Free Republic

The White House on Thursday dismissed a comment by evangelical preacher Pat Robertson that Haiti's earthquake was retribution for the country swearing a "pact to the devil" as "utterly stupid." Robertson weighed in on Haiti's history on his Christian Broadcasting Network show "The 700 Club" on Wednesday. Haitians were originally "under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil," said the 80-year-old former presidential candidate. "They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so,...

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...