Quote:
Originally Posted by piece-itpete
If I can put Robertson aside for a moment, I happened to hear the official Haitian governments response to to the 'deal with the devil'.
They didn't deny it.
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They may believe it. I can only speak for myself, but for me, that's not the point. Hundreds of years ago they may have built a pentagram of fire and sacrificed virgins calling Satan by name to rise up and defeat the French. I don't really care.
Am I surprised that there are people in one of the most impoverished, uneducated places in the Western Hemisphere who believe in spells, magic and voodoo? Not at all. You expect those things in places that haven't had the benefit of progress and prosperity. At one time those traditions were prominent throughout the world. The Greeks had a hell of a society going and they still believed in a lot of weird magic stuff.
What I am surprised and frightened by is that a prominent television personality who is representative of a large voting coalition who has positioned himself as a political force in the most advanced and affluent country on the planet believes in voodoo, magic and superstition. What frightens me even more is that a not insignificant number of people who run our government believe likewise. I'm not saying it's a majority, but does anyone here think there are *no* members of Congress who would watch that and say, if only to themselves, "Pat is right"?
And think about what that means for a minute- I’m not implicating Christian theology here. That’s not what Robertson was talking about. He was talking about a voodoo ritual. And according to him, it worked. So according to Robertson and like-minded people, not only does God reigns Hell on unbelievers in this world, various other witchcraft, voodoo and satanic worship rituals are indeed effective.
So a man who is active in a significant manner in our political system might well envision terrorists who don’t bother to hijack planes at all but simply hold some pagan ceremony and make a sacrifice. He may see this as a legitimate threat that needs to be defended against. How does one defend against such a threat? I can only imagine. Maybe he would suggest that official American Defense policy is the evangelization of the entire world. If they were all fundamentalist Christians, there would be no more threat of voodoo terror. Mobilize our millitary might as Soldiers for Christ. Not so far off from what a lot of folks in the Middle East think they're doing when they strap bombs to themselves, is it?
By the way, agree or not with what I’m saying here, at least try to understand why this kind of rhetoric scares many of us. This is the kind of thing we’re afraid of when we hear someone like Sarah Palin speak- in tongues or otherwise.
Sorry, I got long winded again. Does anyone ever read these novels I post?