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mother Teresa
- Thread starter syo
- Start date
BSM1
What? Me worry?
Hypocrisy knows no emotions...
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
It truly is.
Jeremiah Ames
Well-Known Member
Profound Realization
Active Member
Many not only can make one out to be a saint, but also can make one out to be a devil.
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
@metis @BSM1 @sunrise123
Mother Teresa was far more interested in missionary work than she was actually alleviating illness and suffering. When criticized for the ****-poor conditions of her hospice, her reply was "There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering,"
She was also a staunch and vocal critic of women's rights, particularly when it came to divorce and reproduction.
Sorry, but tears won't wash away the ugly truth that she was a disgusting human being. *tap dances on her grave*
Mother Teresa was far more interested in missionary work than she was actually alleviating illness and suffering. When criticized for the ****-poor conditions of her hospice, her reply was "There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering,"
She was also a staunch and vocal critic of women's rights, particularly when it came to divorce and reproduction.
Sorry, but tears won't wash away the ugly truth that she was a disgusting human being. *tap dances on her grave*
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Thank you for not contributing to the "Let's bash Teresa" dialogue that started out as a beautiful statement from her on love and degenerated from there.
Mother Teresa received numerous awards from the Indian government for her work as well as the city of Calcutta as well as receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, apparently because she was a terrible person.
Nobody here has claimed her to be perfect, but I'll be damned if I'm just going to sit here and let some here, who probably never in their life will do a fraction of what she did to help the poor, tear her apart without some defense.
And why would anyone who isn't a "negative person"* take a beautiful statement on love and turn it into one of the meanest and nastiest rants clearly meant to demean an entire person? What would possess a person to do this? Nothing better to do? Had a bad day? maybe a bad life?
So, Jesster, thanks for your breath of fresh air on this.
*Over 50 years ago, my father warned me to keep my distance from what he called "negative people" who can bring others down with their worm's-eye views towards others. IOW, people who can rant with their hate-filled rhetoric on others. People who always see the glass half-empty, rarely to never half-full. I listened to my father's words and learned to respect them more and more as my life went on, and some of the posts that I see on this thread remind me of what he so wisely said, which is why I have no desire to discuss this with them, largely because their hate-filled rants will just go on and on and... Turns my stomach.
Sorry Jesster that I felt compelled to do this on your post, but I certainly ain't blaming you at all, so keep up your spirit as being a "positive person".
Thanks for your opinion. Can I continue bashing this horrible person now? She wasn't the positive person you seem to think she was. Others have already posted links that back up anything I've said. You don't seem too interested though. Keep believing your fantasy.
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
- I think people gave Mother Teresa the benefit of the doubt that, while her hospitals may have been substandard, she was doing the best she could with what they assumed were very limited resources. Since then, it's come to light that her resources were actually vast, and the substandard care was a deliberate choice on her part.Thank you for not contributing to the "Let's bash Teresa" dialogue that started out as a beautiful statement from her on love and degenerated from there.
Mother Teresa received numerous awards from the Indian government for her work as well as the city of Calcutta as well as receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, apparently because she was a terrible person.
Nobody here has claimed her to be perfect, but I'll be damned if I'm just going to sit here and let some here, who probably never in their life will do a fraction of what she did to help the poor, tear her apart without some defense.
And why would anyone who isn't a "negative person"* take a beautiful statement on love and turn it into one of the meanest and nastiest rants clearly meant to demean an entire person? What would possess a person to do this? Nothing better to do? Had a bad day? maybe a bad life?
So, Jesster, thanks for your breath of fresh air on this.
*Over 50 years ago, my father warned me to keep my distance from what he called "negative people" who can bring others down with their worm's-eye views towards others. IOW, people who can rant with their hate-filled rhetoric on others. People who always see the glass half-empty, rarely to never half-full. I listened to my father's words and learned to respect them more and more as my life went on, and some of the posts that I see on this thread remind me of what he so wisely said, which is why I have no desire to discuss this with them, largely because their hate-filled rants will just go on and on and... Turns my stomach.
Sorry Jesster that I felt compelled to do this on your post, but I certainly ain't blaming you at all, so keep up your spirit as being a "positive person".
- I notice that you haven't disputed any of the factual claims that people here are basing their criticisms of Mother Teresa on.
What would this thread have been like had the quote in the OP been attributed to "anon," that is, to nobody? The OP would have gotten several nice ratings - probably more than he did once people saw Mother Teresa's name attached to it. A few people would have commented, "That's beautiful," and the thread would probably have ended by about post 4.
@metis seems offended that the thread has taken its inevitable course once Mother Teresa's name was mentioned. The words now are not just evaluated in themselves, but in relation to their controversial source, one whose notion of love and happiness seems alien if not perverse to many.
For me, the real story about Mother Teresa is that here was a born spiritual genius with a burden for the poor so intense that she wallowed through the sewers of Calcutta to put people under roofs, in beds, and fed them, but whose reputation was sullied by the effect that the Catholic church had on her once these facts were made public. We learned that she deliberately withheld pain medication from the suffering to glorify her god, a choice that would perhaps qualify as sadism if she made the same decision for her personal pleasure rather than for religious reasons, and that she solicited contributions fraudulently.
People gave money to ease the suffering of unfortunates, money over 90% of which would never go toward that purpose, but would end up instead in the Vatican treasury. That meets many people's definition of fraud.
I believe that both of these matters were the direct, corrupting influence of the Catholic church on an otherwise exemplary woman. Mother Teresa is not the monster here.
For those that would rather that we focus on the sentiment of the quote instead, OK, let's do that. If the requirement is to extol it, I'm going to disappoint. I didn't find it profound or inspiring as others did. Out of respect for those offended by criticism here, I've concealed my words:
The quote, though pleasant, is so nonspecific and such a commonplace - something that anybody in the preaching or self-help or New Age communities might have said, even Deepak Chopra, or something that you might hear in any toast by any ordinary person - is being exalted as something better than what might be found in a Chinese fortune cookie or a Hallmark greeting card, Sorry, @syo and @metis, but I wasn't as moved as both of you were.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Because it doesn't relate to the point nor the demeanor of the OP.
Laughing Coyote
Member
I don't think Jesus promised people happiness, which in my mind is a meaningless word. He provided an ethic, particularly in response to the oppression felt by Jews under the jack boot of the Roman empire. I don't think Mother Teresa necessarily gave happiness either. There are furthermore many questions about what she did in fact do, and by no means did she provide a tool for confronting empire. One might say she facilitated empire.
