FaithWorld

from Tales from the Trail:

O’Donnell credits prayer for campaign boost

Republicans may be abandoning Christine O'Donnell's U.S. Senate campaign. But she still has friends in high places -- really high places.

In fact, the Delaware Tea Party favorite is crediting divine intervention for the successes that her campaign has had.

"The day that we saw a spike in the polls was a day that some people had a prayer meeting for me, that morning for this campaign," she tells the Christian Broadcasting Network, a cable TV channel founded by televangelist and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson.

"I believe that prayer plays a direct role in this campaign," she said. "I always ask people: 'Please pray for the campaign. Please pray for our staff. Please pray, specifically, that the eyes of the voters be opened.'" Prayer may be O'Donnell's best hope. Since her upset primary win over Republican moderate Mike Castle, she has been dogged by questions about her qualifications for office, ridiculed for acknowledging a teenage fascination with witchcraft and excoriated over her understanding of U.S. religious freedoms.

Barely a week before Election Day, her Democratic opponent Chris Coons has more than 50 percent of voter support in a recent Rasmussen survey. Some pundits give her zero chance of pulling off a victory and blame her candidacy for sinking Republican hopes of capturing the Senate.

But O'Donnell says she hasn't started praying only now that the chips are down.

U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson says Haiti cursed by devil pact

Ed Stoddard

Jan 13, 2010 17:00 EST

Controversial U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson said on Wednesday that earth-quake devastated Haiti was cursed because of a past pact that the island’s inhabitants had made with the devil.  The comments, which have spread like wildfire through the blogosphere and eslewhere on the Internet, were made during a broadcast of his Christian Broadcasting Network.

“They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story,” Robertson said in a matter-of-fact tone on the broadcast. “And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal. .. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another,” he said.

Haiti’s slave revolt led to the establishment in 1804 of the first republic run by freed black slaves and has long been an inspiration for national liberation movements especially in Africa.

Robertson, a former Republican Party presidential candidate, has made controversial comments before.  In 2005, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Chavez, a constant critic of then President George W. Bush. Robertson later said he was misinterpreted and eventually apologized.

He has also claimed in the past to have a direct line to God. In January 2007 he said God told him a terrorist attack would result in “mass killing” in the United States in the second half of 2007.

Here’s the video of his comments. Let us know what you think of them.