Now, he's at it again, claiming that the catastrophe in Haiti was brought on by the Haitians themselves for "making a pact with the Devil".  Watch: 

PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and 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, "OK, it's a deal."

And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now, we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.

The Reverand Paul Raushenbush responds at the Huffington Post:

Go to Hell, Pat Robertson — and the sooner the better. Your 'theological' nonsense is revolting. Don't speak for Haiti, and don't speak for God. Haiti is suffering a catastrophe and you offer silliness at best, and racism at the worst. Haiti was the first island in the Western hemisphere to overthrow slavery and white oppression — this is what you call a pact with the Devil? God's heart is breaking with this tragedy, and ours should be too. You never had much credibility — but now it is all gone.

The "pact" that Robertson refers to is an old wive's tale.  There simply is no basis for it in history.  Pat is promoting the old 19th century European worldview that because the people of Haiti were slaves who revolted, they were therefore against God's order.

More factual problems with Robertson's statement: Napoleon III cam to power in the 1850's; Haiti became independent in 1804.  And the Dominican Republic is prosperous and well-off?  Hardly.

For its part, the Christian Broadcasting Network issued a statement, arguing that Haitians "allegedly made a famous pact with the devil," but Robertson "never stated that the earthquake was God's wrath."

No, of course not. All he said is that is Haiti agreed to "serve" Satan, became "cursed," and is now burdened by a disaster. Why would anyone draw a connection from that?

UPDATE:  As always, the Rude Pundit minces no words….

By the way, if you wanna prove your God is so goddamn powerful, let him cause an earthquake somewhere that's not on a fault line, or let him whip up a hurricane in, say, the middle of the desert. Otherwise, shut the fuck up about how big and strong he is. In fact, Pat Robertson, you saggy, sick, senile fuck who needed to be ground up into soylent green about a decade ago or buried alive with Jerry Falwell's corpse, if your God is such a dick that he'd try to prove some bullshit point by flattening a country of poor, beaten down people, then fuck your God. Motherfucker oughta spend some time hanging with his son to learn how to treat the meek.

KUDOS also to Rush Limbaugh for saying this, while tens of thousands die, power and water is cut off, hospitals are non-existent, etc.:

I could sit here and be really cynical.  I'll hold off on the cynicism for a couple hours, I'll hold off on it.  I'm going to hold off on it, give the show's flow a chance to establish, 'cause it's going to be the Media Tweak of the Day.

….Yes, I think in the Haiti earthquake, ladies and gentlemen — in the words of Rahm Emanuel — we have another crisis simply too good to waste.  This will play right into Obama's hands. He's humanitarian, compassionate.  They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, "credibility" with the black community — in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.  It's made-to-order for them.  That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.

Among the many things offensive and wrong with what Rush says, I wasn't aware that Obama didn't to sew up his credibility with the black community.