Babalu ping
“Whether or not such a ceremony ever took place is beside the point,”
Whether something happens or not is always superfluous to the story
Thank you so much for posting this! I feel exactly the same way. Secularists (and even some conservtives) who attack "wacky" American Biblical Fundamentalists automatically give a pass to everyone and everything else under the sun because it's "quaint" and "we don't have the right to judge." Hypocrites.
Ouch! Did think I’d see anyone defending the Rev’s remarks. But he does have millions of followers. How sad...
I’m not a fan of Robertson so have not followed this story closely at all, but from what I heard he just mentioned the “pact with the devil”. Did he actually say the earthquake was punishment, or has the MSM just inferred this from his statement?
Haiti is over 90% Christian.
What is truly evil is that the grinding poverty has been largely ignored, tolerated by corrupt Haitian leaders, and exploited by the colonists. If the “pact” was indeed made, is irrelevant as what the Haitians “believe” through ignorance and suffering is what has to a great extent limited the progress of that nation (just as it has here).
The fact that another natural disaster has heaped more misery to an already suffering people is simply the event that triggered a response in those who have blithely ignored the existence of the conditions in the Western Hemisphere. What is really the mark of the devil is the indifference and that is happening throughout the Western Hemisphere (and the US/Canada/Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil -- countries that could certainly spare a dime or could have in the past).
Pat Roberrson wrote a book about the history of the New Woprld Order twenty some odd years ago that was lavishly footnoted, beautifully written, and a book every person should read. Underestimate Pastor Robertson’s intellectual abilities at your own peril. His servitude to God is rarely equalled.
I cannot recommend his book highly enough.
His timing may have been off, but if you study Haiti’s political history, it is horrifying.
If you understand the relationship between liberty, prosperity, and rule of law, it should be no surprise that Haiti goes from horror to horror and never gets any better.
Now I’ve got another reason to think Pat Robertson is senile. How can you not like a guy named Dutty Boukman?
As this article suggests, there is a fair amount of fact and history to justify what Robertson said.
Where I have difficulty is in his calmly explaining that this is why God did it. As a Christian, I have religious problems with that. In the first place, no one but God fully understands all of the reasons for His providential acts. As the saying goes, He works in mysterious ways.
I don’t think there’s any question that there’s a lot of evil in Haiti. Violence, witchcraft, voodoo, animal sacrifices, and dealings with demonic forces. Probably some human sacrifice, as in parts of Africa. Also plenty of tyrannical governments. Most Haitians are poor for a reason—because their culture and society are dysfunctional and, yes, often evil.
But just because some leader may have made a pact with the Devil 200 years ago doesn’t necessarily mean that the country suffers under God’s curse today. Yes, it suffers in part because so many of their leaders have been selfish and evil. Children suffer for the sins of their parents because the parents leave a mess behind them. But God doesn’t keep them that way for centuries—they choose to keep themselves that way.
As for the earthquake, it was a natural event. Was there some other reason why God may have let or enabled it to happen now? I don’t know. But I wouldn’t want to risk saying that I am in on God’s secret plans, and know why He did it. To me, that would be a foolish sin of pride.
I don’t think Robertson means to gloat over this disaster. Rather, he means to warn them that they’d better straighten out. But he is presuming to know things that no human being can know.
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
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.