Timothy Egan on The Missionary Impulse is worth your time. An excerpt:
At the least, the curious case of Laura Silsby raises questions about cultural imperialism: what makes a scofflaw from nearly all-white Idaho with no experience in adoption or rescue services think she has a right to bring religion and relief to a country with its own cultural, racial and spiritual heritage?
Imagine if a voodoo minister from Haiti had shown up in Boise after an earthquake, looking for children in poor neighborhoods and offering ‘opportunities for adoption’ back to Haiti. He could say, as those who followed Silsby explained on a Web site, that ‘the unsaved world needs to hear’ from the saved.
Who says they are “unsaved?” …
As Egan says, “Blame it on the missionary impulse, a lingering personality disorder of Western culture.”