I’m not sure which forum this should be in but I guess it has some sort of factual answer to it.
The hubub yesterday about the Haitians having it coming to them because of the deal they made with the devil “according to Pat Robertson” got me to do a little digging.
Robertson was referring to the violent Haitian slave rebellion against French colonialists back around 1800. Slaves won.
So what is this “deal with the devil” that Robertson is referring to? Is it the mixing of African vodou with christianity then success at removing the French that Robertson thinks was “the deal”?
That’s pretty interesting. Although if they performed this ceremony in 1791 and it gave satan control of Haiti for 200 years shouldn’t his lease have ended in 1991?
It’s generally not a good idea to inquire too carefully into what Robertson says, because there’s a lot of crazy there. But you can get more information here, where it’s mentioned, and argued against, written an Evangelical Haitian American minister.
Basically, there’s a legend that, in 1791, a guy named Boukman Dutty, who might have been a houngan and might not have been (there’s a debate whether he was Catholic or Voudon) had a meeting at Bois Caiman with a bunch of slave leaders where they planned the slave revolt that turned into the Haitian revolution. They sacrificed a pig, swore an oath that they wouldn’t stop fighting until they were dead or all the slaves were freed, and then Boukman said the following prayer:
So, of course, the legend of the Bois Caiman meeting sparked another legend, which is that, at the meeting, Boukman didn’t pray to God, he prayed to the devil and made a pact with him. Because, of course, said the people who started the legend, slavery is divinely ordained, so how could God help a slave revolt, and why would God help black people over white people anyway? Besides, Haiti’s a mess, so obviously it can’t have been divinely favored. It must have been due to a deal with the devil.
You are assuming that the devil keeps his promises. I once tried to write a short story where a guy renounces all connection with God and His protection, and the devil promises to give him long life and riches in return. The guy says the words of renunciation, and then the devil immediately grabs him and begins to drag him off to hell.
“What are you doing! You promised me riches!” yells the guy.
The devil responds, “I lied. Who are you gonna complain to?”
I thought the story about Haiti was something Pat Robertson made up. Turns out there is at least a Wiki cite for it. Go figure.
It’s a real pity Robertson couldn’t find some way to blame this on homosexuals. I only need one more square in the “Homosexual Destruction of Civilization” column to complete my Evangelical Nutbag Bingo card.
It’s important to recognize that Robertson’s ideas have no scriptural basis at all. The biblical devil works through the hearts of men, not through the Earth’s crust. There is no biblical story of the devil razing a city. There are plenty of stories of God doing it, but none of the Devil doing it. The devil is a tempter who has no real power of his own, but can subvert the will of others into doing his bidding. So unless there was a Haitian with powers like Samuel from Heroes who made a pact with the devil, then there’s no basis for this.
I think it was based on fact the people there often believe in voodoo, which is in fact trying to invoke the devil, so maybe he is not entirely crazy, just an old man who may not express all his thoughts well.
I think he was saying that God did it as punishment, not that the Devil did it. He has a long history of attributing natural disasters to God’s wrath. He and Jerry Falwell also said that 9/11 was God’s punishment on America for abortion and gays.
It’s not really clear if Robertson thinks its the devil causing the quake, or God doing it to punish the Haitians for their ‘pact’. Given his previous statements that other disasters (Katrina) were punishments from God, I think we can give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he thinks God caused the quake, and not the devil.
Not that that makes him less crazy, but at least he’s on firmer scriptural ground.
Well just because a cite says voodoo has no devil calling in it does not mean it is true. There are plenty of writings as well that the communists and nazis are nice folks too and just doing good, as well as the kkk, there would be plenty of such material around to cite.
Maybe ALL voodoo is not evil, I can agree to that. But I have seen 18th century idols and stuff, and those dolls they stick pins in, not doing it to help promote the good guy I don’t think.