Pat Robertson - Haiti earthquake due to a pact with the devil

Pat Robertson - Pact with the devil the reason for Haiti's earthquake

Random Factor

Once again Pat Robertson has put his foot in his mouth by proclaiming today that the reason Haiti has suffered so many woes, including yesterday's earthquake, is due to a pact the Haitian people once made with the devil. He stated on The 700 Club:

Something happened here a long time ago in Haiti, and the people might not want to talk about it, They were under the heal of the French - Napoleon the Third, or whatever - and they got together and swore a pact to the devil and 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,' and they take the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they've been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. The island of Hispanola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On one side is Haiti, on the other side the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God, and out of this tragedy something good may come. But right now we're helping the suffering people....

As suggested above, this isn't the first time Robertson has made outrageous statements.

In January of 2006 he suggested that God caused Israel's then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke as retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

On January 2, 2007 he predicted that there would be a massive terrorist attack that year:

Evil men, evil people, are going to try to do evil things to us and to others during the last part of this year. I don't know whether it will be in the Fall or September or later on, but it will be the second half of 2007. There will be some very serious terrorist attacks. The evil people will come after this country and there's a possibility that chaos - not a possibility, but a definite certainty - that chaos is going to rule....It's going to happen and I'm not necessarily saying nuclear. The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that, that will be mass killing, possibly millions of people, major cities, injured.

As Time Magazine pointed out, part of the so-called pact with the devil was that he would have the island for 200 years. That would mean, even if true, the pact expired in 1991. So Robertson can't blame the earthquake on the supposed pact.

Additionally, the earthquake wouldn't have something to do with the fact that there is a fault line running right through Haiti, would it?

When discussing the issue of whether God curses nations or people, bringing disaster on them, we should heed the words of Jesus, who said in Luke 13:1-5,

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

Spouting such nonsense at a time when the Haiti people need help, not criticism, is irresponsible, at best. The people of Haiti, without a doubt, need the Gospel, not the Law, not criticism. They also need aid, and that is what Christians should be concentrating on supplying.