Dear Editor,

I was taken aback by Chris Burns’ January 18 column: “Haiti – a nation misunderstood”.While condemning Robertson and Limbaugh, he seems to take a position that in many ways is akin to theirs, especially when he refers to African religions in the Americas in a negative light.

Though he establishes that he is not a religious scholar – and clearly this article is not about religion but rather about the ignorance that people like Robertson and Limbaugh disseminate – his choice of words leaves much to be desired. In fact, in retrospect, it differs little from the ignorant and blatant offensive remarks spewed out by these two cherry-pickers “propagating what is favourable to a particular doctrine and then completely ignoring or denying what is unfavourable to their theorem”.

As a priest of Lukumi religion and a scholar, I take double offence at this classifying African religions in the Americas as “weird and frightening”. Lukumi religion – and I am sure that I speak for priests and priestesses of vodou, candomble, and all forms of Africanreligions in the Americas- is not weird or frightening, no more so than Judaism, Christianity, and/or Islam. They are religious manifestations that differ from those of the West and are thus slighted by the West, but they are no more weird or frightening than Western religions.

A quick glimpse through the Judeo-Christian Bible and holy books, and the Muslim Q’uran will suffice to reveal numerous examples of “weird and frightening” tenets! Burns, your position in this column needs some clarification.

Miguel Ramos, Florida International University

ilarioba@gmail.com