‘They Have Been Cursed’: Pat Robertson Says Haiti ‘Swore a Pact to the Devil’

THINK PROGRESS

Haiti is now struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake that hit the island nation on Tuesday, with the death toll reaching far into the thousands. The disaster “left the country in a shambles, tangling efforts to provide relief to an estimated 3 million people who the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said had been affected by the quake.” Many aid groups, however, are also struggling with their own dead and wounded employees.

Today on his 700 Club television show, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson highlighted the tragedy and said that his network will be there “to help the people.” However, he then tried to offer an explanation for the earthquake, blaming Haiti’s own people for once making a “pact to the devil”:

ROBERTSON: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, 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’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is 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 I’m optimistic something good may come. But right now, we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.

Watch it:

It’s highly doubtful that Robertson knows anything about why the earthquake occurred. This is the same person who said that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a stroke in 2006 because he was “dividing God’s land” and claimed that God sent Hurricane Katrina as punishment for the country’s sins, such as legalized abortion.