Just kidding. But maybe they should. Bring Brit Hume with you, Sarah.
I heard about this so-called "pact" years ago, from a black friend from Barbados. He told me that it was largely propagated by clerics who dislike the influence of voodoo, and by American businesses there who probably feel guilty about enabling the impoverishment of Haitians through their rapacious business models, and have to place the blame somewhere other than in their own activities.
Here's a bit from a two-part article on the origin of this myth, by former Haitian cleric, Jean R. Gelin, PhD:
The satanic pact allegedly took place at Bois-Caïman near Cap-Haïtien on August 14, 1791 during a meeting organized by several slave leaders, under [Dutty] Boukman’s leadership, before launching what would become Haiti’s Independence War. This brutal period lasted 13 years until the last survivors of the French expeditionary forces, dispatched to Saint-Domingue with the sole purpose to re-establish slavery, were allowed by Dessalines to leave the island and return to Napoleon. Those who made it safely to France wrote and reported about the utmost bravery and supreme courage of Haiti’s indigenous army.
The proponents of the supposed pact continuously refer to the Bois-Caïman gathering as the place where the satanic contract supposedly took place, even in the absence of solid historical evidence save their own prolific imagination. After extensive research on Haiti and several visits to the country, American writer Robert Heinl and his wife Nancy Heinl published in 1978 a volume on the Haitian revolution that deals with several aspects of Haiti’s painful history including the Bois-Caïman meeting. According to these authors, Bookman sought the help of the God of heaven in his prayer, and made no mention whatsoever of a spiritual agreement with Satan. Even though the text shows Bookman was talking to the creator and not the devil, some would still contend that he could not have been really talking to God because – the way they see it - Bookman did not know God as they think they know Him.
Robertson always sees "the hand of God" or "God's will" in storms, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. I have no idea whether or not Robertson understands plate tectonics. The mechanisms of it were only finally discovered in the 2nd half of the 20th century, and we're learning more about it every month.
Robertson, however, knows all he need to know already. And he'll continue to tell us what that is on his TV channel, as long as his diamond mines in Africa hold out, and little, old, blue-haired ladies keep sending him money.
