<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Aug 28 2007, 09:52 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Aug 28 2007, 09:52 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Mother Teresa: In Heaven or Hell?</b> [right][snapback]72590[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->It's all just damage control.
Some prominent christian folks (in media) are turning on Teresa only because her shady side has come into light, and because once the secrets were out, they could not be unsaid. Now they feel they have to distance themselves from Teresa and hence the "she lost her faith"; "she was heretical and did not try to convert" (oh yes she did). Soon to be followed by: "She was not a true christian (catholic)". Oh, yes she was.
Historical saints are allowed to be be no-gooders only because a little inventive history rewriting can make them appear all squeaky-clean, and because 'tradition' has so long held that they were <i>SAINTS</i> (a word that immediately ups their reputation, however poor it may be, and automatically silences those intent on criticising).
But the reality that is Santa Teresa has been documented *now*, in our time. So the faithful masses are seriously embarassed. First they back off slowly, then they'll run away. You'll see. In a few years/decades it will become like Hitler: "He never was christian" -> "She never was christian".
Wouldn't be surprised if they did the usual u-turn and started blaming Hinduism for her christian greed and inhumanity.
But they've beatified her (and canonised too, right, seeing as how she's a Santa now?) and that's something that they can't fudge away.
Whatever the extents of her ebbing-and-flowing faith at various points in her life, her will was still set on living the life of a christian and trying to get back into gawd's good books. Outwardly, she practised the christian life in the hope of feeling it inwardly - lots of christians have gone through this and end up writing books on 'How they regained the faith' (unless they were lying about their doubts). Lots of christian priests too.
Unless and until they finally declare themselves agnostic or atheists, they consider themselves christian. And Teresa never declared herself agnostic, so she was a christian till the end and one striving for it. Her feebling faith just made her feel like a failure. And she was (but for entirely different reasons: a sorry excuse for a human - pretending to care for other people, all while torturing children).
As it is, the damage to her hyped reputation is done. Catholics can hardly continue to go Ra-Ra over the wunder-woman who has been so publicly and totally exposed (the following material was mentioned by G. Subramaniam on some place linked off from IF):
http://macintyre.com/content/view/533/105/
<b>The squalid truth behind the legacy of Mother Teresa</b>
by UK reporter Macintyre (who's known for investigative journalism)
Look at this starter bit from the above:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The nun adored by the Vatican ran a network of care homes where cruelty and neglect are routine. Donal MacIntyre gained secret access and witnessed at first hand the <b>suffering of "rescued" orphans</b>
The dormitory held about 30 beds rammed in so close that there was hardly a breath of air between the bare metal frames. Apart from shrines and salutations to "Our Great Mother", the white walls were bare. The torch swept across the faces of children sleeping, screaming, laughing and sobbing, finally resting on the hunched figure of a boy in a white vest. Distressed, he rocked back and forth, his <b>ankle tethered to his cot like a goat in a farmyard</b>. This was the Daya Dan orphanage for children aged six months to 12 years, one of Mother Teresa's flagship homes in Kolkata. It was 7.30 in the evening, and outside the monsoon rains fell unremittingly.
Earlier in the day, young <b>international volunteers</b> had giggled as one told how a young boy had peed on her while strapped to a bed. I had already been told of an older disturbed woman tied to a tree at another Missionaries of Charity home. At the orphanage, <b>few of the volunteers batted an eyelid at disabled children being tied up. They were too intoxicated with the myth of Mother Teresa</b> and drunk on their own philanthropy to see that such treatment of children was inhumane and degrading.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->No, they were intoxicated with the myth of christian charity and the myth of getting to go to heaven. Christian charity is all show, same as how they bribe poor people to convert - it's a numbers game for them and a way to pool more money from donations. They don't really care.
Bit in red above: the nuns and other international and local christo volunteers are nazis! How unexpected.
But as the above expose cannot be brazenly denied, some strategically placed global sheep have to denounce teresa. (Yes, the situation looks <i>that</i> ugly now, when it's been just a few years on from her glorious rushed halo-coronation.)
Of course, not denunciations in such numbers that doubt will fall on the imaginary divine hand that guides the vatican and its canonising hobby. No. But nevertheless, enough vocal dismissals in the western world - where Teresa can have no comeback after her fall from media grace - to make the 'liberal' catholic and other 'liberal' christian conscience feel comfortable in their religion again. After all, it would hurt their evolved selves to think that others of their worldwide clique still approved of Teresa after the truth was let out...
But even in the west, Teresa's halo needn't droop just yet: there will always be some rabid sycophants who stick by teresa - she can do no wrong for them.
And let's not forget, her very name can still be of use in the heathenish realms: everyone still goes soft on hearing about the nasty nun. I doubt church-going Indian christians will catch on quickly to the True Tales of the Nun, or be ready to let go of one of their flagships even if they found out and realised the horrors were all true.
In any case, as I said, above all <i>there must be ambiguity</i> about the established christian opinion on teresa: can't condemn her too much else the recently-converted might get doubts on christian infallibility and the unconverted in Heathenstan will have reason to poke more fun. But can't let her go scott-free and continue to be universally touted as a holy christian, else the liberal western christians will start entertaining doubts about those who are leading their blind selves...
Never fear, though, the church is good at balancing 2 contradictory, mutually exclusive positions. For example
(1) For a *very* long time, it was "Hell is deadly real" -> pope Angelo Roncalli's time: "hell is not real" -> pope Ratty under his breath "Forget that rather recent heretic 'liberal' Lozer Roncalli." Out loud: "Hell is real again."
(2) For centuries: "Infants that aren't baptised go to hell. Period." -> Ratty: "Who knows. They might. They might not." (Tomorrow when the time is right: back to initial position. Always remember, the most holy church never really budges, but only temporarily and that too unwillingly and only until the Secular Arm starts enforcing church laws again.)
(3) "It's <i>Latin</i> Mass or death to you, you heretic filth" -> "Let us localise/internationalise/popularise the Faith. Rites must be in local lingo. (Ignore that the protestants already did this - after all, you should never admit that you're competing with the direct enemy by acknowledging where they succeeded...) -> Ratty: "Latin rites can come back in." And Ratty says to Renegade Church of Pius the Nth that split because the renegades wanted to stick to Latin-only rites, "Come back! Let's be friends again. Please, I am your pope!"
(4) For centuries: "Every heretic (and heathen, naturally) is going down, down, down into hell!" -> Vatican 2: "There may be a way for non-catholic christians to be saved - it is difficult, but there may be some way or other..." -> Inquisitor Ratty in Dom. Jesus: "Actually, not really, no. It's our way, or the way to the Inferno. (But this becomes clear only if you can understand the purposefully cryptic Dominus Jesus.)"
<i>Numbers (5) to (infinito)</i>: same old story. Church's position is half-way here, half-way there - never quite compromising, certainly never committing. After all, the catholic church is famous for their Purgatory story. But in today's cases, it's the roman church that is purchasing indulgences to buy its way out of the Limbo it put itself in...
(Indulgences: the ingenius invention of the holy roman church to make even more piles of cash. They sold indulgences to the poor gullible people, promising that their dear departed grannies would now spend a shorter time in purgatory. Purgatory/Limbo was the half-way house: not heaven, not hell. It was still pretty miserable from the descriptions I remember.
Indulgences couldn't help anyone out of Hell though, only out of Limbo - the church wasn't willing to relinquish the Super Stick of Hell just yet...
Indulgences were among the last straws to finally set some christians off to Protesting.)
Some prominent christian folks (in media) are turning on Teresa only because her shady side has come into light, and because once the secrets were out, they could not be unsaid. Now they feel they have to distance themselves from Teresa and hence the "she lost her faith"; "she was heretical and did not try to convert" (oh yes she did). Soon to be followed by: "She was not a true christian (catholic)". Oh, yes she was.
Historical saints are allowed to be be no-gooders only because a little inventive history rewriting can make them appear all squeaky-clean, and because 'tradition' has so long held that they were <i>SAINTS</i> (a word that immediately ups their reputation, however poor it may be, and automatically silences those intent on criticising).
But the reality that is Santa Teresa has been documented *now*, in our time. So the faithful masses are seriously embarassed. First they back off slowly, then they'll run away. You'll see. In a few years/decades it will become like Hitler: "He never was christian" -> "She never was christian".
Wouldn't be surprised if they did the usual u-turn and started blaming Hinduism for her christian greed and inhumanity.
But they've beatified her (and canonised too, right, seeing as how she's a Santa now?) and that's something that they can't fudge away.
Whatever the extents of her ebbing-and-flowing faith at various points in her life, her will was still set on living the life of a christian and trying to get back into gawd's good books. Outwardly, she practised the christian life in the hope of feeling it inwardly - lots of christians have gone through this and end up writing books on 'How they regained the faith' (unless they were lying about their doubts). Lots of christian priests too.
Unless and until they finally declare themselves agnostic or atheists, they consider themselves christian. And Teresa never declared herself agnostic, so she was a christian till the end and one striving for it. Her feebling faith just made her feel like a failure. And she was (but for entirely different reasons: a sorry excuse for a human - pretending to care for other people, all while torturing children).
As it is, the damage to her hyped reputation is done. Catholics can hardly continue to go Ra-Ra over the wunder-woman who has been so publicly and totally exposed (the following material was mentioned by G. Subramaniam on some place linked off from IF):
http://macintyre.com/content/view/533/105/
<b>The squalid truth behind the legacy of Mother Teresa</b>
by UK reporter Macintyre (who's known for investigative journalism)
Look at this starter bit from the above:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The nun adored by the Vatican ran a network of care homes where cruelty and neglect are routine. Donal MacIntyre gained secret access and witnessed at first hand the <b>suffering of "rescued" orphans</b>
The dormitory held about 30 beds rammed in so close that there was hardly a breath of air between the bare metal frames. Apart from shrines and salutations to "Our Great Mother", the white walls were bare. The torch swept across the faces of children sleeping, screaming, laughing and sobbing, finally resting on the hunched figure of a boy in a white vest. Distressed, he rocked back and forth, his <b>ankle tethered to his cot like a goat in a farmyard</b>. This was the Daya Dan orphanage for children aged six months to 12 years, one of Mother Teresa's flagship homes in Kolkata. It was 7.30 in the evening, and outside the monsoon rains fell unremittingly.
Earlier in the day, young <b>international volunteers</b> had giggled as one told how a young boy had peed on her while strapped to a bed. I had already been told of an older disturbed woman tied to a tree at another Missionaries of Charity home. At the orphanage, <b>few of the volunteers batted an eyelid at disabled children being tied up. They were too intoxicated with the myth of Mother Teresa</b> and drunk on their own philanthropy to see that such treatment of children was inhumane and degrading.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->No, they were intoxicated with the myth of christian charity and the myth of getting to go to heaven. Christian charity is all show, same as how they bribe poor people to convert - it's a numbers game for them and a way to pool more money from donations. They don't really care.
Bit in red above: the nuns and other international and local christo volunteers are nazis! How unexpected.
But as the above expose cannot be brazenly denied, some strategically placed global sheep have to denounce teresa. (Yes, the situation looks <i>that</i> ugly now, when it's been just a few years on from her glorious rushed halo-coronation.)
Of course, not denunciations in such numbers that doubt will fall on the imaginary divine hand that guides the vatican and its canonising hobby. No. But nevertheless, enough vocal dismissals in the western world - where Teresa can have no comeback after her fall from media grace - to make the 'liberal' catholic and other 'liberal' christian conscience feel comfortable in their religion again. After all, it would hurt their evolved selves to think that others of their worldwide clique still approved of Teresa after the truth was let out...
But even in the west, Teresa's halo needn't droop just yet: there will always be some rabid sycophants who stick by teresa - she can do no wrong for them.
And let's not forget, her very name can still be of use in the heathenish realms: everyone still goes soft on hearing about the nasty nun. I doubt church-going Indian christians will catch on quickly to the True Tales of the Nun, or be ready to let go of one of their flagships even if they found out and realised the horrors were all true.
In any case, as I said, above all <i>there must be ambiguity</i> about the established christian opinion on teresa: can't condemn her too much else the recently-converted might get doubts on christian infallibility and the unconverted in Heathenstan will have reason to poke more fun. But can't let her go scott-free and continue to be universally touted as a holy christian, else the liberal western christians will start entertaining doubts about those who are leading their blind selves...
Never fear, though, the church is good at balancing 2 contradictory, mutually exclusive positions. For example
(1) For a *very* long time, it was "Hell is deadly real" -> pope Angelo Roncalli's time: "hell is not real" -> pope Ratty under his breath "Forget that rather recent heretic 'liberal' Lozer Roncalli." Out loud: "Hell is real again."
(2) For centuries: "Infants that aren't baptised go to hell. Period." -> Ratty: "Who knows. They might. They might not." (Tomorrow when the time is right: back to initial position. Always remember, the most holy church never really budges, but only temporarily and that too unwillingly and only until the Secular Arm starts enforcing church laws again.)
(3) "It's <i>Latin</i> Mass or death to you, you heretic filth" -> "Let us localise/internationalise/popularise the Faith. Rites must be in local lingo. (Ignore that the protestants already did this - after all, you should never admit that you're competing with the direct enemy by acknowledging where they succeeded...) -> Ratty: "Latin rites can come back in." And Ratty says to Renegade Church of Pius the Nth that split because the renegades wanted to stick to Latin-only rites, "Come back! Let's be friends again. Please, I am your pope!"
(4) For centuries: "Every heretic (and heathen, naturally) is going down, down, down into hell!" -> Vatican 2: "There may be a way for non-catholic christians to be saved - it is difficult, but there may be some way or other..." -> Inquisitor Ratty in Dom. Jesus: "Actually, not really, no. It's our way, or the way to the Inferno. (But this becomes clear only if you can understand the purposefully cryptic Dominus Jesus.)"
<i>Numbers (5) to (infinito)</i>: same old story. Church's position is half-way here, half-way there - never quite compromising, certainly never committing. After all, the catholic church is famous for their Purgatory story. But in today's cases, it's the roman church that is purchasing indulgences to buy its way out of the Limbo it put itself in...
(Indulgences: the ingenius invention of the holy roman church to make even more piles of cash. They sold indulgences to the poor gullible people, promising that their dear departed grannies would now spend a shorter time in purgatory. Purgatory/Limbo was the half-way house: not heaven, not hell. It was still pretty miserable from the descriptions I remember.
Indulgences couldn't help anyone out of Hell though, only out of Limbo - the church wasn't willing to relinquish the Super Stick of Hell just yet...
Indulgences were among the last straws to finally set some christians off to Protesting.)