I decided to make this topic to not only discuss Haiti, but a bigger picture. Even before this, Haiti had a lot of problems, just like a lot of other countries. I have sat here and read stories of everything that has happen, some bringing me to tears.
I do not believe as Americans we realize how bless and fortunate we are.
Oookaay. Yeah, I have noticed that too. Call me as crazy as the other Christians, but I do think their current situation is because of the way they believe. Think about it, most of the stories about “voodoo” come from Haiti. If I remember right, it is a mixture of Native American paganism and African paganism. Whatever it is, it has Satan written all over it. Anyway, this has been going on since the arrival of the Spanish, through the Colonial Era, all the way to now. Coincidentally, “or not”, they have been hit by every disaster in the book, and then some. Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Political Turmoil, Perpetual Poverty, I would continue the list if I knew of anything else. The Egyptians who suffered through the Ten Plagues had it easy compared to them. Let me also use this moment to recognize the other part of the world suffering in sin, Southeast Asia. They have cyclones, typhoons (technically the same thing, but they get both since they border the Indian and Pacific Oceans), monsoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, political turmoil, drought, and again, so on and so forth. Look at what they do though. I would mention them, but they are too bad for words. Y’all get the point though. Death from sin and the Haitians are experiencing this. Guess who would be the first to criticize me for saying this though.
honestly, it is not as bad as what I heard said by a gentleman who thinks he speaks on behalf of all Christians when really he made us look like what the world thinks we are anyway. Not sure if that made sense, but neither did he, so hey it all fits. He said it right after the disater happened and instead of using that breath and air time to ask for Christians to stand next to our fellow God’s children and pull them from the rubble of thier homes and broken spiritual lives and help them, he said that basically Haiti deserved it for making a pact with the devil. If this is true, why did the leader of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, who was there with others to discuss ways to enrich the country, perish beneath the walls of the hotel he was meeting in? Did he make a pact? What next…New Orleans with all its foibles and voodoo, (as portayed in the Princess and the Frog, a good movie overall) will be destroyed by a natural disaster…oh wait it was, Katrina. God has destroyed cities before, but there were not even a handful of faithful people in them. They could fit in a Geo Metro with room to spare. In Haiti and New Orleans there were thousands of people, may be 10’s of thousands, who earnestly loved and served our Mighty and Loving God. So yes, what you say is true, that the wages of sin is death. But I hope and pray that what Our Mouthpiece said is untrue; that my sin does not bring the wrath of God on my two year old and my 5 month old. That my mumbled cure doesn’t cause my home to crumble onto my beloved bride.
I don’t know about you, but THAT is not the God that I serve. He died in my place, so I would not fear death and tremble over my sins. I would boldly pick up my passport and hop a jet to Haiti to do what ever these soft, uncalloused man hands could do. It is what I tried to do until the flight was cancelled.
God is like Aslan of Narnia in that when asked if Aslan was tame, the repsonse was that he was neither tame nor safe, but good. I fear nothing but God for I know He loves me. And everyone still buried and left unburied in Haiti.
OK, this went into a direction that I did not even think of going in to. I am not speaking about people saying this is God punishing the people of Haiti.
I was going into the direction of, ok…the country is destroyed…how does it rebuild? When do they stop living off all the money coming from other countries? When do they stand on their own 2 feet?
Well maybe my problem is that I state the problem, then turn around and call it the facts. You’re right, I probably could have saved time and space if I got straight to the point of finding an answer. I admit that after reading what you said, I read my article again and I actually did something that I should have done before I posted that. I began to think.
One thing that I have been telling people since the quake is this. God is making it difficult for the resources to get through, and He has a reason. Honestly think about it, but who is struggling so hard to get supplies to the people? Ever wonder why? Well, in case y’all didn’t, I did wonder, and I thought, and then it came to me. God is allowing time for His people to get there first, so that as they are helping the survivors, they can have the oppurtunity to witness to these spiritually lost people. Of course, to an atheist this might sound like the case of, for lack of better word, evil people profiting from other people’s suffering, but you and I both know that this is nothing like that. The Hairians desperately need Jesus, and I know that these organizations that are sponsored by the “kings” of the world aren’t going to make an attempt, even if some of them might “know” Jesus. However, God isn’t going to keep this window open forever. If Christians don’t act, don’t find inventive ways to get there, and so on and so forth, God will have to let the “kings” through so that they can attempt to end the suffering.
First off, I haven’t been present on the boards for a while, but I am absolutely angered at how you guys can say something like that. God punished Haiti because they practice voodoo? Pacts with the devil? Seriously????? That kind of talk is exactly why people avoid christianity!!! This tragedy with Haiti had nothing to do with God striking them. It’s simple geography. Tectonic places shift and it causes earthquakes. LA has earthquakes and nobody blames God on that. Or are you simply saying that America has it coming? Because if I remember correctly, we aren’t exactly the best of nations, either. We might have more money, and our buildings might have better infrastructure, but we were founded on raping and pillaging innocent people all in the “name” of Christ. Not to mention the countless other horrific things our nation has done throughout the 200+ years in the “name” of Christ.
I might be a little upset because I take this kind of personal, but as a woman who grew up in the Southern Baptist church, I believe for Christians to say they deserved it is absolutely the opposite of what our God teaches about unconditional love and kindness. Maybe, if God did cause this some how, it was to show our ungrateful, spoiled nation how to appreciate what we have. I have a very good friend of mine, like a brother to me, who grew up in Haiti. His father is a preacher of the Hatian Baptist Church here, and they are, if measured by society’s standards, better Christians than I am. I mean, his sister and I were in Bible club together in high school! Aside from his immediate family and a few cousins here in Las Vegas, the rest of his family is in Haiti. When the first earthquake hit, it took his family four days to even hear about any family, and when they did, it was (his words) “Only about the dead ones.” And it was through the crisis relief line, not through other family. So after the second earthquake, I can only imagine what he is going through. So you tell me that his family deserved to die. That kind of attitude is the reason why so many avoid Christianity.
This topic has gone way beyond what I was trying to discuss. My whole point in starting this had to do with what is to be done with Haiti once the dust has settled? This country has been living off money from other countries for years and still have not advanced very far…so something has to be done for this country to help it to not only heal but overcome this in general. Just sending money and ignoring all the inner problems is not helping the country at all. Their government is not working and not enough is being done for the people.
This topic is not about people believing God strike them down…you are starting to sound like that Westboro church! People of all religions died in that quake, as they do in all disasters! Saying SINNER and pointing a finger only makes our faith look vindictive! Our attitude can not be that bad and that blind!
Ssh2506 - 23 January 2010 12:55 PM
First off, I haven’t been present on the boards for a while, but I am absolutely angered at how you guys can say something like that. God punished Haiti because they practice voodoo? Pacts with the devil? Seriously????? That kind of talk is exactly why people avoid christianity!!! This tragedy with Haiti had nothing to do with God striking them. It’s simple geography. Tectonic places shift and it causes earthquakes. LA has earthquakes and nobody blames God on that. Or are you simply saying that America has it coming? Because if I remember correctly, we aren’t exactly the best of nations, either. We might have more money, and our buildings might have better infrastructure, but we were founded on raping and pillaging innocent people all in the “name” of Christ. Not to mention the countless other horrific things our nation has done throughout the 200+ years in the “name” of Christ.
I might be a little upset because I take this kind of personal, but as a woman who grew up in the Southern Baptist church, I believe for Christians to say they deserved it is absolutely the opposite of what our God teaches about unconditional love and kindness. Maybe, if God did cause this some how, it was to show our ungrateful, spoiled nation how to appreciate what we have. I have a very good friend of mine, like a brother to me, who grew up in Haiti. His father is a preacher of the Hatian Baptist Church here, and they are, if measured by society’s standards, better Christians than I am. I mean, his sister and I were in Bible club together in high school! Aside from his immediate family and a few cousins here in Las Vegas, the rest of his family is in Haiti. When the first earthquake hit, it took his family four days to even hear about any family, and when they did, it was (his words) “Only about the dead ones.” And it was through the crisis relief line, not through other family. So after the second earthquake, I can only imagine what he is going through. So you tell me that his family deserved to die. That kind of attitude is the reason why so many avoid Christianity.
I just want to say how awesome it is to see the huge rush to help people hurt in Haiti, Chrisitan or not, that really encourages me about what we as people can do when something happens like this. Even Clinton and Bush got together to do thier part. Very Cool!
I’m going to try to hold my pride back here. Okay, I think to improve Haiti, we need to keep the dust from settling. By that, I mean that we need to work constantly and let our feet comstantly stir up the dust as we work to rebuild Haiti. Most importantly, we need to be a light to the world. To sum up my first post, the wages of sin is death. Yes God does punish sin. Does he want to punish us? Well, if he did, then how can you claim that he is merciful. Remember that there is still the law and even the writer must abide it. In other words, God does his part becuse we did ours, good or bad. We all deserve what happened in Haiti, New Orleans, and more.
In my second post, I admitted that I was wrong to be all gloom and doom. If I didn’t, I admit it now. For some reason I did not think before that post, but whatever it was, it wasn’t a good reason. Also in that post I did offer what I saw. Christians need to mobilize because if we can send aid to the right people, then we can give these people more than aid.
What needs to happen in Haiti now is for a light to shine on them so that they can shine it to the rest of the world. We need to be there giving them food for the body, food for the mind, and food for the soul. If Haiti is to turn out any better after this, then they must go through a complete change. Remember that story about Peter and the crippled beggar, Acts 3:1-11. Haiti is that crippled beggar. Just like him, they have been crippled since their independence, and they have begged for money from all who is around them. But who will be Peter and John? We do have silver and gold. We can give that to them, but we need to tell them the same exact powerful words that Peter said in verse 6. They will look at us as the man did in verse 5, but if we are truly the body of Christ, we can pick them up to their feet and let them walk with us into the Temple, (Heaven), and the world will stand in wonder. So, will you be the body of Christ.
