It’s not enough religious wackos like Pat Robertson claim Haiti is suffering because the country made a pact with the devil; now other morons are coming out and saying similarly insensitive and terrible shit. The latest scumbag is Dr. Wesley Stafford, who had this to say:

Haiti … has been a disaster in almost every way long before this ever struck. And it is a nation, between you and me, I guess, that Satan has had absolutely free reign in that nation. And while the missionary effort and the church effort has been enormous, this is a nation that you can literally feel the evil in it. But then as the church lives out its faith, having come through this deep, deep valley, my great prayer is that there will be a great wave of healing and change in the nation of Haiti … that could only come about through an interruption like this and only happen through the glory of God.

Here’s the thing: Stafford’s organization is apparently on the up and up (receiving a high rating by an independent charity watchdog), and beyond teaching kids their idiotic beliefs, they seem to do good work. That doesn’t mean, however, he can say such hateful shit without consequence. He’s blaming Haitians for being so poor, suggesting the reason that country lost 200,000 people in a tragic natural disaster is because God is punishing them in some way.

This is what I detest about American Christians; they equate prosperity as God’s way of rewarding good people. They can’t seem to fathom that there may be far more complicated geopolitical reasons for poverty; mainly, their own country supported terrible dictatorships that only exacerbated the poverty and desperation of Haiti. Sure, his organization helps desperate people in the third world, but this could also be done without his smug hubris that these same impoverished nations are cursed by his sky deity for not “following the Lord’s words properly”. I feel embarrassed for the human race when such ignorance is so rampant.