Robertson said: The Haitian’s brought the earthquake on themselves in a deal with Satan”! It’s arrogant and self serving!
Of course, most Haitians would think they just didn’t sacrifice enough goats.
No he didn’t. He gave his version of the history of Haiti, including a legend that they made a “deal with the devil” to get the french out.
He pointed out that throughout their history, their country has been crappy.
He did not say that the deal with the devil was the reason for it.
Not that I’m defending PR, or have any interest in doing so. He’s said a lot of stupid things. But I still will defend him against false charges.
We could have a very interesting discussion about this, if we wanted.
Many of us pray for our country. We believe that there is a God, and that God would hear our prayers and honor them. This means we believe that God, in someway, at least COULD protect our country, and that is what we ask for.
Further, we know that God has, in times past, punished Israel and others for not following his commands. Many of us pray that the country would go back to it’s Christian roots.
Some people believe that God’s provision of protection is dependent on our nation following His precepts. It is not an irrational belief.
If you DID believe that, then you would expect that, on the whole, a country which loved the Lord and followed his commands would be “more protected” by God than a country that did not; you could even argue that disasters befalling the other country might have been averted if they had truly obeyed God, and thus come under His protection.
Now, none of this goes so far as to claim that God brought calamity on another country simply because they refused to follow Him — although the Bible has many such reports, so many of us believe that it IS a method of God’s interaction with Man to bring natural disasters upon those who incur His wrath.
We have the flood as the most obvious example.
Now, some religious figures go past the benign statements that they are praying that God will protect us, and praying that the nation will turn to God and thus be protected by God, and take the obvious corolary — If we do NOT turn back to God, we will NOT be under his protection, and our enemies WILL be able to smite us — and make a leap to a conclusion: If we ARE attacked, it is because we HAVE lost the favor of God.
But not all disasters, or even many disasters, have to be a direct result of God’s wanting to make an example. The Rain falls on the good AND the wicked.
And lets face it, the Bible seems to suggest that the most calamaty is reserved for those who are close to God but screw up in some way. :-)
Could you source that quote please? I've been trying to get an exact quote of what he said and the entire context, and I haven't found anything even remotely close to what you are saying he said. Thanks in advance.