According to Christopher Hitchens.
Mother Teresa: a combination of showbiz, superstition and populism. She was a great "marketing tool" cynically and exploitively used by the church in an opportunistic way. A cruel exploitation of a seemingly simple and honest woman. She brought the church "good publicity". Teresa was a "profane marriage of tawdry media hype and medieval superstition"... which gave birth to an icon "which few have since had the poor taste to question."
According to Hitchens, Mother Teresa was not a friend to the poor. She preached that suffering was a gift from God.
Teresa of Calcutta suffered greatly, as her letters later revealed, from a lack of faith. During the last 50 years of her life, she, in effect, had no faith. It's not that she just questions the existence of God. She stopped believing in a divine Jesus altogether. Christopher finds this touching and moving because the letters "show someone who's striving very hard, as hard as a person could, to believe, and failing to do it." She made up for this failure by an excessive zeal, hysterical overwork, ostentatious poverty, preaching a very fanatical and dogmatic version of the catholic church's dogma.
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In India, Mother Teresa ran a "home for the dying", a hospice which purportedly "sweetens the last moments of otherwise destitute lives". This hospice was basically 2 rooms: 50-60 men in one, 50-60 women in another. They dying had their heads shaved and all were on World War I type stretcher beds. There were no chairs. No garden. No yard. No nothing. The dying were not given any medical care. Asprin for the pain is about it (some had terminal cancer). Needles were used over and over and rinsed under cold tap, never sterilized. "There's no point," one of the nuns said. No antibiotics were given, a staple in regular indian hospitals.
Mother Teresa: "Right from the beginning, I wanted to serve the poor purely for the love of God. And to give them what the rich people get with money... I wanted to give to the poor for the love of God."
On the wall of this "home for the dying" was a sign: "I am on my way to heaven".
Mother Teresa was a virgin who preached very strongly against birth control and any form of contraception. She lobbied for laws limiting abortion. Although she claimed not to have been political, she was used by the Christian Right.
She was also a salve. Western people in first world countries like to feel that "somebody" is ministering and sacrificing herself to the sick and needy in third world countries; "rescuing" them. It makes the West feel better.
Christopher Hitchens makes the case that Mother Teresa simply accepted the idea of the poor. She did not wish to help them improve and change their lives. She's not bothered with that agenda. She had no interest in tackling the real problems of poverty. Mother Teresa simply wanted to rescue their souls before they went on to eternal life.
YouTube - Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa by Christopher Hitchens (1 of 3)
YouTube - Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa by Christopher Hitchens (2 of 3)
YouTube - Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa by Christopher Hitchens (3 of 3)
Mother Teresa: a combination of showbiz, superstition and populism. She was a great "marketing tool" cynically and exploitively used by the church in an opportunistic way. A cruel exploitation of a seemingly simple and honest woman. She brought the church "good publicity". Teresa was a "profane marriage of tawdry media hype and medieval superstition"... which gave birth to an icon "which few have since had the poor taste to question."
According to Hitchens, Mother Teresa was not a friend to the poor. She preached that suffering was a gift from God.
Teresa of Calcutta suffered greatly, as her letters later revealed, from a lack of faith. During the last 50 years of her life, she, in effect, had no faith. It's not that she just questions the existence of God. She stopped believing in a divine Jesus altogether. Christopher finds this touching and moving because the letters "show someone who's striving very hard, as hard as a person could, to believe, and failing to do it." She made up for this failure by an excessive zeal, hysterical overwork, ostentatious poverty, preaching a very fanatical and dogmatic version of the catholic church's dogma.
*******
In India, Mother Teresa ran a "home for the dying", a hospice which purportedly "sweetens the last moments of otherwise destitute lives". This hospice was basically 2 rooms: 50-60 men in one, 50-60 women in another. They dying had their heads shaved and all were on World War I type stretcher beds. There were no chairs. No garden. No yard. No nothing. The dying were not given any medical care. Asprin for the pain is about it (some had terminal cancer). Needles were used over and over and rinsed under cold tap, never sterilized. "There's no point," one of the nuns said. No antibiotics were given, a staple in regular indian hospitals.
Mother Teresa: "Right from the beginning, I wanted to serve the poor purely for the love of God. And to give them what the rich people get with money... I wanted to give to the poor for the love of God."
On the wall of this "home for the dying" was a sign: "I am on my way to heaven".
Mother Teresa was a virgin who preached very strongly against birth control and any form of contraception. She lobbied for laws limiting abortion. Although she claimed not to have been political, she was used by the Christian Right.
She was also a salve. Western people in first world countries like to feel that "somebody" is ministering and sacrificing herself to the sick and needy in third world countries; "rescuing" them. It makes the West feel better.
Christopher Hitchens makes the case that Mother Teresa simply accepted the idea of the poor. She did not wish to help them improve and change their lives. She's not bothered with that agenda. She had no interest in tackling the real problems of poverty. Mother Teresa simply wanted to rescue their souls before they went on to eternal life.
YouTube - Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa by Christopher Hitchens (1 of 3)
YouTube - Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa by Christopher Hitchens (2 of 3)
YouTube - Hell's Angel: Mother Teresa by Christopher Hitchens (3 of 3)
