Americans United for Separation of Church and State today condemned TV preacher and Religious Right leader Pat Robertson for blaming the devastating earthquake in Haiti on the Haitian people's alleged pact with Satan.
On his Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club" today, Robertson said the Haitians "swore a pact to the devil" in order to become free of French domination.
"They said, 'we will serve you if you will get us free from the French,'" Robertson asserted. "True story. And so, the devil said, 'okay 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."
via www.au.org
To call Robertson's comments insensitive misses the mark. The comments are grounded in delusion and insensate. In Robertson's mind, earthquakes have little to do, apparently, with fault lines. But given his well-established failure to understand or accept the basic realities of biological evolution, perhaps he thinks plate tectonics is a lie of the devil, too. He is cognitive dissonance on parade.
Some thoughts from over at Boing Boing.
The Haitian Ambassador to the US had this to say.
UPDATE: Frank Schaeffer responds.
