filkertom | I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE UBER-RELIGIOUS RIGHT NOW

Don't tell me how wonderful and virtuous God is. Not today. Not when, once again, God makes Pat Robertson open his big fat yap:

And you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. 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. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle on the one side is Haiti the other is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we meed to pray for them a great turning to god and out of this tragedy I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now we are helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.

This greedy, squinty fucktard has, does, and will continue to blame anything on various and sundry people turning away from what he tells them is the True Faith. Notice that I didn't say "what he believes", 'cause I don't even think he believes it himself.

You want evil? Saying that an entire nation's troubles are based on a two-hundred-year-old fairy story, and further saying that they'd better come to your way of thinking before even worse happens... using a goddamn 7.0 earthquake as a warning poster to boost your church's recruitment... that is fuckin' evil.

ETA: Even Fox News is offended. Well, at least Shepard Smith, who is way, way better than a lot of people there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He's an idiot. I'd deny his Christianity but I won't do that, I'll just say I wouldn't stay in the same room as him, maybe even the same building as him. He's deluded, he's insane. I wish there was something real I could do for the people in Hati.

I should also mention that while the Dominican Republic is not nearly as FUBAR'd as Haiti (but then, what is--other than Cuba? Even Haitians don't want to go THERE!) it's by no means rich.

From what I understand of Haiti's history after their rebellion they were forced to pay restitution to France. Haiti couldn't afford it and things never really got better.

Right, adding that to the to-do list on the time machine. Grab Isaac Asimov, Richard Feynman, and Carl Sagan for dinner and drinks; check out what the people of Ireland were actually up to before the Romans showed up; and bitchslap the French for even thinking about demanding restitution from the people they captured and enslaved.

Oh yeah, Haiti's problems and dire poverty couldn't possibly be caused and exacerbated by colonialism, white racism, abuse of the powerless many by the powerful few for profit -- or as Robertson, Trent Lott et al prefer to call it, "the good old days."

Every time I look at Pat Robertson (and Dubya, and Hagee, and the late Falwell), I wonder again and again how they could possibly disbelieve Darwin when their slope-browed occipital-bunned chimp faces leer out of their shaving mirrors every morning.

from the Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6281614.ece) via BoingBoing:

Summary: Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom. When they couldn't afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti's annual budget went to paying off its "reparation" debt. They didn't make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more high-interest loans to pay for his corrupt lifestyle. The Duvalier family, with the blind-eye financial assistance of Western countries, killed 10s of thousands of Haitians, until the Haitian people overthrew them in 1986. Today, Haiti is still paying off the debt of an oppressive dictator no one would help them get rid of for 30 years.

The rest of the world refuses to forgive this debt.

So, in a way, maybe Robertson is right. Haiti is caught in a deal with the devil, and the devil is us.

The unfortunate truth is that evil people like Robertson rarely, if ever, get their comeuppance in this world. Bush and Cheney won't. O.J. Simpson won't. Jimmy Swaggart, wherever he is now, won't.

The only Hell we know for certain Robertson will receive is the withdrawal of the love and affection he would normally receive as part of the human race. He is no longer part of the Family of Man. As a cynic and exploiter, in his dying moments he will know that the heaven and the God he promoted is a lie, and will have no comfort in dying. Whatever happens afterwards, we will probably never know.

Suck it Robertson, you sanctimonious shit.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show#34851879

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/haitian-ambassador-shames-pat-robertson/

"I would like the whole world to know -- America especially -- that the independence of Haiti, when the slave rose up against the French and defeated the French army -- powerful army -- the U.S. was able to gain the Louisiana territory for $15 million. That's 3 cents an acre. That's 13 states west of the Mississippi that the Haitian slave revolt in Haiti provided," explained Joseph.

This quote from a friend:

“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” -Matthew 5:45, KJV

Pat needs to do more reading and less talking.

Tom (and anyone else), please read Zoethe's take on this:

http://zoethe.livejournal.com/718009.html

If that post is accurate, than Robertson is an even sadder "man" than I thought. He's so stuck in his ways and arrogant that he has to blame horrible events on something that happened two centuries ago.

I missed this on the news. Yet one more reason people are dropping away from religion and Christianity in droves. If this type of person was my only contact with a religious person or a Christian, I would want nothing to do with any of them. I will say that not all Christians or religious people agree with Pat Robinson's attitude or his statements. Some of us are trying to help the problem in any way we can, which includes not speaking for God. Paul of Tarsis wrote that our tongues are one of the most difficult things to control and Jesus told us to focus on changing our behavior before trying to change others. (Ya know the whole "get the log out of your own eye before taking the speck out of someone else's eye" thing.) So, what can I do? Contribute something to the United Way; encourage others to help; don't blame the people of any country for a seismic event; really listen to what other people's problems are . . . and try to show that all Christians are not as nasty, hypocritical, and majorly flawed as some of them are.

On the other hand, Danny Glover says it's a reaction to weak action at Copenhagen, as I have heard some other (being a witch myself) pagans say about natural disasters.....

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/pact_with_gaia/

Just goes to show that there's idiots all over, I guess.

Tom T.

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