Pat Robertson’s mean Haiti parlour trick [Addenda]

Christian Right/Republican leading light Pat Robertson resurrected a simple, ugly myth which if believed erases any need to understand the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden geological fault slip which devastated Haiti and numbs natural human sympathy toward the victims.

Robertson blamed the suffering Haitians, accusing their ancestors of making a pact with the devil by which current Haitians are cursed. On Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club,” he said:

Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heal [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.

True? Not to Haitian Christians like Jean R. Gelin. About 95% of the country “claims Christian beliefs,” and about 85% or those are Catholic. And given to greeting crisis with devotional song and prayer, not devil worship.

Nor to careful scholars of the role of Vodou leaders in the successful slave uprising. The cultural role of Vodou in the revolution against French Catholic slave masters is quite clear, but translating that into a generation-spanning pact with the devil is a mean parlor trick for building audience and raising money.

Like the long parade of Robertson New Year’s prophecies, it is a shamelessly successful attempt to command the attention of various audiences.

Addenda

Dan finds theological self-contradiction in Robertson’s argument:

Aside from being absurd on its face, Robertson’s claim doesn’t square with his own theology. Haiti has been “cursed” by, among other things, invasion, occupation, isolation and oppression at the hands of Western powers such as France and the US. So by Robertson’s logic, the US has been used as the devil’s tool. Hardly squares with his “Christian nation” theology. Furthermore, I’d like to share with Robertson a quick history lesson on “pacts with the devil” in Haiti — the French colonial rulers of Haiti found it more cost-effective to work African slaves to death than to provide them with even the barest necessities, all the while claiming Christian missionary motives for slavery (for example, Baptism was compulsory). Think for a second how that flouts the teachings of Jesus. And just to add another bit of foundational blasphemy, this oppressive regime was started under the rule of Louis XIV, who claimed to rule by divine right.

Matt Yglesias wonders if Robertson has disinterred the French slave master point of view:

If you were a white, Catholic French person or Haitian plantation owner, I can see why you would characterize this as a prayer offered “to the devil.” The black Haitians are postulating the existence of two Gods, one for the whites and one for the blacks. The whites regard the God they pray to as the one true God. So if the blacks are praying to some second god, and doing it with a Vodou ceremony, it stands to reason that they’re engaged in a satanic ritual of some sort.

Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay interviewed Robertson for Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite. Lindsay said:

“Pat Robertson continues to distinguish himself as American evangelicalism’s most flamboyant spokesperson. When tragedies strike, people naturally ask questions about why bad things happen to the innocent, and millions of Americans see the hand of God or the devil at work in natural calamities,” Lindsay said. “But few religious leaders today draw the kinds of explicit connection as Pat Robertson has done with the Haitian earthquake. Robertson’s comments reflect as much his rhetorical flourish and skill as a ratings booster as they do his theology.”

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President AL Mohler tweeted that Robertson’s remarks are “Theological arrogance matched to ignorance.”

Middle East Evangelical Churches call for ordination of women

Delegates to the 6th General Assembly of the Fellowship of the Middle East Evangelical Churches (FMEEC) voted unanimously on Jan. 12 in support of the ordination of women.

The associated statement was written in Arabic. An English translation says:

The Sixth General Assembly supports the ordination of the women in our churches in the position of ordained pastor and her partnership with men as an equal partner in decision making. Therefore we call on member churches to take leading steps in this concern.

The statement was drafted and adopted in response to a report by the fellowship’s theology committee, which found no biblical or theological reasons to oppose the ordination of women, said the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), president of FMEEC.

The action means member churches are urged to open the doors to women’s ordained ministry, said Younan.

According to the FMEEC Web site, there are 23 member churches/organizations spread across the middle east and near east.

Several U.S. denominations allow the ordination of women. Among them are the Episcopal Church, which has a woman as its presiding bishop, the United Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and others. Several denominations deny ordination to women, most notably Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church. All subject to ongoing controversy in some regard.

Allison K. Schmitt, communication assistant with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, explains:

FMEEC was formed in 1974, the result of a long history of ecumenism among member churches. FMEEC’s purpose is to strengthen the mission and ministry of its member churches through training and formation of leadership and laity, both women and men, and promoting unity through joint work and education.

The organization’s history says:

The motivation for unity was always rooted in the faith and life of the Evangelical churches in the Middle East. The ecumenical movement in the Middle East sprang up from within the evangelical church, which through its biblical concepts and spirituality, yearns for unity. This motivation brought the Evangelical churches of the Middle East together. “The United Missionary Council in Jerusalem” (1924) was the first step, followed by the “Council of West Asia and North Africa” held at Helwan, Egypt in 1927, and its two peers, “The Missionary Conference of Syria and Palestine” held in the north, and “The Missionary Conference of all Egypt” held in the south. Later all these assemblies joined under one nomenclature, “The Near East Christian Council”. Thirty-five years later, in 1964 in Egypt, the Syrian Orthodox Church joined the council, whose name changed to “The Near East Council of Churches”. Then, in 1974, in order to encourage other churches in the Middle East to join the ecumenical movement, the Evangelical churches initiated the idea of playing a lesser role in administration and direct responsibility, in order that the other churches in the Middle East might join. As a result “The Middle East Council of Churches” came into existence on the basis of Orthodox, Oriental and Evangelical church families.

The yearning for unity does not mean that the member churches within the Fellowship of the Middle East Evangelical Churches are fully united. Theological questions related to eucharist and ministry are still unresolved, therefore the quest for unity is still a top priority for the FMEEC, which believes that unity amongst its members will foster the unity with the other families within the MECC. In 1997 the Fellowship formulated a “Proposal for the Unity of the Evangelical Churches in the Middle East”, which however was not accepted by all its members. In 2005 a new proposal was launched, aiming at a formal agreement between the churches of the Reformed and Lutheran traditions in the Fellowship. This agreement of full communion was reached in January 2006 at a meeting in Amman and is called The Amman Declaration of Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Middle East and North Africa. It establishes the mutual recognition of baptism, eucharist, ministry and ordination. The churches that are signatories to the Declaration commit themselves to close cooperation and common witness.

Google does good re China

The combination of China’s demand that Google censor search results, and a Chinese attempt to hack into the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, has led Google to a sweeping reassessment of its business relationship with China.

Google’s new, ethics-driven approach to China was announced on its official blog

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Rebecca MacKinnon details the reaction in China.

Google is pushing back against evil, and we applaud.

Largest earthquake in more than 200 years strikes Haiti [Updated]

To help

CBS News “How you can help” list.

National Public Radio “some ways to help” list.

SFGate earthquake donation list

Or donate $10 to the American Red Cross via text message.

As many as three million people may be homeless, according to International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally. The Haitian prime minister said several hundred thousand people may have been killed in the quake, which destroyed most of Port-au-Prince.

“It’s going to be a real killer,” said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. “Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development has responded. An “aggressive, coordinated” U.S. effort is being mounted, according to the Washington Post.

Troy Livesay tweeted from Port Au Prince about 3 a.m., Wednesday:

Church groups are singing throughout the city all through the night in prayer. It is a beautiful sound in the middle of a horrible tragedy.

Livesay’s blog here.

This twitpic account has images of the devastation.

You may view photos of the devastation here.

Follow the CNN Haiti twitter list at http://twitter.com/CNN/haiti.

Follow the NPR News twitter earthquake list at http://is.gd/6a7zR.

Follow the Los Angeles Times Haiti twitter list at http://twitter.com/latimes/haiti-quake.

Follow the New York Times Haiti twitter list at http://twitter.com/nytimes/haiti-earthquake.

Baptists are responding with aid. Initial efforts are led by Florida Baptists, “who have had ministry relationships in Haiti for more than 20 years and currently have six staff members who live and work in the country, said Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response. The Southern Baptist International Mission Board does not have long-term personnel stationed in the country.”

The Catholic Relief Service reports that the building opposite CRS Port-au-Pr office has collapsed. According to CNS, those reported dead include Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince and Zilda Arns Neumann, a pediatrician who founded the Brazilian bishops’ children’s commission and sister of Brazilian Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, retired archbishop of Sao Paulo. The Vatican missionary news agency, Fides, reports that 100 priests and seminarians also were killed. The clergy, members of the Montfort order, were in Port-au-Prince on retreat.

The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is numerically the largest of the Episcopal Church. The Episcopal Cafe blog is monitoring developments.

United Methodist Church volunteers in Haiti who can be reached thus far are reported safe.

CNN reported:

Haiti’s infrastructure was among the world’s worst even in the best of times, the country’s ambassador to the United States said Tuesday.

“It was a catastrophe waiting to happen,” Raymond Alcide Joseph told CNN from Washington shortly after a 7.0 earthquake leveled parts of his home country, cutting power and phone lines in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. “Sadly, it has happened.”