PTM E-UPDATE -- FEBRUARY 1, 2010
The curse which holds Haiti hostage
In what seemed to be an attempt to explain the devastating earthquake in Haiti televangelist Pat Robertson remarked that the poverty stricken country was paying the consequences for a centuries-old pact with the devil. Robertson’s take on what happened and why, was, in the midst of the anguish and suffering, so obviously and remarkably devoid of compassion when compared to the ministry of Jesus.
Robertson is someone whom the news media, at least, regards as one of the primary spokespersons for Christianity in the United States, and yet he is making a preposterous statement. It seems as if the track record suggests that he and others who perceive reality as he does can be counted on to make outrageous statements. Perhaps up-against-a-deadline journalists have his phone number on speed dial, for it seems he can be counted on to provide headlines.
Why do Pat Robertson and others proclaim a God of vengeance? What motivates these religious guys who seem to see themselves as the last line of defense, as moral policeman, soldiers in “God’s army,” to warn everyone that God will eventually come unhinged and curse us? A deeper evaluation of the theological fountainhead which produces such a statement is called for.
When catastrophes strike, fundamentalism launches a witch hunt -- looking for people who are not doing the “right things” -- people who are violating the rules and regulations of fundamentalism (as they interpret the Bible) and thus are upsetting God.
As I noted two weeks ago here in our PTM e-Update, the blanket condemnation of Haiti offered by Pat Robertson is not new or novel -- similar hard-headed, illogical and for that matter unbiblical observations were given in the wake of Katrina and in the wake of 9-11. Un-grace in the name of God will not stop until the head of the snake is removed. Who or what is the snake in the grass?
The Snake in the Grass
The real culprit in Pat Robertson’s unbelievable observation is oppressive, legalistic religion. The hard-headed, hard-hearted, grace-less fundamentalism that drives and motivates people like Pat Robertson identifies the real cause of catastrophes and tragedies as people who are not marching to the beat of the religious drum. When catastrophes strike, fundamentalism launches a witch hunt -- looking for people who are not doing the “right things” -- people who are violating the rules and regulations of fundamentalism (as they interpret the Bible) and thus are upsetting God.
The religious worldview causing such outrageous things to be said, in the name of God, goes something like this: 1) Something bad happens. 2) The bad thing happened because God is not happy -- God is bringing or allowing a curse, 3) Send out the religious police. Find out who is to blame. Who goofed up? With whom is God upset? 4) After determining those who are responsible for the curse, warn them to shape up, and tell the world about them, so that others will “hear and fear.” 5) Threaten the people who are out of control -- get them under control, so that God will be happy again. 6) When people stop doing bad things God will remove the curse. The curse will be removed when people “change their ways” -- when the hell is scared out of them sufficiently so that their lives come under control.
Summary of this kind of primitive, unbiblical thinking -- “When God ain’t happy -- ain’t nobody happy.”
The legalistic religion of fundamentalism is all about control. It’s all about keeping people in line. It’s all about assigning blame. It’s all about motivating (intimidating) people through fear, shame and guilt. In order to accomplish such objectives, legalistic religion (of any stripe -- within Christendom or elsewhere) must rely on leaders who will bully, intimidate and condemn. Just as any physical army needs soldiers, so too do religious movements and institutions. Religious institutions, given their underlying philosophies and goals, train religious leaders to employ methods and tactics which will ensure the status quo, so that legalistic religion will remain in control. I know -- I graduated from one such boot camp.
Pat Robertson is simply an illustration of a bigger, more pervasive and deep-seated spiritual malaise. Presented with the crime scene before us (the idea that Haiti is suffering because they made a pact with the devil) a Christ-centered CSI investigation will go a little deeper. Someone taught Pat Robertson to “minister” and offer such observations -- and someone in turn taught Pat Robertson’s teacher/drill instructor/religious taskmaster.
Pat Robertson was religiously trained, by a trainer. A Christ-centered CSI crime scene investigator might initially ask, “who trained the trainer?” But that line of investigation only takes us to other human beings. The bigger question that a Christ-centered, grace-based CSI crime scene investigation needs to explore concerns the methodology and assumptions employed by and believed by Christ-less religion and its leaders.
Religion DefinedChristendom is polluted and perverted with legalistic religion. But before we consider that fact, let’s take a step back and define our terms. Time for some definitions:
Religion -- definition # 1; service, worship, acknowledgement and expression of faith in a supreme being. That is one way that the word religion is used in our society. Used in such a way it is understood as “holy” ground -- above the criticism of society and culture. But if you check your dictionaries, you will see that religion has another “accepted” definition.
Religion -- definition # 2; meticulous, painstaking, conscientious and often mindless devotion and obedience to a set of rules or principles. For example, you may say that you watch I Love Lucy re-runs, religiously. You may eat your eggs, over easy, religiously, every morning. The word religion can also define rigorous, habitual, and even addictive behaviors.
At this point, we should ask -- can one use the first definition of religion -- believe in and worship a supreme being, without utilizing the second definition of religion -- believing in a supreme being without habitual, addictive, ritualistic, devotion and obedience to a set of rules and principles?
The New Testament says yes -- in fact, the New Testament insists that God is only worshipped in spirit and in truth, which is to say, without religion.
Understood properly, authentic Christianity is Christianity Without the Religion (CWR is our online ministry -- click here for this week’s message). Real Christianity is not religious at all -- not in the way that most people assume a religious person must be or become.
Religion -- definition # 3. This definition is a popular, universally understood, but not officially articulated definition of religion, probably because it’s not “religiously-correct.” Religion is the idea that one might gain a higher standing with God on the basis of one's meticulous, painstaking, conscientious and often mindless performance of deeds and rituals. Religion thus bases relationship with God on human performance.
Authentic Christianity bases relationship with God on what God has done, is doing and will do for us. Authentic Christianity bases relationship with God on his goodness, expressed to us out of his grace -- that is, his overwhelming, extravagant generosity.
When something really bad happens, Christ-less religion can only come up with explanations that are based on human failure to perform. With religion, blame always falls on humans. With religion, humans are always, and always will be, condemned. There can be no other way for religion to offer any explanation about our world and what happens to us, for better or for worse. With religion, the fickle finger of fate will always point toward human failure to measure up. Religion itself will never take the fall -- it will always lay the blame at the door of humans, and as a result humans suffer shame, guilt and condemnation.
Did Christendom save Haiti from religion? No, things went to hell in a hand basket. Haiti was already enslaved to religion -- what the Europeans called Christianity simply added another layer of legalistic religion, deepening the pain and suffering already being experienced in Haiti.
Some of the greatest evils ever perpetrated in human history have been directly or indirectly caused by or linked to and with religion. The Crusades. The Spanish Inquisition. The European “evangelism” not only of Haiti, but of the Americas. Religion, and reactions against it, figured prominently in the notorious and ruthless reigns of Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Stalin, Lenin and Hitler. Consider the pathetic but true story of the suffering endured by native American Indians, endorsed and sponsored by religion. Fundamentalist, legalistic religion is behind this modern era of terrorism -- an era which officially started on 9-11-01.
Religious Oppression in HaitiLet’s get back to Haiti. Haiti was pagan before it was “evangelized” with European-style legalistic, oppressive, performance-based religion. Who or what is a pagan? Well, Christendom often regards pagans as those who believe in mindless, silly, superstitious traditions (as distinct from mindless, silly, superstitious traditions of Christendom). Fundamentalist religions at large are often fond of using words like heretic and infidel to help their followers know the good guys from the bad guys.
Haitians were already in the grips of bondage to religion before the arrival of the Europeans. The religion the Europeans introduced to Haiti allowed the importing of African slaves. Many of the slaves believed in Voodoo, which involves ancestor worship, spells and incantations and blood sacrifices. Voodoo fits under the third definition of religion -- a higher standing with God is gained on the basis of one's meticulous, painstaking, conscientious and often mindless performance of deeds and rituals. Voodoo has a pantheon of spirits, which were easily appropriated into the saints and rituals of European Catholic liturgy.
If you grew up in a culture which offered a view of history as colored by the activities and actions of Christendom (as opposed to Christ-centered, grace-based faith) you were probably told that the European “Christians” arrived to, among other things, “save” (Christendom sees itself as saving other religions) Haiti.
Did Christendom save Haiti from religion? No, things went to hell in a hand basket. Haiti was already enslaved to religion -- what the Europeans called Christianity simply added another layer of legalistic religion, deepening the pain and suffering already being experienced in Haiti. At the same time, the nation of France became the primary benefactor and dominant power inflicting its will on the Haitian people, and in the process extracted the wealth of Haiti. Within the purview of religion, what was called Christendom allowed exploitation, degrading the plight and poverty of Haiti beyond the bondage of paganism it already experienced.
In a unique revolution (only a few years after the American revolution) Haiti thought it could rid itself of those who exploited them. But militarily the French innovated a way to keep Haitians slaves. Haiti was convinced to go into debt to the French to re-pay France for “its” land. In a perversion of justice if ever there was a perversion, Haiti agreed to compensate the nation which had raped and pillaged its people and its land. It almost sounds like the idea some advance in the United States today -- giving terrorists who are sworn to destroy us constitutional rights and a government provided lawyer!
All of this was engineered within the context and the backdrop of religion -- by now a potent and toxic mixture of “Christendom” with the paganism to which Haiti had traditionally been enslaved. The real culprit was and is religion -- Bad News Religion (I’ve heard that somewhere too!). Haiti has never escaped its bondage to religion.
What Haiti needs more than anything is freedom from religion. What Haiti needs is Jesus -- faith alone, grace alone and Christ alone. Haiti does not need the Jesus that so many of its citizens believe in and worship -- for that Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible.
Haiti is an extremely religious country today -- and that is precisely the core of the problem! The old paganism of Voodoo permeates the country. The official religion of Haiti is Christianity -- primarily the Roman Catholic variety which thrives within Christendom. But Voodoo is the predominate religion. Superstition finds expression in magic potions, trances and ancestor worship. North American Catholics would never recognize the strange hybrid of Catholicism, mixed with Voodoo, practiced in Haiti today.
Snakes feature prominently in legalistic religion and its practices -- either literally or symbolically. The Bible itself speaks of the devil as a snake, and lays the suffering experienced by the world, at the hands of religion, at his door (Revelation 12:9).
Those who have controlled and manipulated Haitians have done so through the convenient avenue of religion, which is why religion is The Curse Which Holds Haiti Hostage.
What Haiti -- and the World at Large -- So Desperately Needs
Haiti today is enslaved to grinding physical and spiritual poverty. I’m not talking about the horrific misery brought on by this earthquake. I’m talking about pre-earthquake Haiti. The bad news is that religion and all of its toxic teachings is alive and well, and thriving, in post-earthquake Haiti.
Both Catholics and Protestants are deeply involved in using the earthquake as a motive to get people into church. On way or another, they will tell Haitians that the earthquake is a warning from God to all the witch doctors and all their Voodoo. So, one might ask, who is engaged in primitive fear religion in Haiti?
There is no pact with the devil. The people of Haiti are not to blame for what oppressive religion has done to them and their country. For that matter, the people of this world are not to blame for what Christ-less religion has done to them. Legalistic religion is imposed -- it is a harsh and unyielding taskmaster.
What Haiti needs more than anything is freedom from religion. What Haiti needs is Jesus -- faith alone, grace alone and Christ alone. Haiti does not need the Jesus that so many of its citizens believe in and worship -- for that Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible.
Of course, Haiti is not alone. The whole creation is groaning (Romans 8:22) under the heavy hand of religious taskmasters, who are bent on control and domination.
The more I experience God’s amazing grace the less religious I become. I have described myself, for several years, as an “irreligious Christian” to help people understand that such a thing actually exists. My life in Christ is not defined by religious activities. Of course I do things “religiously” -- but I try to ensure that nothing that I do “religiously” is a part of what I define as my relationship in Christ.
When I read of the life and teachings of Jesus I find spontaneous and dynamic freedom. I find life lived to the full. I see God’s grace in action -- God’s grace at work. I fail to see anything that would define life in Christ as mindless ritual, human performance with the expectation of divine reward -- none of that.
When I read of the life and teaching of Jesus I see the love of God. Praying for one’s enemies. Loving one’s neighbors. Surrendering religion and embracing God’s grace. Humility replacing pride and arrogance. A life of service rather than authoritarian tyranny. Being the church rather than getting a “God-fix” by going to church. Being the church rather than conveniently using the catastrophe of an earthquake as a pretext to "get" people into a specific brand of legalistic religion.
Religious people are generally all about how committed and unrelenting they are. They are all about their cause. We all know about fundamentalist motivated terrorists today -- they are driven by religious perversions and deceptions. What does Christ-less religion produce? Misery, violence, hatred, bigotry and bloodshed.
What does God’s grace produce? Peace and rest. Pray for the peace of Haiti. Pray for God’s grace to permeate the darkness of religion that envelops that country -- and for that matter our world at large. Pray for the victory which God’s grace brings. Pray for the freedom which God’s grace produces.
In Christ,
Greg AlbrechtRETURN TO PTM WEEKLY UPDATE CONTENTS PAGE
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