To recap, he blamed a pact with the Devil for the recent quake in Haiti. There was the usual outrage (a bit naive I think, 1. It was Pat Robertson, 2. It was Pat Robertson, and 3. REALLY IT WAS PAT ROBERTSON). As he said on his 700 Club episode:
"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."
Robertson goes on to say: "ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other".
What he was referring to was the rite at Bois Caïman presided over by Dutty Boukman. To make a long (though terribly engaging) story short: Slaves gathered, ritual was done, and Ezili Dantor was invoked, a pig was sacrificed and revolution was born. Because of this goes the Robertson the people were plagued by corrupt government, AIDS, perpetual economic enslavement by a capitalist white power structure intent on keeping the nation unstable etc.
Now, Pat is theologically sound in his assessment. The Abrahamic faiths stopped acknowledging the existence of other gods right around the time the Jews went to Babylon. (Also interestingly enough about the same time that the duality of God vs Satan entered, and Angels got wings, but who am I to point out that this was an import from Persian myth?) So anything that is not of god must be of HIS (not her you silly feminist, why are you reading this anyway? Go shave your armpits and get pregnant) adversary. So since Haitians are not Christian, they are in league with the Devil. The syllogism looks like this
A. Any divine being worshiped that is not Jesus is actually Satan.
B. Haitians invoked Ezili Dantor in their revolution (not Jesus)
C. Haitians invoked Satan in their revolution
Naturally if A & B are true then C must also be true.
Monotheism by nature sets up this kind of thought process: "I have the TRUTH, therefore your truth, which is different than mine, cannot be correct" and that slippery slope leads a lot of people to die. As Pascal supposedly said "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction" I actually think it is wrong that Christians around the globe have denounced Pat. I cannot stand the man, but their hypocrisy is mind numbing. If they did not believe it and agree with it on some level, they would not spend their time proselytizing their money trying to sway politics or their energy legislating morality. All Pat did was boil off their sanctimony and tell it like it is. So in my mind the internal dialogue went like this:
"Well, gee, when Pat puts it like that, it kind of makes us all sound like douche-bags. I don't want to change anything about my core belief, but I had better make it sound like he is crazy or else no one will ever want a Gideon's again."
Yup. That is what it boils down to for me. I am sure they have their own truth of the matter, and bless em for it.
My closing thought is this: I hope that we do not ever try to spin sending aid to the people of Haiti or anywhere else into a form of indentured status.
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