(CBS) In life, Mother Teresa was an icon — for believers — of God’s work on Earth. Her ministry to the poor of Calcutta was a world-renowned symbol of religious compassion.
But now, it has emerged that Mother Teresa was so doubtful of her own faith that she feared being a hypocrite
In a new book that compiles letters she wrote to friends, superiors and confessors, her doubts are obvious.
According to her letters, Mother Teresa died with her doubts. She had even stopped praying, she once said.
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Bad Behavior has blocked 4761 access attempts in the last 7 days.
With all of the pain and misery this woman has witnessed, its no wonder she lost her faith.
With that level of honesty that woman continues to be a hero to me.
Who wrote the headline?
It really doesn’t matter what she felt, it matters what she did. And what she did was to help people during their time of suffering. She lived the best example of what religions claim to be about. She is the perfect example of someone who transcends religion by their acts. THAT is what we need to remember about her.
Watch this clip from Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit”, and then make up your own mind about how ‘great” she was:
@ Jeff Williams… well said, my sentiments exactly. Religions wouldn’t have such a bad rap if more believers followed her example.
Religions wouldn’t have such a bad rap if more believers followed their religion. (period)
Well, if she were a Christian she’d be wearing a HUGE blond wig, she would drive a $50,000+ mercedes and have tits as big as baseballs.
Mother Teresa was nothing to admire.
What was she but an adherent and supporter of the agency that to a certain degree CAUSED ALL THE MISERY she supposedly was trying to alleviate? or, was she just a co-enabler?
What India and the rest of the world needs is birth control.
Now on to Penn & Teller, I’ve heard about it but not seen it.===Gee, she stole money so the church could have a few more golden candlesticks while dying folks were imprisoned in their one hole shitter? Hard to believe, even for a nun.
#7 – JoaoPT – Religions wouldn’t have such a bad rap if more believers followed their religion. (period)
I’m sure that killing your disobedient kids and all non-Christians will improve the image of Christianity.
#8 she was a Christian, truer to the original message than most.
I watched a bit of the Penn and Teller bit but turned it off because of how they were twisting what she did and what she was about. Did the people she helped live in lousy conditions? Probably. But what most folks don’t realize is those lousy conditions were way better than what they had been living in. Those of us living in the west have little clue what real abject poverty is like unless we’ve traveled outside the confines of our developed world. Would you rather live out your dying days on a sparse cot under a solid roof or in the gutter? That’s where her work began, giving the dying a decent place to sleep with a roof over their head and decent food. And as far as living with suffering to imitate Christ, she was speaking of herself and those working with her not needing nice comfy living conditions etc, not those she was serving. As for doubting her faith I venture there is no human alive or dead that has not had doubts about what they believe. Anyone who says they haven’t is either lying or unbelievably arrogant…or both.
“I watched a bit of the Penn and Teller bit but turned it off…”
Ah, yes. Nothing like jumping to conclusions and keeping a closed mind. I’m sure they had nothing more to offer after that point, and you knew that already, without even watching it!
Wish I was prescient!
#4 – Seriously, how can you be so gullible? Lemmings…
It is not uncommon for us to question our faith – it is, after all, a gift from God. But we Christians are also taught that the test of faith is in the fruit that we produce, and Mother Teresa produced a lot of fruit!
Even Jesus Christ was so nervous prior to the crucifixion that he sweated blood – you know that His (as a man) faith was being tested. It wasn’t that He didn’t have faith, but our faith is always subject to being tested.
As for those who want to bad mouth anything religious, I’m glad there’s enough depth and meaning to your life, what is it, 60-70 years on average, then nothing for the rest of eternity? Is that what you really think? Keep on the way you’re keeping on, and you might be in for a shock. For the rest of us, giving of ourselves in the service of something higher and better than we are, even if we were wrong, gives far more meaning to our short time here on Earth. And since we’re not wrong, there’s all the more reason to celebrate.
Lakelady, why don’t you watch the ENTIRE, WHOLE 5 minute and 16 second clip before you comment on it? Your refusal to watch this clip reveals your ignorance about her and says a lot about your refusal to believe anything other than how mainstream media treated her: like a saint.
#14:
“As for those who want to bad mouth anything religious, I’m glad there’s enough depth and meaning to your life, what is it, 60-70 years on average, then nothing for the rest of eternity? Is that what you really think?”
Yup. It’s great because it makes us focus on priorities in this life, which is the only one we’ve got, not some fantasy fairy tale afterlife.
“Keep on the way you’re keeping on, and you might be in for a shock.”
Might be. Odds are probably not.
“For the rest of us, giving of ourselves in the service of something higher and better than we are, even if we were wrong, gives far more meaning to our short time here on Earth. And since we’re not wrong, there’s all the more reason to celebrate.”
Oh you’re not wrong? Please provide proof of how right you are, and how wrong everyone else (including Muslims, Jews, etc) is wrong.
now people can see that what we do is not the way to have a full live with Jehova God, all she need was Jesus.
All I know is if Penn and Teller say it is so it MUST be so. Because there is now way anyone could produce biased media. I mean Fox is fair and balanced! It is interesting watching confirmation bias from both sides at work.
P.S. Do atheist and Catholic lemmings eat the same food?
#18. Who says P&T are unbiased? Penn himself has said on the show, “We’re biased as all fuck!” And so what if they are? They’re presenting the side of the story most media does not.
#14, Kerry,
You just keep on believing that some invisible guy in the sky is telling you to send MONEY to fix the things he screwed up.
Angel it is tits as big as basketballs.Baseballs are pathetic.
I watched more than half of the Penn & Teller clip. (ooops just checked and watched it again, I stand corrected I actually had seen the whole thing before) Their extreme bias was obvious I didn’t need to watch the whole thing to confirm that. Let’s see, a nun raising money and you’re surprised that money is going to a religious institution? Get a clue! And did anyone stop to think that it’s these nuns that were the staff that took care of the poor. Nope, that can’t be it, she must just been stealing the money and living the high life. Just like I won’t be taken by false “saints” I won’t be taken in by false “entertainers”.
Watch Zeitgeist The Movie and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
http://zeitgeistmovie.com
Penn & Teller are correct, it’s all bullshit.
“She wanted people to live in impoverished conditions so that she could identify with the poor she was serving…”
#22. No one said she was taking the money and living the high life. However, doesn’t it seem strange that no one was allowed to look at the books to see where the money was going? How much was going straight into the Vatican’s coffers? Why couldn’t that money be used to improve the conditions of her filthy establishments?
And just because it was nuns running these places doesn’t mean everything was peaches and cream: they had to do things the Mother Teresa way, including making sure the residents were suffering, to bring them closer to Jesus.
Here’s an interesting article that sheds some more light on the subject:
http://www.newstatesman.com/200508220019
And as for P&T being extemely biased, see comment 19.
#22
One other item, the issue of the money is not whether she spent it on herself. The issue is whether the millions that sent her money knew that it would be spent to expand her institution instead of going directly to the people to whom she was helping.
MT’s caring for the poor was only to give them a decrepit place to die in.
“Everybody remembers Mother Teresa as a living saint. Mother T was a Catholic nun who helped the destitute and homeless of Calcutta, and who became an international emissary of peace and charity after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
But nobody seems to remember the crazy things M.T. said about abortion, contraception, and divorce. Or her endless self-aggrandizing through exaggeration and lies. Or the various brutal dictators and other sleazeballs she hung out with. Or especially what happened to all those financial donations (hundreds of millions of dollars) which never seemed to get spent on anything. At least they weren’t spent on food, medicine, or housing for the poor.”
Read all about it:
http://tinyurl.com/25yppw
As a person of faith, myself, this story about Mother Teresa neither surprises me nor does it lower my admiration of her.
Having doubts — even severe ones — is a pretty common experience for many highly spiritual people. Had she lived longer, she may have worked her way through it.
As for the negative sides of her personality and life — I suppose some of what you say is true (much is probably BS, too) but Mother Teresa, in all her imperfection, did a heck of a lot more good in this world than anybody here, I’m guessing, and maybe all of us combined.
Greg Allen, no actually she didn’t.
#28:
“As for the negative sides of her personality and life — I suppose some of what you say is true (much is probably BS, too)…”
Not likely BS, as this information is widely available and from multiple sources.
“…but Mother Teresa, in all her imperfection, did a heck of a lot more good in this world than anybody here, I’m guessing, and maybe all of us combined.”
Like opposing abortion, regardless of the situation, and rallying against birth control, to the detriment of thousands of babies born into poverty and conditions where they can’t be cared for?