By: Casey Zachary

This is a series of posts that will cover the next several weeks examining the concept of sin and moral responsibility in the mind of a Haitian. Let me preface this by saying there are many Haitian Chrisitans who truly have felt the full force of the Gospel and are strong, faithful believers, and their example is a constant companion of mine, challenging me along the way. This survey of soteriology/ hamartiology is by no means exhaustive. My intention is not to project that I have the ultimate insight on such things. Many have lived in Haiti longer than I. In many ways, I am a weak and short sighted man. However, growing up as an MK in Haiti several things perplexed me, one of which was the perpetual disconnect in evangelistic efforts in regards to how the missionary and the host culture understood the Gospel. To this end, I invested a good deal of time studying. The following is a result of the research I did. Again, I do not intend to come across as presumptuous. There are as likely as many views on sin in Haiti as there are Haitian people. I simply believe it is good to think on these things. The content of the posts will be
1) an Introduction
2) A Brief History in the Development of Religion in Haiti
3) Poor Assumptions by Missionaries
4) Understanding the General Worldview of a Haitian
5) Haitian’s Understanding of Sin and Moral Responsibility
6) Towards a Biblical View of Sin and Moral Responsibility
7) Essential Shifts in the Haitian Worldview

After several weeks of missionary biographies, I thought it might be interesting to focus a bit on the Haitian people. Many of you love Haiti and love sharing life with the Haitian people. Some of you live in Haiti, some of you visit Haiti, all of you pray for Haiti. Because we are born into sin, each cultural context carries its own propensity to misunderstand the person and work of Jesus Christ and how the Gospel transforms our lives. Prayerfully, this study will prove to increase our knowledge and, to this end, our effectiveness in evangelism and discipleship.

There is a popular Haitian Creole proverb that translates, “Rocks in the river don’t know the pain of rocks in the sun.” Oftentimes, this is intended to denote the inability those who are affluent have in identifying with the emotional, mental, and physical grief of those suffering from acute poverty in Haiti. Unfortunately, this proverb also pertains to the manner in which some missionaries make incorrect assumptions about the Haitian worldview and theology in the context of Haiti. Too often, when the time for evangelism comes, the missionary settles into his/ her theological comfort zone (like a rock in river) and speaks of sin and salvation from the comfort of his/ her own understanding and cultural conditioning.

While basing claims of the Gospel of Christ upon Scripture, the missionary fails to consider what presuppositions he/ she might bring to the Biblical text. In addition, the missionary, as well as the recipient Haitian listener, make assumptions that one another categorize and conceptualize ideas about sin and salvation in similar ways, which leads to increased frustration and confusion. The Protestant church is growing in Haiti, but not without significant problems. Many appear to be converting for the purposes of gaining more power and adding Jesus to a list of other deities they can manipulate to appease the spirit world. Even individuals who renounce voodoo after conversion find themselves rooted and based in voodoo beliefs and thinking. A fatalistic outlook dominates their view of reality as they attribute everything that transpires to the control of the spirit world. This attitude leads to a severe lack of understanding concerning personal moral responsibility. In order to move towards a more Biblical understanding of sin and moral responsibility, missionaries must attempt to fix these mistaken ideas about sin by overcoming many cultural presuppositions as well as teaching the Haitian about the true nature of repentance and acceptance of responsibility for one’s actions.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the concept of sin and moral responsibility in the mind of a Haitian, specifically a rural Haitian.[1] In order to do so, the missionary must remove him/herself from the culturally comfortable “river” and work in uncomfortable cultural and theological territory. By engaging in this difficult task, the missionary will better perceive the Haitian’s understanding of sin (and ultimately salvation) and will possess a greater capability of effectively communicating the Christian message in this context. The idea of contextualization has been a major focus of missiology in the recent decades. Many errors associated with the inappropriate use of contextualization are a result of an insufficient grasp of the Biblical view of sin by the host culture. In the context of Haiti, for cross cultural communication to take place at its deepest level, the missionary must understand the worldview of the Haitians he/ she serves. Haitians will filter evangelistic efforts to them through their own worldview and so the missionary must be cognizant of the explicit symbols and implicit beliefs in the Haitian culture in order to minimize any misrepresentation of the Gospel.[2]

[1] The reason for the focus on rural Haitians is twofold. 1) The author grew up in and plans to return to work in rural Haiti and 2) The focus of Protestant missions in Haiti has historically been in rural areas.

[2] Hiebert, Paul G., Anthropological Insights for Missionaries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 21.