Pat Robertson and Haiti: Standing Against Christ

Several months ago, Rebecca and I blogged about how the poor are held captive in poverty in part by believing the lies the rich and powerful tell them. We told the story of our friend “Mary,” who was taught in church that black people have been cursed since Noah. In Walking with the Poor, Bryant Myers makes the case that the powerful tell stories to the poor that teach them that their failure is their own fault, the result of their own inferiority, or even because God hates them. The poor often believe these lies, which become like shackles on their feet: if you believe you’re inferior, less valuable, rejected by God, well, then you tend to act like it. Whereas I grew up in a family and a society where everyone told me that I could be anything I wanted to be, many of the poor are living in a very different story: that they deserve poverty, that they were designed for it, that it is their lot to suffer.


What’s so blasphemous (yes , blasphemous) about these myths is that they stand in total and utter opposition to the story that God tells through the Bible. Isaiah 61 tells us that God will rebuild the broken and abandoned cities through the poor, who will be called Oaks of Righteousness and a display for the Lord’s splendor. “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus says in Luke.

Almost all of you have heard about the earthquake in Haiti that recently killed as many as 200,000 people. What you may not have heard is that Pat Robertson, a would-be ‘minister of the gospel,’ has stated on national television that this earthquake is God’s punishment for a pact with the devil that he claims the Haitians made nearly 200 years ago.

To a watching world we declare: this is not our Jesus.

What Mr. Robertson has done this past week, and has done regularly throughout his long career, is to reject Christ’s life giving message of hope amidst despair to one of the poorest nations on earth, and instead whispered Satan’s lies into their ears . . . all the while claiming to be talking about Jesus of Nazareth. He has told a nation filled with Christians that the reason their children have died in mass, that their businesses, homes, and hospitals have been destroyed, that literally thousands have died violent untimely deaths, is that their great-great-great-grandfathers (so he’s heard) made a pact with the devil. In our Christian business trainings we tell our farmers they don’t have to fear the witch doctor because “having disarmed the powers and authorities, [Christ has] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” But Mr. Robertson has told my young Haitian friend, who studied with me at Covenant College, that the reason his family remains missing in the devastation is that Satan still holds his nation captive based on the rumor of a Satanic pact between some Haitians 200 years ago!

Some of you may think that this type of discussion isn’t appropriate for a missionary blog. Rebecca and I prayerfully and thoughtfully disagree. When someone who represents the body of Christ blasphemes our God, it is our responsibility to stand up using whatever public and private channels we have to say, “World, this is not our Jesus.” Mr. Robertson has been in ministry a long time, and I would be foolish to infer that he has not made a positive impact on the world in some areas. But when Mr. Robertson made those statements the other day, he made a stand: against Christ and His kingdom. When Mr. Robertson said that the late Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke because, as an Israeli PM he gave back land to the Palestinians and made a small step towards relieving the worst refugee crisis in the world, Mr. Robertson stood against Christ and His kingdom. When Mr. Robertson said on his show that we should assassinate foreign leaders like Hugo Chavez, he stood against Christ and His kingdom. Has it ever occurred to Mr. Robertson that there are believers living in Palestinian refugee camps, working in Venezuela, or crawling out of the wreckage in Haiti? And that he has exchanged the only message of hope for them, choosing instead a violent, demonic theology that belongs more to animism than the gospel? Mr. Robertson has attempted to wade into admittedly complicated political issues that believers around the world have a variety of opinions on; but this anti-poor, anti-global church, health wealth theology certainly has no place in Christ’s kingdom or legitimate political debate.

The stories we tell, the things we say, the worldview that we present to the world matters. It’s time for Christians to stop ignoring this unChristian lunacy so prevalent among would be bearers of Christian morality in America. It’s time we recognize that the myths of the rich stand in the way of the story of Jesus. To my Haitian brothers and sisters, we declare that Christ loves you and grieves with you in this crisis and will be with you no matter what lies ahead. We declare that every one of you is made in His image, designed to be servants in His kingdom and called for a purpose.

We work and live among the poor every day here in Kenya. Time and time again we have seen that Christ’s gospel is the good news for the poor. Let’s declare with our lives and hearts and words that Christ uses the things that “are not” to shame the things that “are,” that the poor are being raised up through His word to carry His kingdom message into the world. If we want to be a part of what God is doing, it’s time to stop trying to cut down the oaks, and start rebuilding the walls right alongside them. Then we can stop being televangelists preaching health wealth and blasphemy and become the “priesthood of the Lord” that Isaiah promises.