In the midst of the unconscionable devastation and deep personal tragedy that is the Haitian earthquake experience, Pat Robertson’s words came crashing through the air.  “Something happened a long time ago in Haiti,” he said.  “They swore a pact with the devil.  The Haitians revolted and got themselves free (from the French) but ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”  Outrageous, insensitive, unverifiable, offensive – yes -  and pure Pat Robertson.  But there is a much deeper level within a statement like this, resting squarely within the context of racism and religion.

The French colonized this island nation then called Hispaniola (including what is now the Dominican Republic) in 1697.  Through coffee and sugar plantations manned by slave labor this relatively small island contributed as much as “50 per cent of the mother country’s wealth.” (Why is Haiti So Poor?)  In the 18th century, this was normal life in the Caribbean as the triangle slave trade reaped huge profits for England, France, Spain, Holland and later the newly formed United States.

The island rebelled in 1804, when Jean-Jacques Dessalines and an army of slaves defeated French troops sent by Napoleon to restore slavery.  But “a nation forged by a slave revolt” sets a terrible precedent in a world heavily dependent on slave labor so “France persuaded Spain and the US to join it in an economic embargo.” (Why is Haiti So Poor?)

In debt to France for 80 years for “slave compensation”, devastated by a series of military dictators, deforested because of the demand for charcoal, drained of personal and financial resources, Haiti remains in perpetual poverty.  80 percent of its inhabitants live in unimaginable economic deprivation crowded in substandard housing that is so vulnerable to any kind of natural disaster.

Yes Pat – something happened in Haiti a long time ago.  The rebellion was against a brutal slave system based on race that was horrendously cruel and oppressive formed and sustained by western Europeans like you.  In saying a pact with the devil was made, aren’t you saying that God was on the side of slavery, that He ordained the system?  Aren’t you supporting slave catechisms that reinforced a racial hierarchy making the case that black people were “cursed” to serve white people, that slavery was the divine order of things?  Do you continue to venerate slave holding founding fathers as authors of a “Christian nation” who profited from it all?

On the plantation that is the Christian Broadcasting Network, as “Papa Pat,” the all wise patriarch – the autocratic “answer man,” no one challenges you on the veracity of comments like this.  In your heart of hearts, are you sure that this deal with the devil really took place?  If so in the historical context of these comments, you have marginalized yourself from your own humanity and you have put your God in a Faustian bargain.  I can’t imagine Jesus being terribly comfortable with this arrangement.

Who has made a deal with the devil?  What do you think?