Pat Robertson Says Haiti's Suffering Result of Pact Made With the Devil
Here we go again. Whenever there is a disaster, Pat Robertson is there to tell us how the suffering people deserved what they got. This time, he explains that the suffering in Haiti is a direct result of pact with the Devil made by the Haitian people to overthrow French rule. Unbelievable. Take a look:
So where did this crazy idea come from? Jake Tapper of ABC News explains the myth of the devil's bargain, which Pat seems to be taking as historical fact:
Robertson's tale stems from a legend that Jean Jacques Dessalines, who led the Haitian revolution against the French Army, entered into a pact with Satan disguised as a voodoo deity in exchange for a military victory, which finally happened in 1803.
One minister of a Haitian-American church -- who does not believe this legend -- recently wrote about the frequent references in Haiti "to a spiritual pact that the fathers of the nation supposedly made with the devil to help them win their freedom from France. As a result of that satanic alliance, as they put it, God has placed a curse on the country sometime around its birth, and that divine burden has made it virtually impossible for the vast majority of Haitians to live in peace and prosperity in their land...The satanic pact allegedly took place at Bois-Caiman near Cap-Haitien on August 14, 1791 during a meeting organized by several slave leaders, under [Dutty] Boukman's leadership, before launching what would become Haiti's Independence War."
It's especially impressive that Pat knows exactly what the Devil said to the Haitian slaves.
According to the CIA Factbook, 96% of Haiti's population is Christian (mostly Catholic), and of those 50% also practice Voodoo in a blending of the two religions. Pat Roberts does not recognize Voodoo as a legitimate religion, seeing it as devil worship.
