[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 711]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         A PACT WITH THE DEVIL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Grayson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, now that help to Haiti is on the way and 
that we are doing the best we can to save lives and to reconstruct 
lives in that torn country, I think this is a good time to look back 
and to give some thought to people's reaction to what happened in 
Haiti, to do sort of a post-mortem of the post-mortem. And particularly 
I want to revisit one comment that was made after that time, the 
comment by Pat Robertson. He claimed that the earthquake in Haiti was 
the result of a pact with the devil that the people of Haiti had made 
to achieve an end to slavery and independence at the beginning of the 
1800s.
  I thought that was an interesting comment to make. It turns out that 
there were two devastating earthquakes in Haiti before their 
independence, before their so-called pact with the devil, before their 
end to slavery. And in the 200 years plus since their so-called pact 
with the devil, Haiti has actually been pretty much earthquake-free.
  Now you compare that to the neighboring country, the Dominican 
Republic. In 1946, the Dominican Republic had a devastating earthquake, 
actually, it's hard to believe, ten times more powerful than the 
earthquake that Haiti experienced 2 weeks ago. The Dominican Republic 
had no pact with the devil, and therefore, if I can use the word 
``therefore'' in this context, was laid low. So under Pat Robertson's 
logic, one would have to conclude that, in fact, Haiti has benefited 
tremendously by what he would depict as a pact with the devil.
  And I wonder, in contrast, how well Pat Robertson's followers have 
made out with their own pact with the devil. And what I mean is this: 
Pat Robertson ran for President in 1988. He did something in that year 
that nobody has done before or since. He brought 3 million volunteers 
to his campaign. He got millions of people involved in the Republican 
Party all across the country. In the end, he came in third. But he 
activated the Christian right. And all those people joined the 
Republican Party with something in mind, a couple of things in mind. 
One thing they wanted was an end to gay marriage. And for years, when 
the Republican Party was in charge of this country, the House, the 
Senate, the Supreme Court, the Presidency, the Republican Party did 
nothing to accomplish that for Pat Robertson's followers.
  Similarly, these people wanted an end to abortion in America. And I'm 
not going to say whether that was right or wrong, whether they are 
right or wrong, but I will point out to you that when the Republicans 
were in charge, the Senate, the House, the White House and the Supreme 
Court, once again, they did nothing to help Pat Robertson's followers 
accomplish what they wanted.
  So tonight I ask those people, the Christian right: What about your 
own pact with the devil? How has that worked out for you?

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