Dear Editor,

I was neither a theologian of Fall-Redemption spirituality nor a fatalistic believer who thought that because some Haitians practise voodoo rites, that God sent the earthquake to punish thousands of innocent people. The late Martin Luther King Jr attested: “Fatalism is based on an appalling conception of God, for everything, whether good or evil, is considered to represent the will of God. A healthy religion rises above the idea that God wills evil. Although God permits evil in order to preserve the freedom of man, he does not cause evil. That which is willed is intended, and the thought that God intends for a child to be born blind or for a man to suffer the ravages of insanity is sheer heresy that pictures God as a devil rather than as a loving Father. Embracing fatalism is as tragic and dangerous a way to meet the problem of unfulfilled dreams as are bitterness and withdrawal.”

It is inhumane and atheistic for Jamaicans to suggest that God punished the Haitians deliberately, because of voodoo. Let us remember that fatalism stymies the individual, leaving that person helplessly inadequate for life. Unfortunately, certain people in the Jamaican society are suffering from a type of post-modern demonic mentality which has failed to come to terms with the God who loves Haitians, the poor and the oppressed. Earthquakes are neither for punishing the practice of voodoo nor are they ordained by God.

Revd Canon Ernle Gordon

gordfm@yahoo.com