19742: Lawless: Role of religion (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Lawless <robert.lawless@wichita.edu>

In my 2002 article titled "Haiti:  Voodoo, Christianity, and Politics" and
published in Rolin G. Mainuddin's edited volume Religion and Politics in
the Developing World, I concluded by stating, "The sociopolitical
repression that has been such a major part of the political scene for so
long and that is keeping the democratic institutions from developing
operates to keep the poor from claiming their share of Haiti's meager
resources.  What divides the elite into seemingly arbitrary, and often
competing, segments is their non-cooperative efforts to gain individual and
familial power.  At this point religion can only play a very minor role."
Does anyone have any information on what role the Catholics, Protestants,
Voodooists played, if any, in the current political events in Haiti? WobP