humanism
written by emmo opoti , August 29, 2007

I have certainly not heard of atheistic Bishops, perhaps it seems that way to the religious, but in all truth the most of them simply reject some strongly held Christian beliefs like the bodily resurrection or the virgin birth.

The ones I have read, and it seems Mother Teresa may have belonged in this tradition, nevertheless affirm the redemptive value of the exemplary life of the Christ as recorded in the Gospels and as handed down over the ages.

It seems to me that the problem is that the word Theism (the whole immanent, transcedent, all-knowing, all-wise, all-time) is the problem. So when someone refuses to believe in this theism, he is then branded an atheist, even though all it may be is that he has a different intepretation of the divine.

P.S. I keep meeting Kenyan girls who call themselves Christian (possibly culturally) but are also drawn into the pantheistic ways of Hinduism and Buddhism even arguing that there is no contradiction.

...
written by Timothy Wainaina , August 29, 2007

Hmmm. It will certainly not be the first time that a prominent leader of a company did not trust the goods and services that it provided.

The story of Mother Teresa is a complex one. Many of her ideas, her stubborness and her blindness to reason were callous in themselves. That she was afflicted with such pain and doubt, makes it much easier for me to bear.
Here's to painful reading, from a medical journal.

pain and ecstacy
written by Stephen Wanyama , August 29, 2007

Not nice to pick on an old lady, but Mother Teresa was clearly not as saintly as is made out. I do not claim full understanding of her motivations but it seems to me she suffered a great deal for her belief in goodness which for me is higher than any faith.

Was she marketing herself for a beatification? Was she doing it for the fame, or because of an idealistic view of religious service that demanded ascetism and suffering in return for spiritual/ emotional fulfillment?

Wainaina,
That must be the most common name on this site!! Well your article there does present very painful reading it is true. Here's a part I extracted,

His research is thorough and his findings compelling. Where does all her money go, for a start? For this Hitchens can find no satisfactory answer, although there is no doubt that Mother Teresa could, if she chose, set up the finest teaching hospital on the Indian subcontinent. She hasn't done so, and to those like myself or Robin Fox (who wrote in the Lancet about her Calcuttan home for the dying) who have visited her organisations and seen syringes run under cold water and reused, aspirin given to those with terminal cancer, and cold baths given to everyone, this is inexcusable.

gamble
written by Mr.Kay , August 29, 2007

If there's nothing after death athiests won't even know it.

If hell exists, athiests will experience it.

...
written by Leona Hemsley , August 29, 2007

[comment deleted by Mod.]

beat me to it
written by Amina , August 29, 2007

Ahh, Tim Norwood, you beat me to writing a commentary of Mother Theresa.

My take on her faith. First off, these letters should never have been published. It is none of our business. Secondly, Mother Theresa suffered. It must have been difficult to live in the kind of conditions she did, to see people suffer everyday, and to wonder out loud why there was so much suffering. Her will must have been tested numerous times. But she trudged on, and that in itself is a story worth telling. She could even have been a powerful political figure if she wanted to, she chose to work in the trenches.

Mother Theresa questioning her faith really means nothing. But then of course, there is the booksales, and some sort of PR for the Catholic Church.

...
written by vivid , August 29, 2007

Within every person there is a spirit that guides. Our thoughts about our situation are often confused because that is the nature of thought. Whether she was confused or not, the spirit within guided Mother Theresa to show great love and sacrifice which is what counts. Humbled in giving love and humbled in giving sacrifice her light continues to shine mightily. When a great warrior lies dying on a battle field having given his or her all one does not inquire too much into the fear and doubt that whispered on the eve of battle: whatever fear existed clearly lies conquered in blood. Let us each not worry too much about what Mother Theresa believed but first find out for ourselves what is there within. You may dissect her letters all you want but at the end of the day you yourself needs to be happy so turn your attention inwards. No one else can find out what is within us no matter how great a picture is painted. In fact, scratch out the first sentence above and find out for yourself.

...
written by emmo opoti , August 30, 2007

Mr Kay,
Not a very enlightened argument, and by itself the sort that chases people away from religion. Thank God for humanism and an ability to be good without fearing the fahrenheit of hell.

Amina,
The letters were released because of the efforts to get her canonised. The priest charged with prosecuting that effort, like Tim above sees this struggle of hers through the darkness of loneliness as the miracle of her life, and a ministry to all those who experience doubt.

I am sure Tim meant the headline merely as a question which his article seems to me to answer. Mother Teresa's crisis of faith is special because it was so long and enduring, but I would say she felt more betrayed by God than that he did not exist. Her trouble seems to have been that he did not exist for her, not that he did not exist at all. Her entire life seems to have been an effort to get back to the time when God did exist for her.
This blackness and feeling of being left alone is not her's alone, remember St. John of the Cross? Winter of Discontent? Rather winter of the soul? One might even say that the Christ on the cross experienced a similar desperation when he cried out that God had forsaken him.

Here is another quote from her letters.

"Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

It seems to me that in the end, every religious person goes through these periods of affirmation and doubt, and perhaps on the odd occasion even a confirmation. Whether in the end the individual decides to give it up altogether or to continue plugging away at faith seems to me a wholly personal decision, one whose reasons cannot be satisfactorily explained to those not similarly disposed.

----
As to the links showing Mother Teresa's stubborn attitude and the care-less way in which she treated people at her hospital, it seems to me that this is more evidence of the power of religion to strangle reason than anything inherently evil on her part.

...
written by postillionage , August 30, 2007

I do not hold any really strong beliefs about Jesus or God myself. What I know however is that like Mother Teresa I cannot pray. Sure I can say the words, and I try to hold on to the hem of the faithful but more often it feels very much like LeRoi Jones old poem , Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note.

quite livid, really
written by Timothy Wainaina , August 30, 2007

Vivid, Emmo Opoti
The debate around Mother Teresa's life and her 'winter' have brought up some ugly recollections about her past, which urge as to consider whether the departed soon to be St. Theresa really was a kind and compassionate human being.

This is what we must not try to go around. One of two things must be true, either her faith and her struggle had such a harmful effect on her that they caused her not to function properly anymore, or she was just an ordinary human being like you or I, caught up in a cult of celebrity and feeding of it. Like the link I put above shows, she suffered yes, but she seemed to want her patients to suffer too, very often often treatment that was more palliative than curative. More than that even, for reasons bordering on the pathological (no puns, really) she diverted elsewhere so much of the aid that came to her organisation and that would have changed the lives of millions forever, preferring instead to minister from a very photogenic Florence Nightingale looking hospital.

Also there is the question of her hypocrisy, her chumminess with the likes of the Duvaliers and her stand on divorce, contraception and abortion. All these are standard religious fare ( for fundamentalists) but they are also mind-numbingly shocking coming from someone who was themselves having problems with their faith.

Imagine teaching that condoms and birth control pills are evil!!