Why All The Outrage To Pat Robertson’s Remarks About Haiti? (Part 8)

Click on the following for earlier articles in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

But examine everything carefully, hold fast to that which is good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

Let’s examine the second part of Pat Robertson’s remarks about Haiti:

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. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.  (See full video here.)

Are curses just Old Testament thinking  or are curses also valid teachings for us New Testament believers?

Instead of mentioning Haiti, what if Pat Robertson would have said the Pope was cursed? Or the Dalai Lama was cursed? Or Ayatollahs and Imams were all cursed? Or President Obama was cursed? Or Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston were cursed?

Then what? Would the reaction have been even more vocal? Probably much more, and maybe some fatwas and lynch mobs would have been heading in Robertson’s direction.

And yet, according to the Bible,  the Pope, Dalai Lama, each Islamic Ayatollah and Imam, President Obama, Brad Pitt, Anglina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston and every creature on the earth live under a curse:

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children; yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Then, to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3: 16-19)

Now, meditate on the unfairness of the Adamic curse for a few minutes.

What did you or I do to deserve this curse? Nothing. We were just born under it. The blame belongs solely to Adam, our original earthly forefather. His sin brought about the curse which lies on all of earthly creation. And his sin also brought forth death which is still causing sadness today.

The Adamic curse is unfair, right?

But what are you going to do about the unfairness of the Adamic curse? Cry. Moan. Shake your hands at God. Go on TV and proclaim that God is picking on poor little you.

No, of course not?

For if by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

Whether we like it or not, there are such things as curses. After all, people are still dying and women suffer pain in childbirth.

So, now that we’re all on the same page, let’s look at curses… and judgments of God.

(Continued in Part 9)