one specific
     instance which does not support the generalization or thesis can
     invalidate the generalization.

     Richard Wilson