Pat Robertson #fundie

Pat Robertson #fundie youtube.com

"And you know, Christy, 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, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince, true story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor."

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old comment by CailinBan

Here is a letter that was published in the Minneapolis Star in response to this:

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Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 21, 2010

Dear Pat Robertson,
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher.

The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake.

Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

old comment by Skyknight

Christopher: Keep in mind that there's an OLD conceit that if it's associated with divinity in any measure, but isn't expressly declaring itself to be God the Father and/or the Christ, it's a demon trying to steal God's glory and lead humanity into ruin.

Rallymodeller: Of course, there's the inverse of this. Ones like Robertson think THEY can do NOTHING without God's witting approval. Apparently, nothing in the physical world can happen without some sort of supernatural impetus. I have to wonder if they're INTENTIONALLY trying to devalue the physical experience. But even should an afterlife prove to be real, why would the previous life be strictly inferior/worthless? What cause does the butterfly have to scorn the leaves it fed on as a caterpillar?

old comment by Pacal

Quote

"#1102362
Rufus

You could say that their independance was a deal that they made with the devil, if you're insane. Or it might have had something to do with the French being largely unable to actually get any troops there, what with the French navy having been shredded at Trafalgar shortly earlier."

Actually Trafalger, 1805 occured after the Haitian's drove the French out 1804. The story of the alleged pact with Satan originated with two stories. In the first a Voodoo Shaman named Boukman allegedly, before the slave rebellion started in 1791, conducted a ceremony with the other leaders pledging themselves to drive the fight the french and achieve freedom. The first accounts of this story are 20 years later in pro-french accounts which describe the whole thing in lurid colours and insinuate some sort of pact with evil. Assuming the cerremony did happen it was probably a lot less lurid and further the chief God in VooDoo is a good guy not Satan.

The second source is the story that Dessines, the leader who lead the Haitians in driving out the French in 1802-1804, after Toussaint L'Overture had been deported to France, allegedly claimed to have made a deal with the devil to drive the French out. Unlike the first story this one seems to be completely bogus.

But why should we be surprised That Pat claims that only rebellious slaves who succeded in driving out their owners in a truly horrible almost genocidal, all sides behaving very badly, slave rebellion had to have help from Satan. THe fact that that French colonial regime and slavery in Haiti was so terrible that the death rate was double the birth rate and that the population was only kept up by massive slave imports from Africa, so that in 1791 2/3rds of the population had been born in Africa, is ignored by Pat. But then the owners were white, and so of course not in league with Satan ever. But then I suspect that Pat thinks slavery was God's will for the slaves.

old comment by Alethe

Of course, the fact they're 'desperately poor' has nothing whatsoever to do with the crushing reparations Haiti had to pay to France (paying, in effect, for every freed slave; IIRC, Haiti finally made its last payment in 1946, 152 years later after it gained its freedom), nor to the sorry string of murderous puppets put in power by various Western interests (Jean-Claude Duvalier and his son, for instance) all these years.

I have this suspicion the West (i.e., the old Colonial powers) never forgave Haiti for having been the first colony ever to free itself, a dangerous example it had to pay for...

This rant done, let me add that statement alone warrants M. Robertson a stay in a nice hotel with kind, white-dressed staff. This is padded room-grade insanity!

Pat Robertson #fundie youtube.com

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