Posted on 01/14/2010 12:37:41 PM PST by La Lydia
Call Pat Robertson crazy or, worse yet, insensitive for his remarks following the earthquake in Haiti. To a reasonable person (by which I mean an NPR listener's self-concept), the notion Tuesday's 7.3 magnitude earthquake was punishment for a 200 year old pact with the Devil sounds crazy or, worse yet, insensitive. This perhaps particularly so to a reasonable person recalling Robertson's remarks along similar lines following 9/11. The trouble for critics of Robertson's insensitivity (I have seen no sympathy for the devil troubling him), is that Haitians say much the same thing themselves.
The commonly accepted date for the start of Haiti's slave revolution against the French is August 22, 1791, the date a voodoo priest named Dutty Boukman presided over a ceremony at Bois Caïman. Whether or not such a ceremony ever took place is beside the point, it is an important part of Haiti's national mythology and, I would argue, Haiti's national mystique.p>
Most reasonable people would be skeptical as to the efficacy of Boukman's ritual in its own terms. This is because most reaonable claim to respect cultural difference but actually think voodoo is superstitious bullshit. Academics would attribute the power of Boukman's rite - and its memory - to revolutionary theatre not to divine - let alone infernal - intervention. That most Haitains really do believe in voodoo does not trouble reasonable people in the slightest; reasonable people could not care less what Haitians think about anything, let alone a 200 year old voodoo rite.
What reasonable people do care about is pretending to celebrate religious diversity but actually kicking religious diversity if it is of the Christian variety. Pat Robertson's real crime was aesthetic. If he had expressed much the same views while sacrificing a chicken to the gods he would have gotten a pass, even a pat on the head.
Here is what bothers me about the criticism leveled at Pat Robertson by reasonable people, including the criticism off all too many reasonable conservatives: If it is fine for Western academics to celebrate "the voodoo revolution" as part of Haiti's rich historical tapestry, to stage reenactments of Boukman's voodoo ceremony in New York as revolutionary theatre, it seems turnabout is fair play should a Bible believing evangelical have the temerity to identify vodoo spirits with demons and a voodoo ceremony as a demonic rite. Haitian's themselves have traditionally made this identification themselves, albeit as a syncretic borrowing of European devil imagery into their West African spirit worship.
By all means dismiss Robertson's beliefs as nonsense if you will but do not blame the man for doing what the Left cannot quite manage, taking Haitians at their word about their own history. Jihadis everywhere are familiar with the problem; no matter how many times they try to tell us why they want us killed or converted the Left insists these doctors and engineers and billionnaire's sons are revolutionary proletarians with a colourful religious vernacular. Only a few latter day Crusaders have the courtesy to respect Muslim beliefs concerning holy war for what they are and to take jihadi statements as to their intentions at face value.
To place Robertson's analysis in context, tell me how the Left's version of witchcraft - vulgar economic reductionism - is any less condescending, any less inappropriate to the ongoing horror for survivors.
Haiti's cultural traditions also have their part to play in making the standard of living there lower than anywhere in the Caribbean and most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The prevailing belief in voodoo continues to mean that many Haitians reject modern medicine in favour of more traditional practices. A visit to the village witch doctor is for many Haitian parents the first port of call when their child falls ill. Without access to clean water and without treatment for basic illnesses the child mortality rate in Haiti is one in five, with diarrhoea, malaria and TB the most common causes of death.
Ironically for the only country ever to have had a successful slave revolt, child enslavement is also a culturally accepted practice in Haiti.
Unfortunately, that’s not what the Bible says. Throughout the Bible you will see many of examples of those who deliberately chose not to obey God and worship him. In fact, many civilizations were completely destroyed for their hatered of God.
I do agree that we should be praying for these people, but praying that God takes this situation and gives glory to His name and that those people repent of their sins and turn to Him for their salvation.
Exodus 20:5 - “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”
Deuteronomy 5:9 - “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”
Exodus 34:6-7 - “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
“...no one but God fully understands all of the reasons for His providential acts.”
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That says it all — in our arrogance we try to bring the infinite God down to our finite level of thinking.
Haitian’s worship evil spirits while hiding under the mask of Christianity.
When the Voodoo priest Boukman prayed in 1791, he sought to “banish out the God of the White man” and bring in their god.. He said their god is good and the “God of the White” man commits crimes.
Not theoretical. Not by a long shot.
I cringed when I heard him, too, but Pat Robertson did not make this up.
Aristide tried to renew the pact in 1991, but it was broken by missionaries in 1997.
Interesting historical article from 2004 with many links.
http://www.americandaily.com/article/95
That is fascinating. Thank you so much for posting. You ought to post that article in News for people’s info.
The tribes of the Old Testament kept combining pagan idol worship and superstitious sacrificial rituals borrowed from other religions with their true faith too. If memory serves me correctly, God was less than approving.
Interesting the part about how much the Clinton's helped Aristide hold onto power, and it struck me that they must have taught him rules for radicals too. Note how he: dissolved the army, and set up his own domestic security forces; did bank swindling to destroy the savings of the middle class and then pitted the rich against the poor; was heavily involved in the drug trade; these are all straight out of Alyinsky's Rules.And of course he would declare voodoo a national religion, as the book and techniques are dedicated to satan.
So the Clinton's, and Obama (remember his actions on behalf of his cousin in Kenya), and other students of Alynski have, practiced and honed their Alynski techniques on other nations, in preparation for their attempt on this one.
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Reliable source please.
bookmark
“Whether something happens or not is always superfluous to the story”
Like Washington cutting down the cherry tree!
There is no record of any such ceremony. There is no record of any iron pig statue anywhere. The hundreds of Haitians whom I know and have known for years laugh at this nonsense.
But, you go right ahead and keep pushing it, as long as it makes you feel like a good Christian.
Wow..what got you all fired up. No need to attack me. Calm yourself. The author is from Haiti and it appears a credible source. The way you act there is no Voodoo.
“On July 8 1998, the Ministry of Culture issued an order prohibiting the 3 Protestants from assembling in the Bois Caiman area. The three Protestant leaders were arrested on Aug. 2 when trying to defy the order.”
“The origin of the 13-year Haitian revolution is traced to a voudou ceremony held at Bois Caiman, near the northern city of Cap Haitien, on the night of Aug. 13-14, 1791 and presided over by a slave and voudou priest named Boukman. Now 207 years later, a band of right-wing Protestants has launched an evangelical crusade to posthumously “convert” Boukman to Christianity.”
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/520.html
The “inconvenient truth” is that it was black racism that got Haiti in this mess.
Papa Doc Duvalier used the black peoples’ resentment of the lighter-skinned Creoles and Mulattos that comprised a good portion of Haiti’s productive class. He formed the Tonton Macoutes to terrorize these people, and distributed the spoils amongst them. As a result, most of Haiti’s middle and upper classes either were massacred, or left the country. The resulting brain drain is the reason Haiti is where it is today.
Before Duvalier, Haiti, while by no means a paradise, at least had a working economy and while people were considered poor, they weren’t starving.
The whole thrust of the "good Christians" on these threads is that there is some truth to a recent legend of some Haitians making a pact with Satan two hundred years ago and that pact is the reason that Haitian babies were crushed to death in an earth quake.
There is a certian brand of ugliness of spirit in this.
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