http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/29038 and its discussion, which also linked to the following: an interview with the author of a book (christopher hitchens, the missionary position: mother theresa in theory and practic)and producer of a tv movie documentary criticizing mother theresa: http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/hitchens_16_4.html

brief article on exorcism: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/09/04/mother.theresa.exorcism/

an article criticising mother theresa, mostly citing a book by aroup chatterjee called mother theresa: the final verdict: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa

i have a few questions for you. 1) are you going to disagree with these arguments against her? are you doing so because you’re catholic? 2) are you going to agree with these arguments against her? are you doing so because you’re not catholic? inflammatory, yes, but i want to think about it and not have a gut reaction because i feel my personal catholic identity is being made fun of.

this is my opinion: in my usual style i’m going to cut my feet out from under me and say first that i have not read any books or seen any movies (pro or against) about mother theresa, that i only know of her what seems to be “common cultural knowledge,” i have not been to kolkata, i have never worked with the poor, i have never worked in a hospital, i have almost no experience with watching people with a terminal illness.

but why reduce her to a money-grubbing cult leader? etc. i have to go to student dinner for lumpia, i’m already late, i’ll finish this paragraph later

maybe i need to not take everything so beansing personally, you might think. like, in hitchens’ interview-article, i find comments like (about people who called in about his movie) “The logs scrupulously record the calls verbatim, and I noticed that the standard of English and of reasoning in the pro calls was just so much higher as to make one feel that perhaps all was not lost” inflammatory (even though my “questions” above are pretty inflammatory). should i not? what should i do with my perception that people in the world thing religious people are stupid, which i obvoiusly have such a problem with (see earlier posts, bla bla bla)? just not take things seriously? but i do, because Things In The World matter.