Hells Angel (Mother Teresa) - Christopher Hitchens

[Quixote1818]

Stumbled upon this and found it a real eye opener. She was pretty naïve.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I liked Mother Teresa, as I like all those who give up a life of pleasure in exchange for helping

the needy. She was not a doctor, she did not have millions of dollars to create a hospital and hire doctors, and at least she picked up the dying from the streets. She also did not set out to be famous, did not contact the press seeking fame. They came looking for her. She was not a politician, so she could not change the rules and laws in India. Her technique was very simple: pick up the dying and abandoned from the street, clean them, feed them, give them a shelter and a place to sleep. Basically what India was not doing, or could not do, or did not have the resources to do, or was not compelled to do. I think she was an ordinary woman trying to do the right thing. She happened to believe in God.

What does haunt me sometimes is Mother Teresa's mother. Did Mother Teresa retain contact with her mom? Was she ever there to care for her own mom? I think too many people who set out to do good for strangers neglect their own families. Better they should first care for their own family, and if they have time afterwards, they should seek out others to care for. I only recently noticed that. Of course, there are those who do things for no one. And then there are people who set out to harm, such as Republicans.

[whathehell]

2. Yes, I did too, for the same reasons. n/t

[uhnope]

4. Did you read Hitchen's book? You might change your mind

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. I don't believe Mother Teresa was covered in money. I also don't think she had a CEO mentality.

I think she was human, sure. I already said that (like others who have done the same) she chose to care for strangers, and not her own mom, whom she abandoned to seek her choice of life. But many people do that, they abandon their own to seek fulfillment.

Could she have done more for the dying she was picking up off the street? Maybe, but why didn't India do that?

[Tunkamerica]

8. Please do a little research

it is well documented she took private planes to hang out with dictators and was against abortion and any type of birth control despite the things she saw in India. She treated the people in her care with very little "care" and she saw herself as a saint.

Did you watch the video?

Please do.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. I did watch the video. I'm saying she wasn't a doctor, she wasn't a CEO, and the flights she took..

.. were provided by others. For example:

1. Charles H. Keating (who I think was a total piece of trash but that's not the point). He bought flight tickets for her.
2. An anti-abortion organization called WOOMB (http://www.woomb.org/) which is for the rhythm method or something.
3. A group called Angels from Nazareth.
4. Many others.

While I say I admire her for at least getting the dead and abandoned off the streets and giving them a human place to be, cleaning them of flies and feces, feeding them, etc., she was no medical expert, and was not in the medical field. Why didn't someone step up and say, "Let's make this place a little more modern and provide physicians and nurses?" I don't know the answer to that question. Why didn't India say, "Hey, she's doing something we haven't bothered. Let's help this cause and set up a makeshift hospital there." I don't know the answer to that question either.

Further, to set up a hospital... well, do you know how much hospitals cost to run?

Again, I'm more for people FIRST taking care of their own families (mom, dad, kids, uncles, cousins, etc.) THEN taking care of others. A lot of people don't do that. They take care of strangers first, and neglect their own families. Why? I have no idea. She also chose to take care of others first, and her family not so much. Still, I think she did the best she could (with whatever her thinking was) by picking up the dying and abandoned that nobody else was giving a damn about.

[aquart]

3. A saint she was.

Wouldn't let her nuns wear tampons. Took private jets to her medical appointments. Them, not so much.

[PDJane]

5. I have always felt that someone who sees poverty and lack of family planning as a virtue

Was less of a saint and more of a burden to the church and those who felt she spoke for God. Her treatment of the poor was less help and more of a weight on the side of the state.

I don't believe that anyone who will not advocate for change is an aid to the downtrodden.

[Sidaroo]

7. Of that coalition of the lying, .... is the most relentless."

(dailykos, 2011):

Hitchens’s stack of falsehoods formed an imposing backdrop to his 2007 article about a young man who served in the military. Influenced by Hitchens’s writings in favor of the Second Gulf War, Mark Daily enlisted in the army and deployed to Iraq in November 2006. Two months later, Lieutenant Daily lost his life.

George W. Bush received a lot of help when he took the U.S. into this war. A horde of journalists and commentators echoed the administration’s talking points.
...
Of that coalition of the lying, Christopher Hitchens is the most relentless."

Hitchens did his best to assist the president’s scare tactics. In a piece published in The Nation on October 14, 2002, he wrote that “there is not the least doubt that [Hussein] has acquired some of the means of genocide and hopes to collect some more.”

As grotesque as it was for Bush to lie about his lies, he has nothing on Hitchens when it comes to copying the deceits of Orwellian functionaries. The self-appointed defender of Orwell’s legacy said this at the 2003 UC-Berkeley debate: “There will be no war. There will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention to remove the Saddam Hussein regime.”

[PDJane]

9. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the current discussion......

The discussion was about a woman who, essentially, allowed herself to be used as a prop for the rich and famous, nor is Hitchens the first to point this out.

I would point out that the woman's words about the many nunneries and how wonderful that was are her own words, and have nothing to do with outreach to the poor. I think I prefer Sister Joan Chittiser:

"I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born, but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there.

That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."

And that, frankly, is where the teachings of mother teresa and my understanding of what is right and good part ways.