Igneous Quill

For Jerusalem in the days of Jesus of Nazareth it was the Valley of Hinnom.  In our day a Haitian analog can be found in the hills of Titanyen.  

Countless preachers have thundered, pleaded or merely repeated the line that Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in Christian scriptures, when in fact the place he was talking about was physically located outside the gates of Jerusalem.  "Gehenna," rendered "hell" in most English translations of the Bible, was the city dump.  It was a smoldering, fetid place where common household garbage was dumped along with the bodies of animals and criminals.  It was a place that Jesus warned would be the destination of the cadavers of those who rejected his way of peace in favor of armed conflict with the powers that oppressed Israel.  He told the religious leaders of the day that it would be their resting place and reward for going to such great lengths to mislead the people.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 'Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.'" Matthew 23:14-16 NRSV

"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched." Mark 9:42-48 NRSV

When Roman armies came thundering through the breeched walls of Jerusalem in 70 AD, destroying the Temple and killing everyone in sight, as Jesus had warned would happen, where else to dispose of the corpses of the resistance?

Haiti has its own Gehenna, as I have mentioned.  A place of death not yet connected to divine justice.  The following was taken from a New York Times article:

"In the hills of Titanyen, on the outskirts of the capital, there are no young girls wandering. The low-lying swampland here smells of sulfur on a good day, and was once the preferred dumping ground for political opponents of the Duvaliers, Haiti’s brutal rulers from the 1950s to the ’80s. It is considered cursed ground by most Haitians. Only a handful of people live nearby, and on Monday most seemed to be climbing on buses to get out.

Indeed, the name of this place is so notorious that it has been a threat doled out by parents for generations: 'If you’re bad, you’ll go to Titanyen.'"

Enormous injustices have been carried out on the Haitian side of the island of Hispaniola since the time Columbus first viewed it in 1492.  The native Taínos were very nearly wiped out and the subsequent use of slaves was incredibly brutal from most accounts.  When Haiti gained its freedom from France the latter country demanded reparations for war, essentially requiring Haiti to pay for its hard-won freedom.  Banks in the U.S. and elsewhere offered loans to "help" pay the debt, and by 1900 80% of the nation's annual budget went to paying off this debt.

Most of the people crushed under buildings or now dying of otherwise preventable causes are innocent of the great evil that hangs over their land.  Yes, I agree with conservative Christians that Voodoo is superstitious idolatry and not a worthy "cultural aspect" of the nation, but that's one of the jobs of Christian missions.  Christian missionaries, aid workers and activists from numerous traditions have been at work in Haiti for decades bringing material help and spiritual hope.  A believer in Christ does not have cause to view the earthquake itself as anything other than a natural disaster with known causes.

However, severe judgment does need to be laid at the doorstep of every power and authority, whether in Haiti or internationally, that has contributed to or been complicit with the corruption within the country.  Had the Haitian people at some point received the level of freedom, medical aid, spiritual grounding and engineering know-how required for their country to become developed and prosperous, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of last week could have been far less catastrophic.

What's done is done.  Lives have been lost and intense hardship remains ahead for the people of Haiti.  Bodies are being dumped in the mass graves of Titanyen and elsewhere.  Unless things change, I can't help thinking that when justice is revealed by the hand of God in history, Titanyen will be the abode of those who condemned Haiti.

See Also:
Haiti's Real Deal with the Devil (Boing Boing)
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted (New York Times)
21st Century Third World Gehenna (Igneous Quill)