Christopher Hitchens, �The Missionary Position � Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice�
I started to tell my friend and soon to be former roommate about this book, which is one reporter�s dream of going after a sacred cow and having burgers. Hitchens was intrigued to find that nary a bad word was said about Mother Teresa. Ever. So he decided to check her out for himself.
Guess what? She�s a jerk.
My buddy just looked at me for a while before finally speaking. �So,� he said slowly, �you�re only reading this so you can call Mother Teresa a bitch.�
Good thing I�m moving, because these guys know me too well.
Still, it�s a small little book, so you don�t get information on her sex orgies or her foray into cannibalism during the depression, but there�s still a lot of dirt here. She was like a one-woman holocaust, setting up death camps for the poor and dying, but refusing any luxuries like clean needles, medication to ease pain, or vitamin supplements for the malnourished. Men, said the saintly mother, designed these, so to use them would counter God�s decree that we should all die horribly, writhing in pain.
When the city of New York bought a building for one dollar and turned it over to the missionaries, she refused to put in an elevator because Jesus had to walk on his own feet, and why the hell should anybody else be treated any differently?
�Well,� said the mayor and governor of New York, �because state law requires that there be adequate handicapped access for any federally funded building.�
She refused. The city officials offered to pay for the installment of said elevator. Still she refused, barring any elevator for her house of God. The project was eventually abandoned � no shelter for anybody, crippled or no.
What a bitch.
Plus, with an organization that has no requirements to file for taxes or report their earnings, headed by a woman who posed with more than a couple of billionaires who then gave sizable donations, very little of that seemed to trickle-down to those she was supposed to be serving.
When Charles Keating was herded off for jail for bilking a ton of people out of their money from the savings and loan fiasco, who wrote a personal letter on his behalf? Mother Teresa. The prosecuting attorney then wrote her a letter explaining Keating�s crimes, and since Keating had donated one and a quarter of a million dollars to the Teresa cult from his ill-gotten gains, the attorney asked her to give the money back to the people whom it was stolen from. She never replied.
What a bitch.
And there�s her crusade against both abortion and birth control, even in overpopulated areas that could not sustain the resources needed for such a high birth rate. Then there�s the practice of her posing with billionaires and then superimposing the poor behind them. Plus there�s the cases where she would rush out to areas which were contaminated by chemicals by multinational corporations with the two syllable mantra �Forgive, forgive, forgive,� rather than demand reparations.
In addition, the lady seemed to have no empathy for those she supposedly cared for. She told a story, unaware of the irony about a man in her ward who was howling in agony. She told him that, �you are suffering like Jesus suffered on the cross. So Jesus must be kissing you.�
�Well, then please tell him to stop kissing me!� the man replied.
She smiled, patted the man on the head, and walked away.
What a bitch.
