It’s not a very Christian sentiment to want to clock Pat Robertson for his comments yesterday on the horrific tragedy in Haiti.

But then, the sentiment he expressed wasn’t exactly Christlike, either.

In case you missed it, ol’ Pat said Haiti’s devastating earthquake had happened because the country had “made a pact with the devil” to get out from under French rule, and ever since, has essentially called down the wrath of Heaven.

The shouts of outrage are, of course, already raining down: “The man calls himself a Christian?” “Go to hell, Pat Robertson!” “Pat Robertson is proof that God does not exist.”

I am just as outraged. I believe God created this world to run on a series of natural principles, and earthquakes are simply one of them, just like tsunamis or hurricanes or volcanoes. That Humanity insists on getting in the way of such natural principals – or sometimes, for instance in the case of disastrous mudslides after clear-cut logging, causing them – is not something to lay at God’s feet.

(I’m betting Pat would have been one of Job’s so-called “friends,” trying to get him to admit his nonexistent sins to get the Father off his back. Note to Pat: Not such a great role, that.)

But comments like that last one, about Pat being proof about God, always make me sick. Thanks a lot, Pat. With believers like you, who needs unbelievers?

Name me one family that doesn’t have at least one member whom all the others wish they could lock in a closet from time to time. I bet you’ve got one yourself: the mother-in-law who won’t shut up about your parenting, the cousin who drinks too much and knocks over the table at Thanksgiving, the bitchy sister who whines about her exes, the bratty nephew who mouths off every time he visits.

I think people like Pat are the black-sheep members of God’s family. But they don’t mean God doesn’t exist, any more than having an alcoholic cousin means your family doesn’t exist. The cousin may not speak for your family – may not act for your family – may not, in some cases, even be ACKNOWLEDGED by your family – but there is a family, all the same, and he is part of it.

So as angry as I am about Pat, I am reminded of some words of wisdom I picked up from the priest in the Jan Karon Mitford series I enjoy: “If you keep your eyes on Christians, you will be disappointed every day of your life. Your hope is to keep your eyes on Christ.”

That goes for Christians like me, and my un-Christlike urges to smack Pat Robertson, too.