I wish I could say Pat Robertson’s comment last week pegging the earthquake in Haiti as a punishment from God was bizarre even for him, but it seems to go right along with his twisted logic.

In case you missed it, here is what he said:

“It may be a blessing in disguise … Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. Haitians were originally under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘Okay it’s a deal.’ Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”

This is the same guy who suggested abortion, feminism and homosexuality are going to bring about terrorism and natural disasters. So for him to say the earthquake was the result of a pact that the Haitians supposedly made with the devil a couple hundred years ago, it is not so far out from his usual lunatic babble.

I can’t be sure because I’ve never actually made a pact with the devil myself, but I was under the impression that doing so resulted in superficial happiness in the form of fame, fortune, talent, you know, those sorts of things. You don’t get to the whole damnation thing until the afterlife.

Seeing as how the people of Haiti have been plagued with disease, poverty and corruption, I think the whole making a pact with the devil theory is rather unlikely.

Even so, I’d like to think the success of the Haitian uprising was not because of the voodoo gods. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that, oh, I don’t know, they were really fed up with being enslaved and fought until they had their freedom.

Either way, there is still a logical explanation for earthquakes.

I don’t know if Robertson has ever heard of plate tectonics or anything, but it might be worth his while to give it a run through Google before he goes blaming any more earthquakes on God.

I realize that back before we had the scientific knowledge that we do today, people marked all tragedies they couldn’t explain as acts of God, but we kinda know how stuff works now. We don’t have to say that every bad thing that happens is the wrath of God.

Robertson paints the picture of God as an angry disciplinarian waiting up in heaven to shower us with lightning bolts for all of our sins. I’d like to think of God as a more pleasant and forgiving being. But hey, Pat, whatever works for you.

I honestly don’t care if the Haitians pray to the flying monkeys of Oz, they are still people, and as decent human beings, we should have the compassion to reach out at a time like this.

Whether someone is gay, straight, black, white, a believer or a nonbeliever doesn’t matter. It’s not our place to judge others because of their beliefs or choices. When it all comes down to it we are just people, and I don’t care what you believe or don’t believe, when someone else is down, you do the right thing and help them.

I’m down with the whole being passionate about your beliefs thing, but when it starts to interfere with your compassion for humanity, my tolerance ends.

Rabab Al-Sharif is a sophomore magazine journalism major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].