What is it about American Christianists? How can one say that a catastrophic earthquake, with a death toll of at least 100,000 people, and that might rise to half a million, be “a blessing in disguise”?
Well, I don’t hate America, I love ’er – as the Girls put it in West Side Story:
I like to be in America
Okay by me in America
Everything free in America
Not only that, but also:
Skyscrapers bloom in America
Cadillacs zoom in America
Industry boom in America
And Puerto Rico – cheerfully going about its business this ordinary day – as the Sharks might remind us, is only half an island from Haiti, deep in the after-trauma of its killer quake.
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“And [the Haitians] got together and swore a pact to the devil … ever since, they have been cursed …”
And so we turn to Pat Robertson, one of the most prominent of America’s religious leaders, constantly on TV, a man who campaigned to be the Republican Presidential candidate in 1988. On the religious channel CBN he wondered if the earthquake “may be a blessing in disguise.” Then he had this to say:
PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, 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 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.”
And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.
KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.
Watch for yourself. The “blessing in disguise” is in the first 30 seconds:
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Perhaps one could take an upbeat reading of Euripides’ great line: Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius.
Erm, to you and me, that’s “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”
Otherwise, as the sign on a church I pass by regularly advises: “Don’t let Christians put you off Jesus.”
Absolutely, Pat.
4 Comments
Just couldn’t let this go by without remarking how stupifyingly ignorant Robertson is! Or how stupifyingly ignorant is his audience.
I notice the reporter (Alan Horan) seems really shaken by ths tradgedy. This doesn’t phase Robertson who suggests it might be a good thing! “It Might be a blessing in disguise. There might be a massive rebuilding of that country. Is that possible?” Alan Horan”I don’t know. I think that would be a pretty optimistic attitude.”
Of course Pat coul just channel Oral Roberts and send in the 900 foot Jesus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityPlex_Towers
Jared Diamond gives an in depth analysis of the island of Hispaniola in his book collapse.
HHe also said Katrina was punishment for the sin & debauchery of New Orleans and 9/11 due to abortions & homosexualism. The mystery is not that he is allowed on TV but allowed on the street and apparently to handle sharp objects.
There’s something truly sick about a society which can produce the semi-literate ravings of a Pat Robertson-and which gives him free air coverage to spew his hatred to his devoted audience of red-necks-without question.
AR: quotes the man as saying ‘Hurricane Katrina was punishment for the sin and debauchery of New Orleans and 9/11 due to abortions and homosexualism.’
If anyone else but a religious nutter made these same allegations they would be asked to produce the evidence to prove these so called ‘facts’.
I read somewhere that forty percent of Americans believe the world was created by god about five-six thousand years ago-in a week, bah Jimmeny! Where is Charles Darwin when he is needed?
No wonder America has had one of the shortest empires ever. At their peak immediately after WWII and a laughing stock in 2010.
Oral Roberts if memory serves me correctly also made comment after 9/11 that the victims of the NY Twin Towers plane attacks were paying for the sins of our society or words to that effect. He was roundly condemned a the time and he scrambled to clarify his comments with more lame assertions. With the Haitian earthquake disaster and so many black deaths, Paster Oral’s smarmy remarks have a nasty racist undertone that is barely disguised. Incidently, some Muslim fanatics including Mullahs and Immams seized on the 2004 Asian tsunami as evidence of Allah’s wrath and punishment for western sinfulness generally.
There is something decidedly ungodly (and yes sinful) about such daft pronouncements and these reckless speakers have much to answer for. Perhaps they just want to create a stir to gain more notoriety and exposure for their places of worship.Crazed fanatics are not confined to ny one religion or part of the world. Such so-called “men of god” ought to reflect and hang their heads in shame. More views on this and other topics can be found on my Blog http://davidjamesbyerlee.wordpress.com/. Tthe world is much too fragile to be left to the whims of misguided “leaders” in clerical garb.