"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it," he said on Christian Broadcasting Network's "The 700 Club." "They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."
Robertson said that "ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other" and he contrasted Haiti with its neighbor, the Dominican Republic.
Tough to top Ta-Nehisi here:
The next time your wondering why there are so few black Republicans, consider the fact this unreconstructed Confederate was not long ago one of their greatest crusaders. Consider that he is equating the resistance of slavery, with a rejection of Christ.
Incidentally, Matt Yglesias has the background on what event Robertson might be talking about. Unfortunately, for it to fit with his "devil" theory, we'd have to posit that the God of the French colonialists was the ward of slaveowners and the boot on the neck of the slaves -- a position you wouldn't expect Christians to be rushing towards.
Robertson seems to take a very, um, assertive approach to that vexing religious question: Why does a just and loving God permit bad things to happen to good people?
ReplyDeleteCause they had it coming!!!!!!
This perspective is not that uncommon within certain strains of evangelical Christianity. I've heard that the reason there is violence in Israel/Palestine is because the ancient Israelites disobeyed God's commandment to wipe out all the people living in the land. Oh, and that's also why Jews have been persecuted in the Diaspora. The Holocaust was because of Israelites not committing genocide 3,000 years ago.
On a less extreme but still appalling note, when my father-in-law visited us in Paraguay, and we stood in the plaza in front of the Congress and looked out at the shantytown that spreads down the hill to the flood plain of the Paraguay River, he asked "Do you think this is because Paraguay isn't a Christian nation?"
The Holocaust was because of Israelites not committing genocide 3,000 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThat one's actually sort of logical, though not rational. If only Jews had wiped out all the non-Jews when they had the chance...
As for Paraguay, I assume he was using "Christian" in the sense "non-Catholic Christian."