Posted on 11/03/2009 12:53:51 PM PST by Irisshlass
I remember a statement she made about the sick and dying that she “didn’t care if they uttered Christ or Allah or Hindu Deity names as long as they died with their interpreted name of God on their lips.” It was a very syncrestic statement not compatable with scripture and it put me on edge, making me wary of Theresa’s total ministry and her motives. Press writing can be very bad so I reserve some opinions regarding that statement and after 12 years or so when I read that statement I might not be quoting the statement word for word though I am sure of the accuracy of the statement.
Hitchie (he hates being called “Hitch”) recently debated a theist at BIOLA and got his clock cleaned. His polished boarding-school British accent makes him sound far more intelligent than he actually is.
Many of Mother T's critics are perplexed or angry that she wasn't what they wanted her to be and what she never claimed to be: a medical administrator. When people gave her an (unsolicited) donation, she brushed her hands free of it as rapidly as she could.
Hitch is aghast, not because she "misused" the money, but because she literally did not keep it.
One of Hitchens' principal informants was the head of the Communist Party in Calcutta, who hated Mother T. because the publicity (which she did not seek, but which followed her after the Muggeridge documentary) focused so much on the misery in the streets.
She herself talked little about Calcutta and little about herself or her work. She didn't even recruit an army of volunteers. She told people hundreds of times, "Find your own Calcutta."
I agree and then she would SMILE at him.
Have you ever noticed that Christopher NEVER SMILES?
He’s been married several times and has several kids, so he doesn’t appear to be gay. The rest of your comment is probably accurate.
FWIW, Hitch is one of the few leftists who have consistently supported the War on Terror, even when it was led by the evil Bush. In my book that cuts him enough slack I’ll try to ignore the more idiotic things he says.
BTW, I’m curious what the mechanism is by which MT made the lives of millions of people worse. The people she worked with were so far down it’s hard to see how it would be even possible to make their lives more difficult.
Perhaps I have him confused with someone else.
Perhaps I have him confused with someone else.
Not syncretism but an acceptance that they had found at least a part of the truth. Of course, I accept the idea of a “good pagan.”
It is a matter of terrible bafflement, and yet most fruitful contemplation, to think long and well of Christ our God's words on the Cross --- "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which, as the Gospel says, is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Present at the creation of an urban legend.
From what’s documented in her letters and her spiritual advisor’s comments - that Mother Teresa suffered from not experiencing a sense of the presence of God - we had first the spin that she “doubted” the existence of God or the truths of the Faith, and now we have the story that she lived and died as an atheist.
Bless her heart. How does feeding starving people and comforting the dying deserve this c88p?
So when those who know God report quite the opposite --- report the experience of desolation --- the conclusion drawn is that all of them-- Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, Jesus, God Himself! --- are atheists!
How little people undertand. And I count myself, naturally, in that category, but knowing less than most.
According to Hitchens she opened 150 convents in her own name. Perhaps this would have been enough money to open at least one teaching hospital.
You may say that she was never a medical administrator, but certainly it is a valid criticism that Hitchens makes to point out that she allowed people under her care to suffer and die needlessly. IMHO there is nothing wrong with at least one person presenting a countervailing argument to the almost universal assumptions about her saintliness. People can combine that with other information to attempt to form the most realistic view.
It always seems to be true that highly revered people, Gandhi for instance, have at least a few dark sides to their personality and actions.
This is not malfeasance: it's exactly what Teresa was about, and what she said she was about.
Anybody like to add up how many teaching hospitals are supported by the Catholic Church? Which itself (the Church) was generously funded by Mother T?
It's significant, I think, that Christopher Hitchens was invited --- at the Vatican's expense, I believe---to Rome to testify against Mother Teresa, which he did at ample length. You can read it all in the records of her canonization. Think of that.
Hitchens view of the world is totally political. Do you remember the Star Trek depiction of Earth as a eutopia—one without suffering and poverty. Man had acquired a god-like mastery of the elements. People like Rodenberry—and Hitches—think this is possible. Unstated is the assumption that so much power in the hands of right-minded people will not corrupt. Of course, this is plainly a mirage.
None of this changes the fact that Norman Borlaug did more to TRULY improve the lives of the poor than Mother Teresa and all the religious combined over the past 50 years.
You are comparing apples and oranges. She was not a politician who is trying to eliminate poverty Mother Theresa was not a social worker, and her nuns are taking care of people who need more care than the world is able to give them.. She was filling a need that no amount of food can provide, which is love for those whom no one else loved. She did this out of love for Him.
Mother Theresa helped many thousands.
Hitchens helps himself and doesn’t do that well.
***The woman was a fanatic and a fundamentalist and a fraud, and millions of people are much worse off because of her life, and it’s a shame there is no hell for your bitch to go to.” ***
It’s great to have an atheist say things like this.
It shows them for what they really are and it will repulse most people who hear him.
Excellent point.
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