Proto-Protestantism: A Dominionist-Evangelical Distortion of Haiti's Sad History

29 November 2021

A Dominionist-Evangelical Distortion of Haiti's Sad History

https://www.breakpoint.org/helping-haiti-with-our-heads-and-hearts/

Haiti has been in the news more than once in 2021. Unrest, assassination, an earthquake, and now the kidnapping of US-based missionaries, Haiti is all but associated with chaos, turmoil, grinding poverty, and corruption. The cultural commentators want to weigh in and John Stonestreet of BreakPoint and The Colson Center recently offered his own Evangelical assessment, his own take on the Haitian situation.

Stonestreet's repeated rejection of New Testament Christianity is on the record. He pays lip service to the Scripture but in many respects rejects its teaching and certainly its ethics. And yet what does his examination of the Haitian problem reveal? It's worth noting as he's a significant voice of influence within Evangelicalism, the inheritor of Chuck Colson's legacy and of his style of Dominionist commentary.

In a BreakPoint episode which echoes some of the worst commentaries of his late teacher, we must say that Stonestreet has outdone himself this time. He launches his commentary with a mention of the Washington Post editorial board's call for a Haitian intervention. Seemingly it's a tough call for Stonestreet given Haiti's tortured history – a history he and his writers clearly know nothing about. He has no problem with military invasions, or assassinations. For him, the question boils down to whether or not it's 'worth' it for the US or even missionaries to invest the time and energy as the situation there seems almost hopeless. As is often the case with Stonestreet, the confusion of categories dominates his thinking. In keeping with sacralist thinkers of old and the religious architects of empire, somehow US political calculations and the Church's task and strategies are conflated and confused. It's a hallmark of such Dominionist 'worldview' thinking.

The Post's call for intervention was par for the course and demonstrates just how deeply Jeff Bezos has become entrenched in the US Establishment, but that's another topic for another time. Stonestreet seems to be unaware that Washington has been invading, exploiting, and breaking Haiti for generations and any commentary that fails to understand this, is guaranteed to completely miss the mark and misrepresent the situation.

One of the hallmarks of a Christian Worldview (as Stonestreet envisions it) should be truth. There's no truth in Stonestreet's commentary. Once again his 'ministry' is marked by lies, distortions, and sometimes blatant disinformation. The Scriptures are milked in some cases, twisted in others. The end result is not a Christian worldview but a fantasy one, one that fit's the Dominionist dream of a sacral world order, a Babel topped with a golden cross – in reality a counterfeit house of cards decorated with a plastic trinket that melts in the sun.

While some may point to a kind of voodoo-instigated Haitian curse harking back to the days of Toussaint Louverture and his Revolution-inspired slave revolt – a point that is actually worthy of some consideration, it does nevertheless seem that Haiti has long inspired a kind of fear among the Western Establishment, which seems determined to keep it down. Slave revolts were long the nightmare of the ruling class, a lesson remembered from the days of Spartacus.

Under the Monroe Doctrine, the US informally claimed control of the Western Hemisphere and as Haiti is culturally French and overwhelmingly Black there's always been a degree of angst about it. It seemed as if it could be the perfect beach-head for some kind of trouble, some kind of movement that could challenge American hegemony. And yet when the French did scheme in North America, it wasn't in Haiti but in Mexico during the US Civil War.

Germany began to show interest in Haiti in the late 1800's and during World War I, President Wilson sent in the Marines. The US would secure its interests and political hold over the nation, directly occupying the nation from 1915-1934.

The financial aspect to the Haitian occupation is critical to understand, a point visited by War is a Racket author General Smedley Butler who in a 1933 speech said:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

“Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the "war to end wars." This was the "war to make the world safe for democracy." No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a "glorious adventure".

Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month!

All that they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill...and be killed.”

His later cynicism regarding American motives on full display, Butler was part of the Haitian occupation, and it was brutal. History demonstrates (as does contemporary experience in places like Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan) that such occupations and wars breed corruption and evil. When societies are broken the monsters emerge and fill the vacuum.

Even today Haiti's financial system is deeply rooted in and wed to the US and as such the US has played a critical role in the nation's history. If there's corruption, the US financial sector plays a part in it – to this very day.

By the 1950's, the Cold War was on and the US backed the brutal dictatorship of Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier whose sins were overlooked because he crushed any hint of communism. Under his rule, tens of thousands would die and the population would be intimidated and humiliated by Duvalier's Tontons Macoutes – his brutal secret police and paramilitary death squads. The Macoute leader Luckner Cambronne also known as the Vampire of the Caribbean retained a good relationship with the US and when finally exiled in 1971, the sadistic mass murderer received a warm welcome in Miami where he lived until his death in the 2000's.

Similar fears of communism or any challenge to American hegemony led to the US invasion of the neighbouring Dominican Republic in 1965. Onetime US ally Rafael Trujillo also commanded a brutal regime of murder and corruption and yet repeatedly aggravated the situation with Haiti and the Caribbean in general. Trujillo massacred thousands of Haitians in the border region in 1937 and attempted to assassinate the president of Venezuela in 1960. Guilty of destabilising the Caribbean and increasingly an embarrassment to Washington, the CIA sponsored his assassination in 1961, but subsequent instability and civil war led to a full US invasion in 1965.

Smedley Butler had died in 1940, but US domination of the Caribbean and Latin America had not diminished and in fact has continued into the twenty-first century. No one can honestly look at the plight of these nations or the larger region without taking this fact into account.

Upon Papa Doc's death in 1971, his son Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier assumed power and continued the oppressive and corrupt policies of his father. Finally ousted in a 1986 coup, he was rescued by the US Air Force which transported him safely to France.

In the wake of the coup, a military dictatorship arose to restore order. The US relationship with the junta was sometimes rocky and sanctions were used to keep it in line – and as with all sanctions it's the common people who suffer the most, and such arrangements always lead to an explosion of black market activity. Poverty is always a fertile ground for corruption.

By means of a democratic movement, Jean-Bertrand Aristide would eventually come to power in 1991. A proponent of Liberation Theology he was opposed by the United States (and the George HW Bush administration) and quickly overthrown after only seven months. With the end of the Cold War, US policy was in flux and apparently the new junta (that replaced Aristide) was not to Washington's liking and so after three years of harsh sanctions, the US military invaded once again in 1994, ousted the junta, killing hundreds in the process, and re-installed Aristide. This was but one of many Clinton foreign policy maneuvers that generated outrage within the American Right. But for the Haitians, the internecine struggles of American politics mattered little. It was another military action, another intervention by the United States, accompanied by more killing and chaos. It was yet another chapter in the long story of sanctions, overthrown governments, and manipulation at the hand of Washington and its empire.

The United States would retain troops in Haiti until 1996 and the UN would remain until 2000.

Aristide was serving a second term in 2004 when he was ousted by another US-backed coup. Right-wing paramilitaries from the Dominican Republic invaded Haiti, instability was fomented and Aristide was removed on a US military plane and exiled to the Central African Republic. CIA and IRI (International Republican Institute) fingerprints were all over the affair. It was orchestrated by US intelligence and elements within the American Right and the George W Bush Administration.

The economic stranglehold on the country continued under the Obama administration as austerity measures kept Haitian wages down. Then the 2010 earthquake hit, further devastating the country. Under Trump, Haiti was relegated to the category of 'shithole' countries and faced further humiliation.

President Jovenal Moïse was assassinated in 2021, all the evidence pointing to the Colombians and their American backers – Colombia being yet another American dominated and brutalised satrapy that acts at America's behest.

One could not help but groan when the news reported that the FBI was being sent to Haiti to aid the investigation – a sure sign of a cover-up and whitewash.

Haiti is a broken society. Given the role of missionaries as vehicles for American power, it's really no wonder criminal gangs would target them. Besides, they know that the corrupt American Church is quite wealthy. In this case they targeted the wrong people as the Ohio-based missionary organisation is rooted in the Anabaptist tradition. These are not people that were there to exploit them, nor people plugged into the American system. The whole episode is sad and I hope it has a happy resolution. But the fact that it happened shouldn't surprise anyone.

Stonestreet's commentary is ignorant, misleading, and should offend all people, especially Christians. It is rooted in a false narrative, one that covers up the sins of the American Empire and shifts the blame solely onto the Haitian people. His commentary was a travesty. In all honesty I am surprised that Haitians have not come to America to kill and blow things up. The crimes committed by the United States against their nation are appalling. Stonestreet laments the corruption and dependence culture of Haiti – well, the United States played a massive role in creating that very culture. Every time the nation tries to put itself back together the US intervenes. Washington will not brook any dissent when it comes to Haiti. It's clear that the US Establishment wants Haiti to remain poor and downtrodden. It's there as a place for resource extraction and as a place to hide dirty deeds and dark deals. A lot more could be said about the drug trade and international smuggling – as investigations have often revealed a US hand in these activities.

In terms of moral judgment or condemnation, the US has no standing when it comes to Haiti, nor do those pundits and activists who do little more than project the American line. Does Stonestreet lament the syncretistic religion of Haiti? Rightly so, just as any Biblically-rooted Christian would reject the hybrid-idolatry that Stonestreet promotes, one in which wealth and power are enshrined and the American Empire (as a projection of the counterfeit and anti-Scriptural construct of Christendom) is substituted for the Kingdom of God.

Stonestreet's commentary is to be categorically rejected on historical and ethical grounds. His lucrative and popular ministry typifies the degree of apostasy present in American Evangelicalism. Like his unrepentant and criminal mentor Colson, Stonestreet is revealed as self-serving, self-righteous, blind, deceitful, stupid, and at times evil. He misleads his audience into support of his 'ministry' and his political 'culture war' causes. Promoting an epistemology at odds with Scripture and an ethic worthy of Babylon, his views are not Biblical nor worthy of the Christian name. Championing himself as a defender of Christian culture, in reality he is at times a Right-wing zealot, and at other times a crypto-theological liberal, ecumenist, and a purveyor of acculturated Christianity. In some respects representing the worst from both extremes of Evangelicalism's theological and political spectrum, he is a veritable wolf in sheep's clothing – and yet his popularity increases. Such commentaries tickle the ears of his Evangelical audience who would never want to engage in self-examination or question the debauched and degenerate system upon which their wealth and power rests.

Haiti is a crime in progress. For over one hundred years the nation has been all but destroyed by the machinations of the blood-maddened, usury-driven US Empire. If demons have been unleashed in Haiti and the nation has brought judgment on itself, then that is but a corollary to the heinous demonic nature of American crimes. America may indeed be the Babylon sent by providence in judgment on the nation but that does not excuse the America for its sins committed against Haiti – and woe unto the false prophets who baptise the sins of the American Babylon and seek to not only excuse but sanctify its evil.