“standing in cluster of men last week in stare-off with the police” is double Times pidgin-English, missing “a” before both “cluster” and “stare-off,” @porterthereport. pic.twitter.com/CoAWtBsNq8
— Typos of the New York Times (@nyttypos) July 21, 2021
In 2018, I was blessed to visit Haiti with an American mission team and write about a Christian humanitarian aid organization that drills water wells around the world.
I keep thinking about that trip — and the amazing people I met — as I read about the latest turmoil facing that Caribbean island nation.
This week, I hand off the top part of my column to ReligionUnplugged’s managing editor, Meagan Clark. She found an interesting detail about the self-described pastor accused in the Haitian president’s assassination:
By Meagan Clark
An American suspect in Haiti’s presidential assassination, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 63, was arrested at his gated home in Port-au-Prince by Haitian police last week.
Sanon identifies himself on social media as a “Medical Doctor and Christian Minister.” The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, may have been the first to unearth that Sanon did not have a license to practice medicine in Florida. At ReligionUnplugged, we wondered about his faith background, credentials and motivations.
The New York Times, TIME and others reported that Sanon attended Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, citing the Florida Baptist Historical Society. But when I called Midwestern, the registrar’s office said the school has no records of Sanon ever attending, online or in-person.
A Florida Baptist Society representative told ReligionUnplugged that Sanon wrote in a biographical profile of himself that he attended Midwestern, and the society relies on honesty to compile its biographies. The representative said that in fact, the society has since learned that Sanon attended a training course that Midwestern sponsored, not the seminary itself. The Florida Baptist Society has updated its website.
Sanon pastored Tabarre Evangelical Tabernacle in Haiti, The Associated Press reported, citing 2013 U.S. bankruptcy records and an unnamed friend of Sanon’s. That church apparently does not have an online presence.
That friend also said Sanon was approached by people he believed were U.S. officials who would arrest the former president, not kill him. The AP also reported that Sanon helped on faith-based humanitarian projects in Haiti, including serving as president of the organization Rome Haiti that sent supplies after the 2010 earthquake.
The Washington Post reported that Sanon presented plans to turn Haiti into “a free and open society” and then obtained a private security force to protect him until he became Haiti’s president. Sanon was to eventually pay for the security using the country’s assets, and Sanon obtained more than $860,000 in loans for ammunition, transportation, accommodations and more, according to draft plans the Post obtained.
The police investigation may offer up more details, but in the meantime, we wonder: Was Sanon duped and ignorant of the murder plot? Is Sanon a faithful man of God? Was he using the social status of a pastor to further his plans to assume the presidency?
Stay tuned.
Thank you, Meagan.
Didn’t expect to see my underwear in the Times today.
But these requested reforms seem eminently doable. Should be pretty easy: get some female fashion designers on the job and make it work! No reason this can’t be a yes (sacred)-and (comfortable). https://t.co/LvLqrGVymI
— Patrick Mason (@patrickqmason) July 21, 2021
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Among Mormon women, frank talk about sacred underclothes: Have we mentioned lately that the Godbeat is never boring?
Enter New York Times religion writer Ruth Graham with an insightful story on the undergarments worn by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Women, the Times reports, are venting “their frustrations with the holy apparel: itchy hems, bunchy seams, pinching waistbands and even chronic yeast infections caused by fabric that does not breathe.”
2. Wally Funk’s church celebrates her Blue Origin spaceflight: ‘What an inspiration she’s been to us all’: National reporter Emily McFarlan Miller is a key piece (along with Jack Jenkins) of Religion News Service’s unofficial “Religion in Space” team.
Miller’s feature on the home church of Funk — the 82-year-old pilot who this week became the oldest person in space — is a delightful read.
Equally fascinating: Jennifer Graham’s Deseret News piece on “God, space and Jeff Bezos.” (Hint: There wasn’t much God).
CONTINUE READING: “Fact Check: Who Is The Pastor Accused In Haiti’s Presidential Assassination?”, by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.
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