A Nice Reminder

I went to church this morning and I was pleasantly reminded that Haitian people are very smart and capable. I know this seems like a bizarre thing for church to remind me, but let me explain:

When I was home I listened to a podcast called Intelligence Squared, which posits a proposition and then has four people debate the proposition, two arguing for and two arguing against. The episode that I heard was “Does Science Refute God”. It was an interesting, and it got me doing more research into the question of God and Science. This is a very interesting debate, and a debate that can be informative to both the religious and non-religious.

One of the arguments put forth in this debate is that people use God as a crutch, to help them get through difficult situations. This was originally an idea from Sigmund Freud, and the basic notion is that people turn to God because they need something to believe in, something to help them get through the difficulties of life. This idea has been thrown around in the psychological and religious communities for the past century or so, and though much of Freud’s work has been discredited, this idea is still popular today, especially among those who believe in the New Atheist movement.

When thinking about Christianity in Haiti, noting that over 95% of Haitians profess Christian faith, and that so many Christian missions working in Haiti, this notion may seem more plausible. In a country like Haiti where the poverty is so devastating, maybe religion is just an escape for people? Maybe the Haitians lives are plagued with so much suffering that the only way they can cope with their situation is to believe in an after life that is better than this life? This rule could be applied to the world at large, since the majority of the world’s Christians are located in the developing world. Maybe the reason religion in Europe is slipping away is because people’s lives in Europe are less miserable, so people don’t need religion.

I don’t want to speak for Europe or the rest of the developing world, but I can say with certitude that this idea did not apply in church today, nor has it applied to any of the church services I have attended in La Croix. The people of La Croix who I saw at church were not at church because they were miserable, but they were at church because they were joyful. The church is an amazing community, and people come to church not to escape from their lives but to share their lives with others. The church was filled with Haitians from all walks of life. The wealthier members of the community as well as the poorest of the poor were there this morning. Many of the Haitians were very well educated, and came to church because they believed in what the church was doing. The Haitians saw church as a place to celebrate their lives, and many of them who saw me after the service were happy for me not for the work I was doing but because I was a part of the community now. They believed in Pastor Pierre, his message, and the work of the mission.

Though Haiti as a country is desperately poor, and La Croix is one of the poorer communities, the La Croix church is inspiring. People believe not only in the message being preached at the pulpit, but they believe in the mission as a whole. They believe in the virtues of the community and the work the mission is doing. They might have theological differences, but they come together to share their appreciation for that which is greater than themselves. They believe in something greater than our material existence, a greater goodness that we are all apart of, and feel a need to work towards it.

The debate between science and religion is fascinating, but as in many debates, some ideas are over generalized and need to be checked. I believe that science and religion can co-exist peacefully and even complement each other, but that’s for another blog post. The idea, however, that people in Haiti are religious only because of their difficult situation, mischaracterizes the personality of the Haitian people. The Haitian people are religious for the same reason Americans are religious, and for the same reason I am religious. We all believe in something greater than ourselves, and our churches are good places to be apart it.