Never a stranger to controversy, 79 year old multimillionaire televangelist, Pat Robertson, has managed to blame the people of Haiti for their own recent earthquake. On his popular 700 CLUB program, Robertson claimed that the people of Haiti made a "pact with the Devil" to escape French oppression. And Robertson further claimed that the people have been "cursed" ever since.
However, Pat Robertson's grasp of history seems pretty flawed here. In the 16th century, when West Africans were brought to Haiti as slaves they had a number of native religions that they were not allowed to freely practice under French oppression, so the practice of "Vodou" was often mixed with the Roman Catholic faith forced on the slaves by their French oppressors. Often spelled, Voodoo, Haitian Vodou is an odd mix of the Christian Roman Catholic faith and the pagan faiths of their African ancestors. However, more mainline Catholic and Protestant faiths seem to be growing in Haiti, with far less persons practicing the old ways. Pat Robertson's views also seem to be more shaped by some bad zombie movie as well.
But for Pat Robertson, his new comments only seem like his latest unfortunate misstep. He makes terrible bizarre statements, which always receive huge public condemnation, yet this never seems to shake his hardcore of followers. One of his former 700 Club hosts, Sheila Walsh, once referred to him as their "fearless leader". This friendly, but unfortunate statement, pretty well sums up the blind faith of those who follow the personality cult of political/financial/religious leader Pat Robertson and freely hand him millions in donations each year for his various businesses and religious projects.
In the past, Robertson once claimed that Gay rights groups were somehow responsible for the 9/11 attacks. After a small earthquake once hit Northridge, California, some religious leaders like Robertson's 700 CLUB program made the claim that this was somehow linked to the fact that many of the adult entertainment businesses that produce adult movies are located in this area, claiming this was a "pornquake" of some sorts.
The White House wasn't very amused by Robertson's latest bizarre comments, and White House adviser Valarie Jarrett, claims she was left "speechless" by the comments. President Obama has asked former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to join a bipartisan relief fund effort. And the American military is deploying Navy ships and Marine units to assist the people of Haiti with at least $100 in quick aid coming. Chinese, Canadian, British and Brazilian military and relief units have landed relief ships to assist in relief efforts as well.
One very respected religious leader, Franklin Graham, son of Rev. Billy Graham, was also critical of the remarks of Robertson as well, and felt that he really "misspoke". Franklin Graham is the so Samaritans Purse, a religious relief organization.
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