Fighting Child Kidnapping by Kidnapping Children

So. My brilliant academic friend Gwen sent me this article yesterday:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/04/christian-vigilante-201004

And at first I thought it was pretty fantastic since it makes free use of phrases like “crazed warlord!” and “dealing death!” and “found his calling in this quest for a killer!” ALL IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH and what sort of writer has the guts to do that? and who WOULDN’T love it at first, in the same way one might love an article in The Onion?

Of course, as I kept reading, more phrases began standing out.

Like, um:

An arms depot stands at the heart of his orphanage.

and

I remember once asking Childers whether any villagers had ever declined his offer to take their children [to his orphanage], or whether he had ever taken any against their will. He erupted angrily: “You know what? I don’t have time to be distracted by this sort of interrogation.”

I mean, shit. Forgetting the ridiculous style of the article (another phrase: “Those are people who deserve to die,” Childers says. And a wide grin stretches across his face.) and the cluelessness of the author, that’s messed up and serious and called child abduction or, if it’s across borders as it sounds, couldn’t he go down for trafficking? (Recruitment for cults is defined as exploitation.)

The fact that an article like this can be printed in a widely read magazine and there aren’t immediately police circling this man’s house is f-ed up.