Pat, God and Haiti

Haiti has been on my mind. Haiti has probably been on your mind too. I have tried to put my feeling to words but sometimes things are just too awful to verbalize.

So I have said nothing.

But then Pat Robertson said something....putting words to my emotions.

In case you missed it, Pat said the Haitian earthquake was "God's punishment for Haitian slaves' 'pact with the devil' to win freedom from France."

Instead of sorrow, I felt rage, disbelief, horror and embarrassment. The Christian Science monitor stated that his remarks "got the usual chuckles of disbelief among local intelligentsia about American culture."

Boo, hiss, Pat.

I gathered my rotten eggs in retaliation. I came up with poopie-head names to call him. I started to throw my stones. And then my smart friend Renee posted this on Facebook; A Response to Pat Robertson's Comments about Haiti. I read Don Miller's forgiving, intelligent post and lowered my eggs.

When Samantha got sick, I used to comment that we must have done something in a past life to anger the Karma gods. . I would think, why us? Where was God in the ICU?

And then I discovered that God was not in the seizures or the sickness, not in the sadness. God was in what we discovered from our hard times; the people in our lives, the amazing doctors, the ability to tell our story, our fight for Samantha and others. God was in our ability to keep loving and be loved.

God is not in this earthquake; not in the overwhelming death and destruction. God is in the doctors who fly in for 20 hour triage missions. God is in the small miracles that we hear about day by day. God is in the outpouring of aid to this poor nation.

This is not my sermon. People who know me know that I am far, far from a Saint. This is my speech, for myself, to keep me from throwing rotten eggs at Pat.

I want to say I feel sorry for a man whose spirituality is embedded in guilt, blame, hell fire and brimstone but I can't. His words are too damaging. Instead I will search for the good and compassion in people trying to help. We will make a donation to help the people in Haiti and I will put down my stinky eggs.

Too bad...I was hoping to clean out my refrigerator.