Jan 15, 2010
HAITI QUAKE
US evangelist slammed
WASHINGTON - THE White House on Thursday dismissed a comment by evangelical preacher Pat Robertson that Haiti's earthquake was retribution for the country swearing a 'pact to the devil' as 'utterly stupid'.
Robertson weighed in on Haiti's history on his Christian Broadcasting Network show The 700 Club on Wednesday.
Haitians were originally 'under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil,' said the 80-year-old former presidential candidate.
'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,' the televangelist said. 'Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.'
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected those comments at his daily press briefing, hours after Mr Obama told Haitians that they would not be forsaken or forgotten.
'It never ceases to amaze, that in times of amazing human suffering, somebody says something that could be so utterly stupid,' Mr Gibbs said. 'But it, like clockwork, happens with some regularity.' -- AFP