With as little of the news I watch these days it's no wonder that I missed the whole Robertson-Limbaugh angle on Haiti, even with all of the extra hours I've clocked in at the tv watching this catastrophe unfold. So I appreciate, I guess, wingman asking if I had heard what they said."No" I answered. "I suppose it's something about God's judgement and fault of theirs that they are poor". Spot on.
If you're unfamiliar with Pat Robertson's Haitian deservedness angle, I'll fill you in. On Robertson's 700 Club he stated that all Haiti suffers because their ancestors made a pact with the devil during the slave revolt in 1791. In my life, I've never heard of this, but I assumed he had to have something to be basing this on. So I went looking for this piece of information. This is the "pact with the devil":
The god who created the sun which gives light; who rouses the waves and rules the storms, though hidden in the cloud he watches us. He sees all that the white man does. The god of the white man inspires him with crime, but our god calls upon us to do good works. Our god who is good to us orders us to revenge wrongs. He will direct our arms and aid us. Throw away the symbol of the god of the whites who so often has caused us to weep, and listen to the voice of liberty, which speaks in the hearts of us all.
Does that sound like a pact with Satan? one blogger writes. I think not. What comes through this "pact" loud and clear is the terror brought upon the Haitians by the hands of whites and their rejection of a god who would condone or act through men who would perpetrate such wrong. Who could blame them? Personally, I do believe in a "covering" that can transcend generations based on past wrongs; I believe it may be what ails river city. It's remarkable to me that African-American slaves chose to worship God, even when their "owners" worshipped the same.
My tolerance for Robertson ended some time ago; this just further endears him to me. If Pat believes that Haiti is suffering because of sin, what great calamity is about to land on the church of America? If sin is sin, and I believe it is, what great calamity will befall a "stiff-necked" and indulgent breed found in the church today? Pat-you don't have to go looking off-shore as a way to deflect God's judgement on a woefully sinful people. It's time you take a look at your own audience and with the same fervor warn them that God's punishment may come to them. We know from scripture that "whom the Lord loves, He chaseneth". So are we to say that God chooses to punish Haiti because He loves them more than people who call Him Father?
Or might it be, despite Robertson's words laced with poison, that God may be looking for His church to reach out and show compassion at this time? Could it be that, much like the lame man who could not walk, no sin was committed by the Haitians, or their fathers, but for the very purpose of God being glorified through the church being the compassionate hand of God?
As for Rush. I don't know what can be said. He believes that President Obama's quick action in Haiti was to boost his ratings. I suppose we should expect the president to move slower and let people die. I mean, heck, that worked in New Orleans. I think Rush & Pat were both looking for ratings, but their words expose something that is black in their core. A blog I frequent assured its readers that "this is not the typical christian or conservative perspective". I wish I could believe that.....I really do.
4 comments:
The truth is that they did make a pact with the devil.
Now the significance you put on that pact I guess has to do with whether you believe the devil is real or not.
But it is one of Haiti’s founding myths.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/small_axe/v009/9.2laroche.html
According to Haitian national history, the revolutionary war was launched on the eve of a religious ceremony at a place in the north called Bwa Kayiman (Bois Caiman, in French). At that ceremony on August 14, 1791, an African slave named Boukman sacrificed a pig, and both Kongo and Creole spirits descended to possess the bodies of the participants, encouraging them and fortifying them for the upcoming revolutionary war. Despite deep ambivalence on the part of intellectuals, Catholics, and the moneyed classes, Vodou has always been linked with militarism and the war of independence and, through it, the pride of national sovereignty.
So, yeah if there is a devil, Haiti made a pact with it. Might explain why even though Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island, the Dominican Republic has been far more successful.
Wow HR the Anonymous quote is over the top....I guess trying to escape slavery and an oppressive
French government caused a group to stir itself into action and a revolution ensued and because those first revolutionaries were practicing a native religion that means they sold their souls to the devil. I guess the Boston Tea Party that provoked the people to ultimately revolt in America was the work of Satan too! Oh and by the way this clown took a swipe at "Catholics" which I predicted would happen and you insisted that it wouldn't! Wingman
Or, Mr. Anonymous, perhaps this terrible tragedy has nothing to do with a supernatural reckoning of any sort and is simply a horrific natural disaster made worse by the poor conditions in which the Haitians already lived caused by generations of enslavement, corruption, war and exploitation. The Christian call, in my opinion, is not to find supernatural causes for natural disasters but simply to show mercy, compassion and generosity to those in desperate need. If there's anything supernatural at work, it's in those who choose to not exercise their God-given intelligence to believe that Hait's "pact with the devil" is somehow the reason for its current troubles. Talk about pacts with the devil seems so medieval. Sometimes I wonder whether the Christian Right missed the Age of Enlightenment.
Anon-so then you do believe, based on the conclusion that the DR is better off than Haiti, the devil is real and Haiti suffers due to the pact.
Hard to draw that conclusion. For example: Starke County for years has been poorest among its neighbors. Is that because of some unknown pact with the devil? I'd rather come down on the side of believing and bearing all things and show love rather than what Pat is espousing.
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