Television theologian Pat Robertson attributes Haiti’s current woes to a two-century-old pact:
[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti.… They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.” True story. And so, the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” … Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.…
Pact with the devil? True story??
The Haitians threw off the French long before the rule of Napoleon III … but, whatever. It is doubtful that any amount of thumbing through an encyclopedia before going on air would have saved Pat.
Soon after the Robertson clip we got the clip from actor Danny Glover. Glover says climate change caused the earthquake. Apparently, he was mad about the failed summit. “They’re all in peril because of global warming … because of climate change.… When we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens.…”
Hey, why not? “Global warming” causes everything! Maybe even the heated hectoring of Pat and Danny.
Where’s the common sense?
Oh, here: This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “Haiti on the Hot Seat”
The Haitian official responding to Pat’s comment did admit that the leaders of the slave revolt offered their country to Satan if he would make their revolt successful. And it is the only slave revolt to successfully overthrow their overlord. And it has been estimated that about 50% of Haitians subscribe to Voudoo as their religion, which is a Satanic sect. So I would not diss Pat Robertson’s comment. Satan always destroys, never ultimately blesses those whom he owns. I don’t know your belief system, Paul, but I agree with Pat. Now that doesn’t mean that I haven’t helped on relief efforts, in fact, Pat’s relief organization was one of the first to get help and supplies to Haiti.
Actually, Haiti is about 85% Catholic. Where does that put the Devil now?
Robin, only someone who either knows little or nothing about Vodou (the correct spelling) or who believes that anything that falls outside of mainstream Christianity is evil by default would assert that Vodou is satanic. It’s not. It’s a syncretic religion combining elements of West African religions with elements of Christianity. And the vast majority of the people in Haiti who practice it consider themselves Christians.
As for the nonsense about the leaders of the slave revolt offering their country to Satan, you and Pat Robertson are both uninformed fools. What actually happened is that a Haitian priest performed a Vodou ceremony that began the Haitian revolution. It had nothing to do with devil worship whatsoever. There was an animal sacrifice performed as part of the ceremony, in accordance with Vodou beliefs, but this is no more satanic than the animal sacrifices that were performed by Jewish people for centuries in accordance with their religious beliefs.
Heck yeah this is etxacly what I needed.