The situation in Haiti is so desperate that we struggle to find any frame of reference. Over 110,000 lives lost. Hundreds of thousands injured and homeless. Millions of dollars of investment lost.

Untold misery has been experienced by Haitians, relief workers and doctors, who have been forced, in many cases, to doing amputations on adults and children using hacksaws without anestesia. One observer described it as "civil war" field medicine.

By all accounts, the situation in Haiti is the single worse human disaster event in the history of our hemisphere. Haiti is nearer to Indianapolis than Los Angeles. Essentially, this disaster occurred in our "back yard."

On top of all the human tragedy is the tragedy of speculation and questions about "why" Haiti experienced this tragic loss. Pat Robertson stated that the Haitians (I assume he meant all of them since 1791) made a pact with the devil, resulting in a "curse" on the nation. Space doesn't permit me to address this unfortunate misconception. Suffice it to say that many Americans, past and present, have behaved far worse than Haitian people in relation to social and spiritual matters.

I think it is far better to say, "we don't understand," rather than to "spiritualize" a human tragedy and paint an entire nation, including fellow Christians, with a broad brush of spiritual darkness. Dr. Robertson and his organizations have done a lot of good work, even in Haiti, but this statement was incredibly misguided and untimely.

In 1989, the San Francisco region was struck with a 7.1 earthquake that resulted in 57 immediate deaths. On January 12, 2010, the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti resulted in more than 110,000 deaths. The only difference I can determine between the two instances were the poorly constructed buildings of Haiti. However, too many of my fellow Christians seem to be "hell-bent" on assigning blame to the Haitians, and God, for this disaster.

There are aberrant "prophetic" groups among Christians that, in my opinion, have lost all sight of facts, reason, and scriptural accuracy. There is too much self-righteousness, too much eagerness to exploit "bad news," and too little self-judgment and accountability among some in these movements.

We need to fully focus on helping the Haitian people and not further spoiling our Christian witness by condemning the Haitian people with hurtful words and misinformed commentary.

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Perspective about Haiti's founding by Haitian author: "God, Satan, and the Birth of Haiti"