text: By Elizabeth McAlister Associate Professor of Religion, Wesleyan University
  
  Vodouists in the Haitian diaspora are praying on their knees today, just as Catholics and Protestants are. Why did this devastating earthquake have to happen in Haiti, a country already so vulnerable that people live on a dollar a day, where on a good day, the government cannot employ or educate or provide health care for the majority? In Port-au-Prince, they are coping by searching and rescuing, sharing resources, crying, and praying. In Vodou most ritual is about finding balance, putting yourself into equilibrium with the spirits, with your family, and with yourself. In Haiti things are way out of balance. We might say that spirits of death have launched a coup d'Ã©tat.
  
  My friend and colleague, the artist, educator, and priest of the spirits, Erol JosuÃ©, has been praying and crying in Brooklyn. Through Twitter, Facebook, and his cell phone he has learned of at least twenty dead friends in several Port-au-Prince congregations. He told me today that for him, as a spirit-worker, this event is both scientific and symbolic. This is indeed a natural disaster for JosuÃ©. But the land in Haiti is a person, he said. We consider it a woman, our mother. "HaÃ¯ti ChÃ©rie," as the well-known ballad goes. She wants to know, 'who will make me beautiful, put clothes on me, and take care of my children?' When you mistreat her, and uproot her trees, when you give her too much responsibility, she is like a woman with cancer. The tumor metastasizes, and explodes.
  
  For Erol JosuÃ©, the earthquake was mother nature, the land of Haiti, rising up to defend herself against the erosion, deforestation, and environmental devastation that have been ongoing for the last few decades. "Everybody was smashed to the ground," said Erol. "Rich and poor. But look how symbolic this is. The Palace is smashed, the legislative building, the tax office, and the Cathedral. The country is crushed. We are all on our knees." This Vodou priest is not speaking about divine retribution, as has Pat Robertson. God is not punishing us for disobedience. Erol is speaking about a giant natural rebalancing act, a reaction against human dealings with the ecosystem.
  
  For the last 25 years I have had the privilege of studying and writing about the Afro-Creole religion in Haiti, the traditions known as Vodou (Anglicized as voodoo). It is a worldview that encompasses philosophy, medicine, justice, and the arts, in a cosmic scheme where the fundamental principle is that everything is spirit. Said the famous painter and Vodou priest AndrÃ© Pierre, "The first magician is God who created people with his own hands from the dust of the earth. No one lives of the flesh. Everyone lives of the spirit." We humans live in the material world, and other spirits--called lwa, or mystÃ¨res, "mysteries"--dwell in the unseen realm. God created the spirits to help govern humanity and the natural world. The ancestors and the recently dead are with them. Unfortunately, there are far too many recently dead crossing over to join the spirits this week.
  
  When you cut a tree, in Vodou, you are supposed to ask the tree first, and leave a small payment for the spirit of the tree. For years nobody has asked, or listened, or paid the land when making policies or laws in Haiti. Farmers have given up since imported rice undercut their local prices. Whole villages left the provinces, and migrated to the capital, leaving the land behind and swelling the capital city to bursting. The people running the country--from within and from without--have abused Our Mother. She is doing what is natural, like a horse throwing a rough rider.
  
  This interpretation, this theology, is the poignant parable of an exhausted and grieving spiritualist. Others, who may read this and disagree with great force, will not necessarily share it. But Vodou works through spiritual revelation, and this is the revelation Erol gives me today. Vodou has no single spokesperson and no inerrant text. It has God, the angels, and the spirits in the unseen realm. And now there are thousands and thousands of souls, who are being carried, each by a spirit of the dead, into Guinea, the world of the ancestors. It seems fitting to close with the first and last lines of the poem "Guinea" by Jacques Roumain: It's the long road to Guinea Death takes you down Here are the boughs, the trees, the forest Listen to the sound of the wind in its long hair Of eternal night . . .
  
  There, there awaits you beside the water a quiet village, And the hut of your fathers, and the hard ancestral stone Where your head will rest at last.
  
  (Translation by Langston Hughes, 1958)
  
  Elizabeth McAlister is author of "Rara! Vodou, Power and Performance in Haiti and its Diaspora." Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
  
  Learn more about Afro-Creole religion in Haiti at Patheos.com.
  
  By Elizabeth McAlister | January 15, 2010; 9:16 AM ET Save & Share: Previous: Haiti and earthquake theology | Next: Catholic bishops too powerful?
  
  The most important issue at hand is not blame, my faith is better than yours, they live somewhere you're not supposed to live or they got money & warnings years ago but the simple fact is that people are dead, dying, starving, needing medical attention, food, & water.
  
  Nature is predictable & unpredictable all the way around. Where can you live on earth without an element of nature having the last word? Floods, snow, rain, hurricanes, electric storms, cyclones, draught & earth quakes ultimately rule us small humans in life on a planet that may not be able to keep up with our demands.
  
  If Haitians were born into poverty who is to blame? If greed, politics, and governments received aid money but did nothing for the populace who is to blame? What countries profited from the clear cutting? Who purchased products from this country of $1 a day living?
  
  WHO IS TO BLAME? I AM
  
  I flushed the toilet this AM after a healthy breakfast, washed dishes, cleaned my closet of the wood hangers I no longer like because they take up to much room for my fat & skinny clothes, emptied the trash, took a nap with a book, had fruit for lunch, cleared my hall closet of old towels, refilled kleenex containers, got on the internet, spent an hour on the phone with a friend, took a shower, blow dried my hair, started a load of laundry, paid some bills, thought about traffic in the rain, walked my dog, steamed veggies & baked chicken for dinner, now it's time for me to get in my warm big bed with lots of covers.
  
  WHO IS TO BLAME? I AM
  
  Posted by: laca7 | January 17, 2010 9:37 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  God if he/she/it exists or Mother Nature give us the gift of rational thinking. Living on an earthquake fault and/or in flood/hurricane/tsunami zones violates rational thinking. The taxpayers of the USA should not have to continue supporting this stupidity. Rebuilding New Orleans is a mistake as will be rebuilding Port au Prince.
  
  Posted by: ccnl1 | January 17, 2010 6:46 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Well, CCNL, I think part of your problem (as well as the common ones of those you quote) ...is that trying to cram the living world, and natural events, into a good/evil/control paradigm of what 'God' is... Or is not...
  
  Is that it goes nowhere.
  
  Even in the lushest forests, trees fall.
  
  The gentlest Mother still shakes fiercely with any birth.
  
  The most bountiful,life-giving seas will storm, foam, and rage, and lush plains also give rise fierce whirlwinds.
  
  This is the way of things. This is the life of the world...
  
  You don't ignore these things until the Earth shakes, build slab concrete and overpopulation, and then call those who live there 'evil' because they have some of their own spirituality, then wonder where 'goodness' is when the structures fall.
  
  Earthquakes, nor Mother Earth, nor 'God' actually cause mass casualties.
  
  Now, there's not much one can do about the Earth shaking. But we've long had the knowing how to make *fact* that there is shaking, and storms, and other things, especially in certain places, something that doesn't have to result in anything quite like this.
  
  The *cause* of this humanitarian disaster... Came long before the earthquake. Long, long, before.
  
  By our human standards, anyway.
  
  Posted by: Paganplace | January 17, 2010 1:42 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  To the more important facts of life considering the horror of the earthquake in Christian/Pagan Haiti:
  
  If there is a god:
  
  From Father Edward Schillebeeckx (famous contemporary theologian), Church: The Human Story of God, Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)
  
  "Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history.
  
  Nothing is determined in advance: in nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices. Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."
  
  Posted by: ccnl1 | January 17, 2010 8:32 AMReport Offensive Comment
  
  If there is a god:
  
  From Father Edward Schillebeeckx (famous contemporary theolgion), Church: The Human Story of God, Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)
  
  "Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" .
  
  "Nothing is determined in advance: in nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices.
  
  Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings.
  
  For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."
  
  Posted by: ccnl1 | January 16, 2010 11:41 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  ""Once we jolt the arrogance out, that our faith is the only way, then we may find true freedom from the bondage of arrogance.
  
  It'd surely be a good thing. The sanctimonious are circling about this tragedy like vultures, and, well. It's sickening. Robertson's only the loudest.
  
  Posted by: Paganplace | January 15, 2010 7:59 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Vodou, Paganism, Atheism, Wicca, Maya, Toltec, Hopi, Shinto, Oloriyo and all the other earth based traditions serve similar spiritual needs of humanity as do Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Bahai, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Jainism and other faiths. Each society has its own equilibrium.
  
  Once we jolt the arrogance out, that our faith is the only way, then we may find true freedom from the bondage of arrogance.
  
  Posted by: mikeghouse | January 15, 2010 5:57 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  ""Vodou, paganism, atheism, wicca, and all the other earth based traditions serve the same spiritual needs of humanity as do the Abrahimic and Dharmic faiths.
  
  I'm not sure I'd say 'the same,' since it seems some feel there are 'needs' not involving... Caring for the land, and each other...
  
  But when needs get like *this,* everyone knows what to do.
  
  Posted by: Paganplace | January 15, 2010 5:23 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  ""However, the government of Haiti had been warned by the offices in the Government of the United States that there was the possibility of an earthquake in their area back in 2008.""
  
  While having for years before had all funding and even loans to *do* anything about it choked off?
  
  Posted by: Paganplace | January 15, 2010 5:20 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  ""But the land in Haiti is a person, he said. We consider it a woman, our mother. "HaÃ¯ti ChÃ©rie," as the well-known ballad goes. She wants to know, 'who will make me beautiful, put clothes on me, and take care of my children?' When you mistreat her, and uproot her trees, when you give her too much responsibility, she is like a woman with cancer. The tumor metastasizes, and explodes...""
  
  My Gods, but if that doesn't sound like old aisling poems about Ireland...
  
  Posted by: Paganplace | January 15, 2010 5:17 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  are haitians like nigerians, consume everything but produce nothing... that is why haiti is so poor...
  
  Posted by: DwightCollins | January 15, 2010 4:49 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  A simple question to those who are drawing conclusions about Vodoo traditions. Where does this arrogance come from? What makes you believe that your way makes sense and others don't?
  
  Heck, it makes sense to the believer not you or I. What you believe is not what I believe and vice versa.
  
  We have to refresh our minds; the right wingers amongst the missionaries were biased bunch of people, in their eagerness to convert, they called other beautiful traditions in a derogatory way. Can they look down upon Christianity, Islam, Judaism and other faiths?
  
  Vodou, paganism, atheism, wicca, and all the other earth based traditions serve the same spiritual needs of humanity as do the Abrahimic and Dharmic faiths.
  
  Posted by: mikeghouse | January 15, 2010 4:44 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  I believe in one all powerful God, and I believe in accepting by faith the existence of God. However, the government of Haiti had been warned by the offices in the Government of the United States that there was the possibility of an earthquake in their area back in 2008.
  
  God gave man the ability to think, judge and make decisions in an autonomous manner. We can see things as they may evolve if we look and question how things work. This is a gift science has evolved into and works to a certain degree for some things, not so well for other things. If this earthquake were a punishment from God, why was there warning before it happened. The disaster of was going to happen as a result of tectonic activity in that part of the world regardless.
  
  It is disappointing that religious leaders should take this as an opportunity to make fools of people who this past year have proven that the level of education in this country and the connection with the real world and the small communities of this country is way out of balance.
  
  Posted by: robert63 | January 15, 2010 4:10 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Pat Robertson was lambasted because he said Haitians made a pact with Satan to defeat the French and was therefore cursed. Erol Josue states that Mother Nature exacted her vengeance on Haiti for mistreating the environment? I'm not sure, but I doubt this article will help dissuade the Pat Robertsons of the world... This mixture of nature worship and paganism is exactly what Pope Benedict warned against last week in his cautions about modern environmentalism.
  
  Posted by: SUMB44 | January 15, 2010 1:56 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Regardless of your faith or beliefs, in reality it's probably not useful to attribute effects to causes, where the only linkage between cause and effect is a personal interpretation.
  
  That being said, even if you can't logically and scientifically attribute an earthquake to ecological devastation and poor agricultural practices, or to demon-worship for that matter, you can attribute the poverty of Haiti and the level of destruction to overpopulation, crowding, and poverty.
  
  Regardless of whether you call it superstition or reasonable practice expressed through a poetic worldview, the idea of respecting the earth leads to living a respectable life. When you see consequences in this world from the actions you take in this world, you can articulate your discovery however you wish, and transmit that articulation however other people will best understand. If they understand that everything is spirit, you tell them about deforestation and ecologic destruction as the reward of people who offend the spirits of the forest, trees, wildlife, and the land itself. If you get a good result from this means of expression, it doesn't matter if it's the spirits, or good advice, which saves the landscape.
  
  If people had lived more traditional lives in greater harmony on the land, when the 7.0 quake occurred, they would not have been overcrowded in shoddy construction on a barren set of hillsides. In an earthquake, a grass hut will certainly collapse but it won't crush anyone. A tent won't crush anyone.
  
  Though the earthquake would have come in any case, the ancient ways are ancient because people who follow them will survive better than those who do not. This doesn't mean you cannot change to newer better ways... but ask if perhaps the old respectful ways and beliefs might have a truth hidden in them that is as invisible as the lwa.
  
  Posted by: thardman | January 15, 2010 1:32 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  The alchemistry in Haiti is oddly ready to harm people with poisons and even death at a whim, with no moral compass about it at all, whatsoever. When what goes on there gets away, the will to use poison potions on people doesn't stay behind in Haiti.
  
  Was this quake from bad mining practices? What Country is behind it? It has been the top question for days.
  
  Posted by: dottydo | January 15, 2010 1:25 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  The reason there is so much strife between religions, is because so few people respect the religions of others. I would expect that Voudou, like Christianity, Judaism and Islam, is experienced and lived in a variety of ways. To see it as satan worship or evil, is just childish rantings of people with closed minds.
  
  Posted by: paris1969 | January 15, 2010 1:15 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Voodoo is not Satan worship in the sense that most people think of when they say "Satan worship." It is a syncretism between monotheism (with Judeo-Christian leanings) and animism. This is not unusual in the history of humanity. It is similar to the Native Americans' traditional religions, most of which have a concept of a Great Spirit along with spirits of animals, trees, rocks, rivers, etc. The ancient Greeks and Romans worshipped many gods (mostly nature gods) but also revered Zeus (Jupiter) as the All-Powerful God over all.
  
  From the Christian point of view, though, all of these religions violate the command from God to "have no other gods before Me." The Apostle Paul told the New Testament Christians that the gods of the people around them were not gods at all but rather demons in the service of Satan. Thus, Voodoo is Satan worship, but at several removes. By these criteria, most of humanity could be labeled Satan worshipers -- including most Christians, who often worship the gods of money, power, greed, gluttony, pride, etc. Such criteria may be helpful within a Christian church, to let the Christians understand how utterly lost people are without Christ. However, it is very unhelpful to point the finger at people and accuse them of being Satan worshippers. And
  
  Posted by: dmm1 | January 15, 2010 1:09 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  If more individuals practiced the respect for Mother Earth as urged in Vodou, the world would be a better place for all of us. Sadly, it wouldn't prevent earthquakes, but it would mitigate myriad other "natural" disasters that are at least in part human-made: for example, the destruction of wetlands are coastal areas leading to the devastation from Hurricaine Katrina. My heart goes out to HaÃ¯ti ChÃ©rie and her people.
  
  Posted by: CellBioProf | January 15, 2010 12:39 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  This article validates what Pat Robertson declared. Voodoo is satan worhip with sacrifices offered to satan. Half of the population of Haiti practices Voodoo.
  
  God is very opposed to satan worship as He has shared many times in His Word. There are consequences, such as living way below your potential.
  
  Repent and call upon Jesus and He will give you life.
  
  Posted by: randfb | January 15, 2010 12:39 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  This article validates what Pat Robertson declared. Voodoo is satan worhip with sacrifices offered to satan. Half of the population of Haiti practices Voodoo.
  
  God is very opposed to satan worship as He has shared many times in His Word. There are consequences, such as living way below your potential.
  
  Repent and call upon Jesus and He will give you life.
  
  Posted by: randfb | January 15, 2010 12:38 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  "Voodoo is evil and satanic. This article is BS." Posted by: MM55 | January
  
  If you knew anything about voodou, you would know what you just wrote is BS. And truly beside the point.
  
  Posted by: racheljean | January 15, 2010 12:19 PMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Voodoo is evil and satanic. This article is BS.
  
  Posted by: MM55 | January 15, 2010 11:49 AMReport Offensive Comment
  
  Deforestation and other bad ecological practices have done major damage to land and soil of Haiti that is true. However: The fault triggered the earthquake miles below the surface. Whether Haiti was a totally barren toxic waste dump or a pristine virgin forest untouched by âman kindâ, the ground still would have shook just the same.
  
  Posted by: rexreddy | January 15, 2010 11:35 AMReport Offensive Comment
summary: The vodoo priest is not speaking about divine retribution, as has Pat Robertson.  God is not punishing us for disobedience. It's a natural rebalancing act, a reaction against human dealings with the ecosystem.