Disembowelling Bambi

Here we go again.  Another atheist is bashing the bejesus out of the saintly Mother Teresa.  

The beatified Nobel Laureate, Mother Teresa

 Atheists have made a habit of bashing Teresa.  The late Christopher Hitchins wrote a book objecting to her raising money without scruples, consorting with dictators and spivs, providing appalling care in her institutions and a lack of transparency in her accounts. Since that pioneering work, there has been a conga line of atheists being mean to a woman who is a Nobel Laureate and has been beatified (the third stage before sainthood).  In her life she was an apparent paragon of virtue who was to be sucked up to by any world leader in search of a photo opportunity. 

Atheists take aim for she not only she is an archetype of the supposed uplifting attributes of faith but is open to criticism as a self promoter rather than a saint.  The latest to deflate the personality cult are a Canadian trio who repeat, extend and document the main Hitch assertions. 

So is it fruitful grail for the knights of godlessness to quest for?  Or is it a risk that we look churlish?  Is the dead nun a legitimate target or should she be left in peace to pick up post mortal rewards like sainthood and global brand status?

I would argue that now is the time, with some exception, to stop demonising the Catholic equivalent of Bambi.  I think it sometimes demeans us.  For all her faults, she was utterly amazing.  But there are a couple of her beliefs that need to be mentioned and opposed.  They are her views on poverty and suffering.

Suffering and putting suffering into a context is a central theme of religious life.  Suffering is perhaps best summarised in the crucifixion.  The most central image of the Christian faith is someone being tortured to death.  Suffering can be so central that some beliefs perversely glorify suffering and venerate self harm. Where a faith links suffering to post mortal rewards, then happiness can be linked to guilt and self deprivation is elevated to an art form.  There are countless martyrs who have, under the devotion to faith, embraced death, pain and starvation.  These are deemed worthy of emulation.  The Almost Saint Teresa had a view of suffering that elevated it to a height of devotion which I think is very dangerous.  Suffering is awful not noble.  Suffering and poverty ought not to be endured but avoided.  Suffering as a precursor to Paradise is a fine opiate but is not believable by most in the West.  Linking suffering with guilt leads to an ascetic life where sex, material comfort and absence of pain are somehow bad.

I can see how the veneration of suffering gives comfort.  It demonstrates to those who are in anguish or agony that their faith empathises.  Their faith offers a post mortal reward.  Suffering is all good.  Torment is fine.  Let us all join in an embrace torment and fear fun.  As an exemplar of the problems with this ideology is the documented evidence that the life for patients in Teresa’s hospices, short as it was, was pretty grim.  Pain relief and medical resources were thin on the ground, even during the good times, when Teresa was pulling in the big bucks from donors.

Having said all of this, it must be conceded the godless have NO consolation or comfort for those who suffer distress.  There is no atheistic framework for understanding and dealing with misery and distress.  While we godless can criticise the Christian approach, we must confess that we have nothing to contribute to our unbelievers in pain.

My other gripe is that Teresa's views blunt political and social action.  India, at the time Almost Saint Teresa was there, endured extreme poverty exacerbated by Soviet style central economic planning.  The best thing for India was not her flawed palliative care but political and economic reform. Almost Saint Teresa eschewed such political action and in doing so contributed to the continuation of suffering.  I’m not saying that she had a vested interest in suffering (although she did). I’m saying that her focus on palliative care and her views on the dignity of poverty got in the way of reform and the alleviation of the said poverty.

In our code of footy there is the phrase, “Going the man not the ball” which is generalised to indicate personal, ad hominem attacks are to be deplored.  So it is with Almost Saint Teresa.  Let us praise the little Albanian for the amazing person that she was. Let us be inspired by her global brand and her devotion to duty.  Her achievements were legion.  But let not that veneration blind us the stupidity of her views on suffering and poverty.

What is your view?

Do you agree that it is time to move on from just knocking the woman? 

What do you think of her views on suffering and poverty?

How should the godless comfort those who suffer? Whilst Christians are wrong, we godless are a vacuum on the question of assisting our flock deal with their torment.  What should we do about this?

Over to you guys...