Try bringing this up in conversation… even at church. You will be relegated to the likes of those pitch-fork wielding, torch burning out of control mobs as pictured in the original 1931 Frankenstein movie starring Boris Karloff. Yep, you are totally shrugged off. “What did you say?” “How off-base can you be?” “These are “refugees.” I think that even that word… “refugee,” has been “redefined” in the dictionary along with “vaccine.” Look up Refugee in a pre-1960 dictionary, not Wikipedia.

13,000 Haitian “refugees” at Del Rio, Texas? That is my question.

Haiti, Voodoo (also spelled Vodou). A national pact with the devil. I’m very serious. But even the most “religious” amongst us look at me like I’m nuts. The same people who watch every TV program that seeks “spirits” in haunted houses poo-poo this notion. These are the same people that go on cemetery watches on nights with full moons… then receive communion, pray to saints etc. But mention voodoo or Candomble, (a voodoo like variation on the Catholic church) widespread in Brazil and you get no response. It’s all fun and games. Of course we will all flock to any bar named “Voodoo Lounge” or some variation of that theme.

I spent much time traveling and working with international aid agencies over the decades. My time in these countries was not spent at resorts, I can assure you of that. In any case, these “faiths” evoke spirits and seem to me to be adverse to the Christian foundation of this country. Call me superstitious, but I happen to take this Haitian 1791 “Bwa Kayiman” agreement with satan and the nation of Haiti very seriously. (Satan: you know, the little red man with horns and a tail that asks for candy at Trick or Treat every year. ) I guess if you don’t take the afterlife seriously, you will not take any of this seriously either. Having been in the interior of many countries throughout this region of our hemisphere in the capacity in which I was working, I met and worked with a lot of people. I learned a lot. (I worked with rural communities on several grassroots level rural development issues. Topic for another day.)

If you claim to be of the Christian persuasion and take demons of the Bible to be a force to be reckoned with, perhaps revisiting your core beliefs and some integration of these issues into modern day life is at hand. I for one believe it when I read that a large herd of pigs ran off the cliff (Mark 5:13) and into the ocean. I guess I am just thinking out-loud but it’s a conversation we need to have.

But we won’t have this conversation because we would be called out for “hate” and disappeared (oops… I’ve got the USA confused with Argentina’s “Dirty War in the 1970s – mid 1980s era. Sorry). Yes we are not “disappeared" here in the US, just “canceled.” As someone who likes referring to the dictionary I believe there is a lot of overlap in the definitions of these two words. But I digress.

In southern Florida back in the 1980s, where I lived (and earlier I suppose) there were several manifestations of this voodoo cult taking hold in the community. Various sacrifices of animals and who knows what. But as always, we deflected this reality, taking our eyes off the ball so to speak through several deflections from calling it “wives’-tales,” and an episode of “Miami Vice” called “Tale of The Goat” Episode. Of course, in the end our heroes discover it was all a set up to smuggle some drugs. Sort of like whistling past the graveyard if you ask me. But nobody admits to that either. Am I politically incorrect? I think so.

According to an article I dug up (Rutgers, September 2015), about 70% of Haitians practice voodoo. The article mentioned there being some 60,000 “voodoo priests there as well.” I don’t know folks but I do not see the advantage of turning the US into a pagan, witchcraft based nation with voodoo supply shelves in department stores. But we are doing it. We are too sophisticated to even mention this point. Have you heard even one talking head (even in Christian media) nudge this issue? Nope, any mention of this seems to have been vanquished (as in disappeared or “canceled”).

We have relegated these demons and spirits to the likes of Disney films and video games from where they can fully permeate young minds of our children. Good idea? Check out one of my favorite Bible passages (Romans 1:22) “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Ring a bell?

Throughout the Southern Hemisphere and Caribbean variations of these cultural traits not only exist but are alive and well while here in the US, churches close their doors almost daily. Here, adherence to Christian values is considered “evil” or at best mean spirited and our attention is turned away to the little shinny object. Maybe the Bible will be replaced by Guatemalan “Worry Dolls.” Many tourists visit Chichicastenango in Guatamala and come back with one or two. But go no further than the souvenir shop. They say “how interesting” and buy a souvenir spirit to bring home. All light hearted. I get that… but it’s not good. Before I became “woke” in the sense of accepting Christ as my savior, I too saw no threat in this. But we are being attacked in the spiritual world.

But there is more to this than picking some trinket to match the rattan table we found at the furniture store. Again, if all of this “religious stuff” has roots, beware of just what we are doing to our country and our Biblical roots. Yep, Christianity is right up there with Islam, Buddhism, Voodoo, and Candomble just like George W. Bush told us and Obama was correct. We are “no longer a Christian Nation.” Something to brag about? I think not.

Add to that Mr. Biden’s all too overlooked promise that he would be “the most progressive president in history (February 2020 Democrat debates). A promise that was grossly overlooked as all in the media (conservative as well) billed him as “moderate.” How did we get to that talking point? With the new and improved open borders and around two million people who, for the most part, I would venture to guess, believe and practice calling on spirits other that the God we profess to have our faith in.

One more thing. As a retired military officer I belong to some associations etc. At a recent meeting of one of these, our guest speaker (a US Army Full Colonel) assured us that the $85-Billion in military equipment and other armaments we left in Afghanistan was all “junk” that we wanted to get rid of anyway. Towing the line much? I believe the Colonel was. I don’t think we bought the notion.

Anyway, you get what you pay for and we are spending trillions to get this. It’s going to be big… Really “big.”