Can Haiti Be Helped?

The Caribbean island nation of Haiti has struggled politically and economically for many decades. A crumbling infrastructure and extreme poverty continue to plague its people. In 2021 Haiti’s president was assassinated, and for the last couple of years politically connected gangs have terrorized the country (The Guardian, March 21, 2023).

According to the United Nations, since 2023 began, 531 Haitians have been killed, 300 have been injured, and 277 people have been kidnapped. Snipers are reportedly shooting people in their homes, many in the overwhelmed police force have mutinied, and the nation appears to be collapsing. This has prompted the UN to call for an international “specialized support force” to slow “Haiti’s accelerating tumble into extreme violence.” Yet international leaders are concerned about getting involved in another protracted peace-keeping mission—in this case, to suppress gang violence. The situation in Haiti appears hopeless. Yet Haiti is just one of many nations that are unraveling.

The Apostle Paul warned that, at the end of the age, societies around the globe would begin to crumble, showing increasing signs of being abusive, unfeeling, “brutal, despisers of good” and “lovers of money” (2 Timothy 3:1–3). This sort of world is exactly what we are beginning to witness—a society filled with those who care more about themselves than about others or their countries. Yet, international peacekeepers are not the solution. Without a common morality, peace cannot come. It will not be until Jesus Christ returns as the King of kings, bringing with Him God’s law as the backbone of a new society, that true and lasting peace will finally become possible. In fact, that law will “go forth” from Jerusalem and result in nations’ converting their weapons into implements of agriculture and no longer learning the ways of war and destruction (Isaiah 2:2–4). True and lasting peace will eventually come to Haiti and the other nations on the earth, but it will be brought by the Prince of Peace, not human peacekeepers! To learn more, be sure to listen to or read “Did Christ Fail in His Mission to Bring Peace?”