Indian Rationalist Association

India's largest rationalist organisation. Founded in 1949. Fights for scientific temper, secularism, freedom of thought and expression. Defends reason and science. Exposes superstition, blind belief, obscurantism, paranormal claims caste-based social divisions and guru-politics nexus. Strives for a post-religious society. President: Sanal Edamaruku Contact: edamaruku@gmail.com Phone: + 91-11-6569 9012, +91-11-64630651

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sanal Edamaruku on Mother Teresa

India has no reason to be grateful to Mother Teresa

by Sanal Edamaruku

India, especially Calcutta, is seen as the main beneficiary of Mother Teresa's legendary 'good work' for the poor that made her the most famous Catholic of our times, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and a living saint. Evaluating what she has actually done here, I think, India has no reason to be grateful to her.

Mother Teresa has given a bad name to Calcutta, painting the beautiful, interesting, lively and culturally rich Indian metropolis in the colors of dirt, misery, hopelessness and death. Styled into the big gutter, it became the famous backdrop for her very special charitable work. Her order is only one among more than 200 charitable organizations, which try to help the slum-dwellers of Calcutta to build a better future. It is locally not very visible or active. But tall claims like the absolutely baseless story of her slum school for 5000 children have brought enormous international publicity to her institutions. And enormous donations!

Mother Teresa has collected many, many millions (some say: billions) of Dollars in the name of India's paupers (and many, many more in the name of paupers in the other "gutters" of the world). Where did all this money go? It is surely not used to improve the lot of those, for whom it was meant. The nuns would hand out some bowls of soup to them and offer shelter and care to some of the sick and suffering. The richest order in the world is not very generous, as it wants to teach them the charm of poverty. "The suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering," said Mother Teresa. Do we have to be grateful for this lecture of an eccentric billionaire?

The legend of her Homes for the Dying has moved the world to tears. Reality, however, is scandalous: In the overcrowded and primitive little homes, many patients have to share a bed with others. Though there are many suffering from tuberculosis, AIDS and other highly infectious illnesses, hygiene is no concern. The patients are treated with good words and insufficient (sometimes outdated) medicines, applied with old needles, washed in lukewarm water. One can hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's bizarre philosophy, it is "the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ". Once she tried to comfort a screaming sufferer: "You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you!" The man got furious and screamed back: "Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing."

When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Price, she used the opportunity of her worldwide telecast speech in Oslo to declare abortion the greatest evil in the world and to launch a fiery call against population control. Her charitable work, she admitted, was only part of her big fight against abortion and population control. This fundamentalist position is a slap in the face of India and other Third World Countries, where population control is one of the main keys for development and progress and social transformation. Do we have to be grateful to Mother Teresa for leading this worldwide propagandist fight against us with the money she collected in our name?

Mother Teresa did not serve the poor in Calcutta, she served the rich in the West. She helped them to overcome their bad conscience by taking billions of Dollars from them. Some of her donors were dictators and criminals, who tried to white wash their dirty vests. Mother Teresa revered them for a price. Most of her supporters, however, were honest people with good intentions and a warm heart, who fall for the illusion that the "Saint of the Gutter" was there to wipe away all tears and end all misery and undo all injustice in the world. Those in love with an illusion often refuse to see reality.

6 Comments:

Blogger SuMa said...

It can only be you, the best rationalist that I have seen, who can find fault with Mother Teressa. I know many will not like it but the facts that you posted are too transparent not to believe.

Thanks again for telling a spade a spade.

Sunil Manohar,
Hyderabad,
India

10:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i m biggest critic of urs on criticizing the indian spiritual wealth but i appreciate ur comments on mother teresa. really v gud view.cheers

2:06 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

In Christopher Hitchens' book, "The Missionary Position" he writes how the nuns secretly baptize non-catholics before they die in her facilities to get more souls for Jesus.

Keep up your good work for reason.

S. Utter
Tucson, AZ, USA

3:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the information.I didn't knew these things about her.But I think you didn't mention what she did with the millions of dollars received in the form of donation

11:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well Said, your statements are insightful and show that Mother Teresa was no saint but a political figure who used religion as a tool for promoting herself in name of serving the poor.

1:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for your very interesting text. Many christian missionaries around the world actually only care about saving souls for the afterlife instead of really caring for people in real life. Why did Mother T not have an hospital to save the sick people, instead of only "caring" for the dying? So the could convert them on their death bed, and "collect" their soul to Christ. She could have had an hospital to treat sick people and save their lives. The reason is that the for the christians, it is more important to be "saved" in the afterlife, than to have a decent life here on earth. (There are similar examples with the tribes in South America, where the only thing that mattered was the afterlife, a "saved", converted soul. Those who got sick, were left to die in miserable conditions.) What the missionaries really want, is to collect (that is: convert) as many souls as possible.

11:44 AM  

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