Who could possibly have a complaint about Mother Teresa?

An atheist group plans a hit-piece on Mother Teresa.

I could not believe this when I read it. I can see where an atheist group may have a beef with some religious figures. I may not agree with their beef, but I can see a point. But for crying out loud, calling her an "Albanian Dwarf?" I had a nun for a teacher who saw what vows her order takes. I beleive all nuns take a vow of poverty (Fr Gamble please correct me if I am wrong) but I guess the different orders have some lattitude. Well, the vow of poverty for that order let them have just a few changes of clothes and I think not much else. They were not a "preaching" order. What can be behind this?

If I know anything about Dartmouth, it's that only the pure evil send their evil spawn to learn there. This "ivy league" school is crafted to churn out evil. In case I was too subtle, Dartmouth = Evil.

Quote: AZDuffman

An atheist group plans a hit-piece on Mother Teresa.

I could not believe this when I read it. I can see where an atheist group may have a beef with some religious figures. I may not agree with their beef, but I can see a point. But for crying out loud, calling her an "Albanian Dwarf?" I had a nun for a teacher who saw what vows her order takes. I beleive all nuns take a vow of poverty (Fr Gamble please correct me if I am wrong) but I guess the different orders have some lattitude. Well, the vow of poverty for that order let them have just a few changes of clothes and I think not much else. They were not a "preaching" order. What can be behind this?

Plenty of people have in the past questioned Mother Theresa's position on poverty for others. Christopher Hitchens wrote a long treaty on it in "Missionary Position", and he's not the first person to do so.

The problem isn't -her- vow of poverty, but, as some see it, her willingfulness to continue poverty and squalor for others. Mother Theresa's Missionaries have been criticized for the levels of care be provided as actively harmful to their patients. On the other hand, she and her followers were doing something, and other's weren't.

Seeing as it's a target that has been hit before, one can question the value in repeating it, and taking the low ground further....

“It’s easy for a group of privileged Ivy League students who have never experienced poverty to meet in a ‘super secret room’ and think themselves as intellectuals by bashing Mother Teresa,” Melanie Wilcox, Executive Editor of the conservative Dartmouth Review, told Campus Reform.

I don't have a problem with Mother Teresa and believe her mission in life to be noble. I also don't expect everyone including Nobel Peace Prize Winners (which also include Pres Obama) to be perfect. I think it's dangerous to believe in a cult of personality (no pun intended) but accept that all people come with flaws, or at minimum disagree with what we believe in some fundamental manner.

Below is the wikipedia portion of the "criticism" section for Mother Teresa. Of course, since it's wiki it must (not) be true but it's one of the best compilations to find source material. If you want to look further go to the wiki article itself for references.


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Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa attracted some negative attention in the Western media. The journalist Christopher Hitchens was one of her most active critics. He was commissioned to co-write and narrate the documentary Hell's Angel about her for the British Channel 4 after Aroup Chatterjee encouraged the making of such a programme, although Chatterjee was unhappy with the "sensationalist approach" of the final product.[67] Hitchens expanded his criticism in a 1995 book, The Missionary Position.[85]

Chatterjee writes that while she was alive Mother Teresa and her official biographers refused to collaborate with his own investigations and that she failed to defend herself against critical coverage in the Western press. He gives as examples a report in The Guardian in Britain whose "stringent (and quite detailed) attack on conditions in her orphanages ... [include] charges of gross neglect and physical and emotional abuse",[86] and another documentary Mother Teresa: Time for Change? broadcast in several European countries.[67]

The German magazine Stern published a critical article on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa's death. This concerned allegations regarding financial matters and the spending of donations. The medical press has also published criticism of her, arising from very different outlooks and priorities on patients' needs.[77] Other critics include Tariq Ali of the New Left Review and the Irish investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.[85]

She has also been criticized for her view on suffering. She felt that suffering would bring people closer to Jesus.[87] Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International, criticised the failure to give painkillers, writing that in her Homes for the Dying, one could "hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers were not administered even in severe cases. According to Mother Teresa's philosophy, it is 'the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ'."[88]

The quality of care offered to terminally ill patients in the Homes for the Dying has been criticised in the medical press. The Lancet and the British Medical Journal reported the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold baths for all patients, and an approach to illness and suffering that precluded the use of many elements of modern medical care, such as systematic diagnosis.[77] Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, described the medical care as "haphazard", as volunteers without medical knowledge had to make decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors. He observed that her order did not distinguish between curable and incurable patients, so that people who could otherwise survive would be at risk of dying from infections and lack of treatment. Dr. Fox makes it a point to contrast the term "hospice", on the one hand, with what he calls "Mother Teresa's Care for the Dying" on the other hand; noting that, while hospice emphasizes minimizing suffering with professional medical care and attention to expressed needs and wishes of the patient, her approach does not.[89]

Colette Livermore, a former Missionary of Charity, describes her reasons for leaving the order in her book Hope Endures: Leaving Mother Teresa, Losing Faith, and Searching for Meaning. Livermore found what she called Mother Teresa's "theology of suffering" to be flawed, despite being a good and courageous person. Though Mother Teresa instructed her followers on the importance of spreading the Gospel through actions rather than theological lessons, Livermore could not reconcile this with some of the practices of the organization. Examples she gives include unnecessarily refusing to help the needy when they approached the sisters at the wrong time according to the prescribed schedule, discouraging sisters from seeking medical training to deal with the illnesses they encountered (with the justification that God empowers the weak and ignorant), and imposition of "unjust" punishments, such as being transferred away from friends. Livermore says that the Missionaries of Charity "infantilized" its sisters by prohibiting the reading of secular books and newspapers, and emphasizing obedience over independent thinking and problem-solving.[90]

Hitchens and Stern have said Mother Teresa did not focus donated money on alleviating poverty or improving the conditions of her hospices, but on opening new convents and increasing missionary work.[91] Mother Teresa accepted donations from the autocratic and corrupt Duvalier family in Haiti and openly praised them. She accepted $1.25 million from Charles Keating, involved in the fraud and corruption scheme known as the Keating Five scandal and supported him before and after his arrest. The Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles, Paul Turley, wrote to Mother Teresa asking her to return the donated money to the people Keating had stolen from, one of whom was "a poor carpenter". The donated money was not accounted for, and Turley did not receive a reply.[92]