Last week on The Christian Broadcast Network's show The 700 Club, wealthy Christian televanglist Pat Robertson showed the length and breadth of his intelligence, his grasp of reality, and his complete understanding of the world situation.

The following is a direct quote of his from the show:

"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, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."

Robertson said that "ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other" and he contrasted Haiti with its neighbor, the Dominican Republic.

"That island of Hispaniola is one island. It is cut down the middle; on the one side is Haiti on the other is the Dominican Republic," he said. "Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island."

Mr. Robertson sat there in his $5000 suit with his well-manicured fingernails, $400-haircut and full belly, and he passed judgement on an entire nation of starving and deprived people who have endured centuries of slavery by ruthless European nations, abuse by HUGE international conglomerates like Domino Sugar, and who have just recently be ravaged by a horrendous earthquake that left upwards of 100,000 people dead.

Well, I'm going to be as unbiased and as non-judgemental as I can possibly be right now, okay? Here goes - "Pat Robertson is a sanctimonious, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, self-serving, ignorant, prejudiced son of a bitch." (And I mean that in only the nicest of ways.)

If the Haitians "made a pact with the Devil" a few centuries back, it's because they had no choice. Pat Robertson's "God" wasn't working for them. The Almighty "HE" allowed these people to be persecuted under the chains of cruel and relentless slavery to foreign countries for generations. If I was in the situation, constantly praying to a God who repeatedly ignored my desperate plight, and the plights of everybody that I knew, I too may consider changing my allegiance. If that is, in fact, what happened.

This "pact with the Devil" that the astute Mr. Robertson talks about...is it written down on paper somewhere? I mean, HOW does this man know that such a pact exists? Did God tell him? Did the Devil tell him? I'd be interested in knowing where the Armani-clad evangelist got his information. Did somebody actually hear the Devil say "Okay. It's a deal?" (I wonder what the Devil's voice sounds like. I'll bet he sounds like a cross between James Earl Jones and Vincent Price.)

Does Robertson believe that wherever a population of people is subjected to the pains of terrible situations, that their pains are due to a turning away from God? Did the people of Detroit recently sign one of those pacts with Devil also? What about the folks in Appalachia? If so, then the Devil manifests himself in corporate greed.

Haiti is located on one half of the island of Hispaniola. The other half is occupied by the nation of The Dominican Republic. Mr. Robertson shows us his grasp of reality when he states that The Dominican Republic is one thriving nation while Haiti has always been impoverished.

"Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island."

Mr. Robertson's exposure to The Dominican Republic is probably limited to The Club Med style, all-inclusive resorts, where the wealthy vacationers are waited on hand and foot, and the only exposure that they get to the natives is when the waiters bring them their umbrella drinks at poolside.

I know another Dominican Republic, which includes about 95 percent of the country. That Dominican Republic, where I worked to build schools and churches in poverty-stricken areas, doesn't have much resemblance to The Dominican that Mr. Robertson talks about.

The Dominican Republic I know has people living in doorless, windowless plywood huts with corrugated tin roofs and no electricity, all crowded together on muddy streets with open sewers running parallel to roads.

I would bet that Mr. Robertson has never witnessed the riots that I found myself trapped in when angry citizens of The Dominican rebelled against the oppressive governor by burning tires, throwing rocks and protesting in the streets,

These actions were only to be met with government-issued bullets and tear gas. (Do you know how terrifying it is to hear machine gun fire only a short distance away and to see smoking tear gas canisters sailing through the air? I was scared out of my wits!)

Life must be nice in Mr. Robertson's pristine world where all answers are black and white. However, that is not the world that I live in.

If Jesus were to come to the island of Hispaniola today, do you think He'd book Himself a two-week vacation at the Sandal's All-Inclusive Oceanside Resort, or do you think He'd be in Port Au Prince right now, attending to the sick and wounded?