Haiti: Island of the damned?

When I heard evangelist Pat Robertson say on his television show that Haiti is cursed and described its pact with the devil, I was troubled. It was not because I didn't believe that the constant catastrophes in Haiti, described by one commentator not as a nation but as as an international crime scene, weren't caused by a satanic spiritual stronghold of principalities holding sway. The bible is replete with examples of some areas of the world in which satan is in more thorough control than others.

And it wasn't because I disbelieve that God would not curse a nation. He has and He does. Eventually all nations will be judged. There is no partiality in God's economy, but He does hate sin and there are Godly consequences for the sinful actions a nation's leaders perpetrate.

And it wasn't even so much the timing of the comment. Crassly mistimed as it was, there are always plenty of people saying things in the heat of the moment.

I decided today that it was a missed opportunity and that was a shame. Mr Robertson stopped short and squandered the chance to point to Jesus. The main disagreement I have with Mr Robertson saying that Haiti may be cursed is the finality with which he said it. The end times are a time when God is showing His increasingly visible involvement in the world, and its purpose is to alert the human race to imminent judgment. If Haiti IS cursed, then it is an opportunity to show that God is bigger than satan, and that He has the power and delight to respond to changed hearts. Don't say they are cursed and leave it at that ... tell the Good News, that Jesus is waiting for a repentant sinner and that eternity for a lost soul can begin through an earthquake.

Of the Christians who debate the comment say that it should not have been said because 'we don't know if the meeting where they made the pact actually happened." This is disingenuous. First, it did happen, as I showed in yesterday's entry. Second, it speaks to a great opportunity to connect persistent sin, rebellion, idol worship, and satan with judgment. When was the last time a high public figure could legitimately bring satan and false religion and sin into an international conversation?

It behooves all Christians to speak unflinchingly of these things and we will have many more opportunities before we are raptured because there will be many more earthquakes and disasters. But in speaking of the former we must also speak of the latter: of God's love, mercy, redemption, and the power of prayer.

For your reading pleasure, here is an article in the UK Daily Mail titled "Rape, Murder, and Voodoo on the Island of the Damned"

Al Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention wrote "Does God hate Haiti?"