It’s hard to know who is stupider and more insensitive, Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh. Both right-wingers have made comments in the wake of the terrible 7.0 earthquake in Haiti that should cause decent Americans to immediately withdraw all support from these icons of racism, homophobia and classism. That earthquake has claimed countless lives and left the nation’s capital city in ruins.

Robertson, who is host of the 700 Club and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, proclaimed that his God is punishing Haiti because when the nation was under French rule, “they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you get us free from the French. True story.”

True story? “And so the devil said,” Robertson continued, “okay, it’s a deal. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other. (They’ve been) desperately poor.”

What the Haitians need, according to the religion peddler, is “a great turning to god.” What about a relief effort? Robertson also feels that the earthquake “may be a blessing in disguise. There may be massive rebuilding of that country.”

And what about all the lives lost? What about all the pain and suffering of the living? Obviously, these mean nothing to this “man of God.”

Limbaugh, a right-wing author and radio host, said that President Obama and his administration will use the situation in Haiti “to burnish their credibility with the black community in both the light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.” What does that statement even mean?

Commenting on Obama’s immediate call for aid to the people of the island, Limbaugh quipped: “We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”

And how many right-wing churches, such as Robertson’s, benefit from the fact that they don’t pay U.S. income tax? Right-wing churches that lobby against gay marriage and reproductive freedom?

What’s happening in Haiti is a disaster of epic proportions. Exploiting the unimaginable pain and suffering of the Haitian people to enrich a church ministry or a radio career is beyond reprehensible. It is an affront to everything that makes us human.

An outraged public should stop paying attention to both of these men. Let them rant and rave in the privacy of their own homes and not on our public airwaves.

But knowing how clueless their followers can be, both men will no doubt end up profiting from the outrageous and hurtful things they have said.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is co-editor of Avanti Popolo: Italians Sailing Beyond Columbus, and editor of Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, which has been nominated for an American Library Association award. His website is www.avicollimecca.com.