People have been going on about Pat Robertson and I'm annoyed

 I wrote most of this post the other day but didn't post as I get a little preachy. I've been hearing talk about Pat Robertson and his Haiti comment. At first I thought he was nuts but I actually looked it up online. I knew there was a legend about the voodoo thing but I thought Pat Robertson was probably full of crap. After looking it up I don't think he is as full of crap as I thought he was before. I wish the clever intellectual people would go be cynical about The Biggest Looser or American Idol or something else.
 The other day I was at the auto repair shop. It was the day of the Haitian earthquake. The Repair shop fellow's girlfriend came out and said she had been watching the 700 Club on TV. She is kind of a nasty girl friend. He met her on the internet. It was 42 degrees and pouring down rain. She was wearing a short top and really really tight jeans. Many people who frequent this shop refer to her as "muffin top." I can't figure out why. She seems nice.
She said they had been talking about the Haiti earthquake and that Pat Robertson has said something about the Haitian deal with the devil. I had to explain the legend that the leaders of the Haitian revolution at the end of the 1700's had supposedly made a deal with the devil to get rid of the French and had slaughtered a pig and had a voodoo sacrifice.
I wondered about this comment all day long.
It would seem the only Christians left in America are morons.
But...Last night I looked up the legends.
I will probably not get all the links posted today as I need to go to work and I am also trying to bid on a lego trainset on ebay.
And-it is all true...mostly I suppose.
Shortly after Aristide came to power the second time he recognized voodoo as an official religion of Haiti.
Voodoo and the deal with the devil was a major topic in this National Geographic article about Haiti. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0707_040707_tvtaboovoodoo.html

This story from the BBC features a discussion of voodoo and has the quote, "Haiti is 95 percent Catholic and 100 percent voodoo. (lost my link to this story)

Here is a description of voodoo from an online encyclopedia. Pretty interesting.
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/voodoo/overview.htm

An interesting editorial about the Haitian tragedy.
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/editorial/89193/haiti039s-tragedy

There there are the idiots who make up most of the population of the world:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100114124904AAEbLhi

I can't find my link to the BBC story about the famous deal with the devil in 1791. There was a dead pig and the drinking of blood.
Of course all the morons miss the point and belabor the obvious.
It is most likely true that a group of Haitian revolutionary figures met at the beginning of the revolution against France. They did what has been described as a voodoo ritual which included the drinking of the blood of a sacrificed pig. It has been described as a deal with the devil by many people. Whatever it was it signified the will of the attendees to wage a revolution sort of like the signing of the declaration of independence brought the American revolutionary folks together. That is not so hard to understand.
Voodoo is an important part of Haitian society. It has been rehabilitated as a family centered religion much the same way as Islam is labeled as a "religion of peace."
There is considerable debate over many aspects of voodoo which I don't intend to go into. I think that if Voodoo is an official religion of Haiti and if the majority of the people believe in it than it probably has a pretty profound effect on the nation's culture and attitudes and how the country responds to, and interprets major life events...
This is an interesting link...
Of course after independence the Haitians went around killing most of the white folks according to several histories I read. This is ok because the white people always have it coming. This is because of The Undeniable Virtue of the Oppressed.
So, Pat Robertson makes this comment about voodoo and all the pucker-bottoms go insane. Pat Robertson also is sending money and aid but that point gets ignored.
The point of the comment was that Pat Robertson suggested that there is a link between the problems Haiti has suffered and this practice of Voodoo and their infamous deal with the devil-or what ever spirit they appealed to.
Pat Robertson probably did bring up an important point. Many people think that Voodoo is not the most healthy religion to be a part of. You can look at all the information online and make your own decision.
What I really wonder is how many people actually did a Google search for Haiti and Voodoo. The other thing I wonder is where the really good article about Voodoo and Aristide went. It was part of a BBC news series.
Oh, and by the way, Aristide seems to be pretty much a crook. Of course the left and the USA love him. Just my opinion after reading all about this.
I am not really a Pat Robertson supporter. I don't agree with his theology. I think he needs to keep his mouth shut sometimes. I kind of am embarrassed by the whole 700 Club in general. I don't see any great Christian theologians like C.S. Lewis or even leaders like Billy Graham.