Only hours after Haiti was struck by a 7.0 earthquake, leaving thousands dead, injured, and homeless, the Rev. Pat Robertson told his followers that the Haitian people invoked the disaster on themselves.

The conservative Christian Right leader attributes the tragedy to a pact the Haitian people made with the devil to rid themselves of French colonial rule.

Yesterday, conservative mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh told listeners not to send money to aid the Haitian people because President Obama is using the event to bolster his sagging popularity.

We have become used to the outrageous inspirations of Robertson and Limbaugh. Both have drawn conclusions about events like this in the past that are baseless and irrational.

But these recent statements go one step further.

They prolong pain and suffering in what is already a horrific moment in Haiti's long and troubled history.

There are people still trapped in the rubble and children wandering the streets of Port-au-Prince separated from their families.

US evangelical Christians also had a hand in the politics of Uganda last year where proselytizing that included homophobic rhetoric has led to an anti-homosexual law. Punishment for homosexuality in Uganda now ranges from life in prison to hanging. And at least one person has been put to death, according to some human rights groups' reports.

Regardless of one's political or religious beliefs, the power of words can never be underestimated.

An open society is dependent on freedom of speech.

But that doesn't mean we aren't accountable for the idiotic and often hurtful things we say.