He's the Gaffe-r!: Pat Robertson and his 'Pact with the Devil'

Once a upon a time in the Kingdom of Swaziland, the folks in charge of programming at the state television station decided that controversial televangelist Jimmy Swaggart on Sundays was not sufficient for the spiritual nourishment of the people. 

 Jimmy Swaggart in one of his trademark weepy moments. This may have been the one he admitted to frequenting a commercial sex worker. That was one episode I missed! 
Source: bbc.co.uk

So somewhere in the mid-80s, Swazi TV added a daily early evening offering of the religious programme The 700 Club. Children like me were shattered since we would have preferred more Transformers, GI Joe or Care Bears but instead got televangelist Pat Robertson sitting on a couch talking about things we did not quite understand. He seemed pious, sincere and very spiritual.  (Above) Pat Robertson and his 700 Club panelists. Source: http://www.payer.de

More than 20 years later, the same Pat Robertson has resurfaced on my radar. This is because, from the comfort of his Christian Broadcasting  Network base in Virgina, he has offered some 'helpful' observations regarding the real reason behind the recent earthquake in Haiti. Unlike what many of us may have thought, it had nothing to do with nature but is all to do with the Haitian revolution that started in 1791 and saw the establishment of the first black republic.

 Depiction of Haitian Revolution
Source: Wikipedia

Mr. Robertson's comments are reproduced in a Reuters blog as follows:

“...They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story,” Robertson said in a matter-of-fact tone on the broadcast.
“And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal. .. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another,” he said.

This statement led many on Twitter and Facebook to conclude that either Pat Robertson is:

• Battling senility
• Smoking *very hard* narcotics or 
  
• Was there when this pact was made
  

At first I thought it was all a joke but fortunately the broadcast is on YouTube. Is Mr Robertson...

• suggesting that slaves rebelling against slave-owners  was morally wrong?
• saying all Haitians and generations to come are cursed?
  
•  reinforcing the old notion popular among racist bigots that black people are cursed?

Pat Robertson
Source: Sikh Times Online

Interestingly, Pat Robertson is no stranger to  nonsensical statements. Time Magazine online has a wonderful piece on the Top 10 Pat Robertson Gaffes. "Top 10"  suggests there are many more gems out there. All I can say is thank goodness us kids did not understand what Mr. Robertson was saying back in the '80s.