CovenantNews.com

In Defense of Pat Robertson

Bryan Fischer / RenewAmerica:
Robertson did not say that God caused the earthquake. What he said, if people actually listened rather than reacting with hysterical hissy fits, is that Haiti's grinding poverty is a result of its pact with the devil. "Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another, desperately poor." It is a matter of historical record that Haiti's independence from France is, in fact, rooted in a pact with the devil made on August 14, 1791 by a group of voodoo priests led by a former slave named Boukman. The pact was made at a place called Bois-Caiman, and the tree under which a black pig was sacrificed in this ceremony is still a shrine in Haiti. Annual voodoo ceremonies are conducted every August 14 on this very site, essentially renewing the covenant with darkness each summer. (According to many reports, an iron statue of a pig stood for many years in Port-au-Prince in commemoration of the Boukman contract with the devil.)

Related:
Haitians devoted to Christianity and Voodoo
see hand of God in earthquake devastation
The Associated Press:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Deeply religious Haitians see the hand of God in the destruction of Biblical proportions visited on their benighted country. The quake, religious leaders said Sunday, is evidence that He wants change. Exactly what change He wants depends on the faith: Some Christians say it's a sign that Haitians must deepen their faith, while some Voodoo followers see God's judgment on corruption among the country's mostly light-skinned elite. And then there's American evangelist Pat Robertson, who said Wednesday that Haiti had been cursed by a pact he said its slave founders made with the devil two centuries ago to overthrow their French rulers and become the world's first black republic. The White House called his remarks "stupid."

Posted by Editor at January 21, 2010 12:12 AM