14637: Racine: Re: 14606: Bellegarde-Smith: Article on Vodou Researcher ElizabethMcAlister (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Congratulations to Liza McAlister, and respect once again to Leslie Desmangles!

I do want to discuss one little remark Desmangles makes, however - and I note that it might not have been transcribed correctly by reporter Jeffrey B. Cohen:

"The difference between Haitian society and American society is that you can describe U.S. culture without really discussing too much about religion," Mr. Desmangles said.

But a moment's reflection will indicate that the Judeo-Christian tradition informs every aspect of American society, law and culture!  Our approach to education, to literacy, our production and invocation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, our beliefs about wealth... I could go on and on, but let me give a little analysis and a few examples.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God loves everyone equally, right?  It is wrong to hurt others, because God loves everyone, and is displeased when one person hurts another.  Everyone has the same worth before God.  "Right" and "wrong" are clearly defined, and even codified in the Bible or the Torah.

Likewise in American law, everyone has the same worth, and it is wrong to hurt others, because society recognizes the value of each person, and is offended when one person hurts another. There is once again the concept that certain things are "right" and certain things are wrong, and the democracy has it's own "Bible" - the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the written laws.

But let's take a more mundane example:

Public education has been very important in the United States, and it began in the 1600's in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the passage of the "Deluder Satan Act".  The legislative body of the time decreed that all children must learn to read so that they could read the Bible, and thus not be deluded by Satan (who in that time and place was represented by the King of England and the Pope of Rome in equal measure).  Schoolmasters and schoolmistresses were engaged by the various towns and villages, and their salaraies paid by public taxes.  This established a strong tradition of free universal public education which continues to this day.

By contrast, in Haitian Vodou the lwa serve those who serve the lwa - much like any sitting Haitian government, which favors members of it's own team with protection and wealth.  All people are not worth the same, instead people who are seen as enemies of the ruling group are at risk.  Meanwhile, with no impetus toward universal literacy and a Roman Catholic clergy interested in shielding and retaining their power, there never developed much in the way of truly effective public education in Haiti.

It's a mistake to think that any culture can be divorced from the prevailing religions practiced in that culture, and the United States is no exception.

Sincerely,

Kathy S. Grey