Following the catastrophic earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12th, public statements were made by some Evangelical preachers who tried to shame and discredit Haiti’s practice of voodoo. Notably, Pat Robertson suggested that the African-born religion was in fact responsible for bringing on the earthquake – calling voodoo “a pact with the devil” that resulted in this punishment against Haiti.

This accusation added an extra layer of pain to an impoverished country that lost more than 300,000 people in those days.

Max Beauvoir, Haiti's "supreme master" of voodoo, had this to say about Pat Robertson: "I don't know much about him… and I don't think I'm missing much."  He added that “to ask us to stop voodoo would be like asking an American to stop heating hamburgers."

We invited Dr. Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, author and professor of Africology at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee to be interviewed on our radio program GODSPEED. Originally from Haiti, Dr. Bellegarde-Smith has a PhD in international relations and comparative politics. But he is most proud of his status as 'oungan asogwe,' the highest ranking that one can achieve as a priest of voodoo.

In the one-hour interview, he clarified much about the religious practice. According to Dr. Bellegarde-Smith, voodoo, correctly spelled Vodou, is a spiritual way of life that is a blend of African and Roman Catholicism developed by slaves in Haiti. It is the de facto belief of all Haitians, regardless of their Christian faith. It is commonly said that “Haiti is 80 percent Catholic, and 100 percent Vodou.”

“There are great misconceptions of Vodou, largely due to the U.S. military and the Hollywood films of the 1930’s,” he said. “For example, in Vodou there are no such things as human sacrifices or sticking pins in dolls.”
 
What Vodou actually is, he explained, is a connection with the natural world that identifies spirits and deities in nature and calls out to them. It works on an energy level. For example, the trees have spirits (picture the healing scene in the film Avatar.)

Historically these natural deities have been associated with some Catholic saints, in a manner similar to what transpired when Christianity reached the forests of Celtic England and the fertility goddess of the old ways became linked to and transformed into Mother Mary. Also, as with small sacred spaces and personal altars in Catholicism and Buddhism, Vodou practitioners enjoy family temples. The clergy are primarily female.

According to Bellegarde-Smith, Vodou has been misunderstood and wrongly identified with witchcraft and devil worship, and practitioners have been oppressed and persecuted for 200 years. The religious practice has been driven underground and hidden from view – right up to the aftermath of the recent earthquake and the calls for repentance and conversion.

Does all the backlash change anything for Haiti?

“Not at all,” says Bellegarde–Smith. “Vodou is deeply cultural and unique to Haiti. You are born into it. Haitians would not understand life without it. They also would not understand outsiders who would want to practice it. It is theirs.”