Pat Robertson Has Lost His Mind

Yesterday Pat Robertson stated that the earthquake in Haiti was the result of Haiti making a pact with the devil during their revolution. It became clear long ago that Robertson does not speak for Christians, yet the media often presents him as a leader in the Church. Pat Robertson has become a source of ridicule for non-believers, and justifiably so. I believe that he is flirting with peril every time he makes such statements -- especially when he speaks in the name of Jesus Christ. I will pray for him and for those who give Pat Robertson the vehicle to be heard in such a big way.

Comments

Michael said…
It is interesting how you have apparently appointed yourself as the spokesperson for the Christian community at large by stating that Pat Robertson does not speak for Christians. How did you come to that conclusion? If you bothered to conduct even rudimentary research on this issue, you would find out that many resources believe the pact mentioned was initiated in 1791 as part of an effort to drive out the French. In addition, voodoo has been acknowledged as an "essential part of national identity" of Haiti according to the Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Also, how do you account for the undisputed fact that the other half of the same island, the Dominican Republic, had not experienced the same calamitous history as Haiti?
January 16, 2010 at 3:51 PM
Michael said…
Another point I would like to make is in regard to your statement that "Pat Robertson has become a source of ridicule for non-believers". Apparently you are under the misguided impression that Christ-followers are held in high regard by non-believers. I would suggest that you do some serious study of the New Testament to see how Jesus and the Apostles were regarded and treated by non-believers...especially those who were the "religious leaders" of the day. There are numerous references in the New Testament that say outright that those who believe in Jesus and speak in His name will be held in ridicule and will suffer persecution.
January 16, 2010 at 3:57 PM
Friar Don Pratt said…
While I made an observation that Pat Robertson is not the spokesperson for the Christian community, I certainly did not suggest that I am. Please do not stick words in my mouth. My observation is based on the fact that a vast number of Christians separate themselves from him and his misguided statements. Most Christian leaders (except for perhaps Jerry Falwell – Robertson must miss him) rarely support his claims of knowledge of the mind and motives of God surrounding specific catastrophic events. Christian leaders’ silence regarding this last statement is telling (with some exception – Franklin Graham: “He must have misspoken.” Robert Jeffress: “It is absolute arrogance to try to interpret any of God's actions as a judgment against this person or that person.”).

Please do not insult me. I am very familiar with the uncorroborated, fundamentalist Christian mythology surrounding the so-called Haitian “pact with the devil” of 1791. There is neither primary documentation nor “eye-witness accounts” of such a pact. What IS known is that Christian missionaries of the time (actually some 20 years later) had “heard the story” that there was some sort of voodoo ceremony just prior to a Haitian uprising that began the Haitian revolution and wrote about it. Allegedly the ceremony involved the violent sacrifice of a pig and then a rampage by Haitians targeting “white people.” As the story is told, some say a monument of a pig was constructed in Port Au Prince. However no such monument exists.

Haitians are very familiar with the story – and resent it: first because fundamentalist Christians use it to misrepresent voodoo as a form of Satan worship – which it is not; and secondly because the story was manufactured to perpetuate hatred toward Haitian people. The story is a bigot’s tool to demean a country and a race of people. And when Pat Robertson repeats it…even after it has long been proven an urban legend with racist over tones, it shows him to be an ignorant bigot.
January 21, 2010 at 12:45 AM
Friar Don Pratt said…
Oh...and regard to your other points; I actually meant to say that "...Robertson has become a source of ridicule for non-believers and believers alike..." And he has earned that ridicule. His use of ministry to build his own personal wealth is an affront to the Lord's teaching (which part of the Sermon on the Mount do you think Jesus was "just kidding" about?), and his prophecies which he claims come from the Lord -- that never come true show him to be a fraudulent flimflam man.
January 21, 2010 at 12:56 AM
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