16546: Anonymous: Re: 16535: Lafleur: RE: 16535: Laleau: Re: 16434: Cunningham: More of God in Haiti!! (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Please post anonymously

Lourdes Lafleur  writes:
>
>" Voodoo has destroyed my family and that is a very painful experience that
> I've been living for the past month. Some people in my well to do Haitian
> family do believe in it and even the most trivial ailment can be
attributed
> to the meanness of someone else in the immediate family just because the
> "houngan" said so. There is no way, anyone with good sense can make them
> believe otherwise and for the past month we have been at each other's
> throats."

Two things are the cause of just about all the hatred and conflicts in the
world: politics and religion.  Haiti is no exception.  In a poor country
like Haiti, politics and religion are seen by some opportunist as a way to
acquire money and power.  Often the same person is involved in both politics
and religion (Vodou or Christian) or uses religion as a stepping stone into
politics.

I will make a few other comments about all the recent posting on the of
Christianity and Vodou on this list.

I will not get into the role of the Church in past world history but if you
look at who is doing what in Haiti today, you will find that christian-based
organizations or individuals acting our of christian compassion are doing
the majority of the quality social and educational work.  There is some
corruption but it is the exception.  Program may not be run like some would
prefer but they work.

The Catholic Church is doing and excellent job.  100 years ago, they
educated mostly the elite.  Back then the majority of the elite on average
had an elementary school education.  Only a few continued their studies.
Today the catholic schools are full of poor and middle class kids.  A few
from the elite still attend but for the most part they attend private
schools in English or schools that follow the French educational system.
The elite as a group intends to send their children abroad for college or
university.  Middle class children with family abroad often attend one of
many English/French bilingual private schools.

Corruption and impropriety is virtually non-existent among the Catholic
sisters who do the bulk of the educational and social work.  In general
priests have the power and they conduct mass, but most are not in the
trenches getting their hands dirty.  The sisters on the other hand live in
community and have no power in the Catholic hierarchy.  They far outnumber
the priests and live what they preach and believe.  They do wonders with
very little.  As far as I am concerned, they should be in charge of running
the government of Haiti.

As far as the protestant churches are concerned, there are all types.
Corruption is more common since anyone who can speak English tends to
immediately gain the trust of some American church with deep pockets.  There
is one item I want to point out though.  Hundreds of protestant churches are
some of the rare places where true democracy is practiced in Haiti.  Church
members may work as maids, or yard keepers but in their churches, they have
status.  The members of the church tithe part of their meager income.  They
hold elected position on various church councils and vote on church issues.
They help choose their leaders.  They are involved in an organized manner
when their members or leaders need to be disciplined.  They benefit
tremendously from the community life.  Their children often attend various
enrichment programs at the church: dance, art, after school etc...  Adults
participate in enrichment programs and seminars sponsored by the church and
paid for by their tithes and sometimes contributions from the mother church
if there is one.  True alphabetization is also taking place in the
protestant churches (a key protestant belief is that Christians must be able
to read their Bibles).

Now a word about the conflicts between some christians and vodou.  Many of
the anti-vodou positions repeated by American Christians have as their
source Haitian christians.  Remember that most protestant churches function
democratically.  Ideas are discussed and decided upon by entire
congregations and their Haitian pastors who communicate these now "facts" to
foreign pastor who then repeat those things on the internet and in their
publications for fund-raising and information purposes.  Most protestant
converts are not usually Catholics but directly from the vodou faith (even
if they were baptized as infants by a priest).  They grew up living with
vodou.  When they are baptized as Christians, they sometimes throw out some
of their cultural tradition with the baptismal waters.  They usually remove
some of the most attractive aspects in order not to be tempted back into
vodou.  For example, if attending a prostestant church service, you will
almost never see a traditional Haitian drum accompanying the music.  The
church will instead spend more money to purchase an imported drum (that is
if they allow a drum at all).  Many of these new christians see things in a
radical way because of their personal experience with vodou.  I know of one
family where one brother got into the darker sides of vodou and sacrificed
(slit throat) his own brother in a religious rite in the early 1990's.  The
rest of the family is now very much against anything related to vodou
including the beautiful art.  Another Haitian christian told me that he
believed that some of the music and items can overpower a person.  He showed
me a video of a vodou ceremony where he was acting as a translator for a
French documentary crew.  His mother, a wealthy mambo, was running the show.
Previously this man's godfather had died and I guess the loa who had been
with the now deceased man had asked the mambo to enter her son.   The man
had refused to participate in a ceremony to become possessed by the loa.
During the ceremony for the French crew, he became possessed (it's on the
tape) against his will by that particular loa.  He fled the area and became
a Christian and a militant against vodou.  Another story is that of a
wonderful lady who said her father was an evil man who boasted of using
vodou to kill his children who were against him.  She believed she was
protected because she was a christian.  She told me her father had even
cause a car to hit  and kill her brother in Guadeloupe.  When I told her
that this was most likely an accident, she said that,since I did not grow up
with vodou like she did, there were things I will never understand.

A Final word about this Bois Caiman ceremony being a pact with the devil for
the coutnry of Haiti.  If someone has prior knowledge of hearing this story
broadcasted all over prior to the 1990's please post.  I think this entire
story was first brought onto the public scene by  Haitian pastor Joel Jeune
in the 1990's.  Pastor Joel Jeune was a leader in the original attempt to
vandalize the historical Bois Caiman site.  He also actively talked about
this on his Miami-based TV show broadcasted all over Haiti.  He later was
invited to speak on various national American TV-evangelist shows such as
Praise the Lord show where this story became an accepted "fact" of the
militant evangelizers of today.