What disaster will God send to punish T.V. Land for Pat Robertson?

All over the news of course is the terrible earthquake in Haiti that killed some 100,000 people. And so is Pat Robertson who thinks that the Haitians had it coming because they made a pact with the devil to expel the French in late 18th century.

Pat Robertson

On his totally nutbar TV show “700 club” Robertson had this to say:

Cut and paste from the CNN story linked above:

The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “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.’ “

Native Haitians defeated French colonists in 1804 and declared independence.

“You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”

This is surely a vile thing to say. Robertson is apparently picking up on an old tradition that Haitian spiritualists once made sacrifices to ensure success in their bid from independence from France. From a Time.com article:

The theory that Haiti is a nation built on a pact with the devil has circulated on a number of websites, each tracing back to an apocryphal tale of Haitian voodoo priests sacrificing a pig and drinking its blood in 1791 in order to secure Satan’s aid in expelling the French occupation. In return, the priests are said to have promised Haiti to Satan for the next 200 years. The French were soon beat back, and in 1804, Haiti became an independent nation. But even if you believe the story (something many historians doubt), Satan’s lease on the tiny island nation should have expired in 1991.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1953504,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0cZ286frJ

Now, what really offends me is not that Robertson is seeing everything, even the death of maybe 100,000 people and all the associated heartbreak and suffering through the bullshit stained glasses of a smug-ass self-righteous apocalyptic world-view in which everything happens happens to prove him right. I’m used to that. What REALLY pisses me off is the idea of corporate guilt that Robertson holds. So the hell what if a bunch of Voodoo priest sacrificed a pig or a half dozen hamsters? Who in their right mind would hold a whole nation to account for what a few people have done 2oo years ago? Should the children be punished for the sins of their fathers? Will the God of righteousness not do what is right?

The conception of corporate guilt is, not exclusively religious although it is splattered all over the Bible. Flood the whole freaking world, burn it all, kill everyone who doesn’t believe or was born into the wrong tribe. It is also a strategy for war-mongers of all persuasions and for people just trying to “fight for peace”. “Corporate culpability” has marked Jews as Christ-killers, cheats and demons. Want to win the War on Terror? Ignore “collateral damage”, hell, they deserved it. To save a village sometimes you have destroy it. To root out Nazism from Europe you must carpet-bomb whole cities.

The bizarre dualism of some forms of modern Christianity is a blight on the world. It breaks the world into two camps The “Saved” and the “Miserable Jerks who Deserve Whatever Crap Happens to Them”. It is the abandonment of the world and obligations to it other than doing the world the favour of advertising one’s own narcissistic holier than thou ideology as something they can have for their very own. This, of course, is despite the fact that P. R. is getting very rich in worldly treasures for peddling this crap) for an illusory “higher purpose” that does nothing alleviate suffering but to help people ignore it, or, worse, enjoy it when it happens to others.

Now, what REALLY REALLY offends me is that so much of the media takes Robertson seriously as a “Christian leader”. He is a nut, and a damn dangerous one. The rise of instant global communication should make people feel more connected, more able to tell their stories and be heard as real human beings and to see others as such. Robertson’s media “empire” reduces the world to the scene of a perverse apocalyptic and sadistic masturbation in which Pat and Co. will soon have their big eschatological climax if they just focus on how God is stroking their fantasies about the violence and the seductive “dark side” (with apologies to G. Lucas).

By merely mentioning that Robertson is “controversial” and not a total fucking wack-job, the mainstream media lets him get away with it. And that’s a pity.