Mother Teresa is Disrespected
After 66 years of hardcore, dedicated service to the cause of Christ Mother Teresa died(ten years ago). This was a woman who didn’t have alot in life because she had sacrificed it all to God. The only thing she asked when she was dying was that her letters she had written over the period of her 66 year long servitude be destroyed. Did she get it…No!
What she got was that the church held onto her letters and made a book out of them. They say that it will help people to better understand her and her work.
Some letter are letters that she has written where she questions here faith. Atheist are having a field day with that. He is some news to you. Every one questions their faith. Everybody will come to points in their lives where they will say they have doubts. They would be lying to say they don’t. We still have to seek answers. We need to be reassured. He would be nice if we didn’t but we do. We have to study the Bible so we can see how God works and learn to look for Him in nature, objects, people, places, in everything we can find Him.
So what if she questioned her own faith from time to time. She still stayed true and continued to work for God, speak of God, show His love, and all that other jazz that most of who call our lives Christian lives never learn to do. Questioning our faith can actually do us good. We can sometimes learn how small we really are, how little we understand, to dig deeper for the answers, lead to more prayer which is always a great things, lead to more reading of our Bible, and a revival of our faith.
Just because she was considered a “Super-Christian” by many changes nothing. She was still human and still dealt with alot of the same doubts that we do. She just learned to over come them. It is wrong for us not honor her wishes and destroy the letters. Wrong in all ways. Shame on us.
I disagree completely. Mother Theresa was a public figure with a public ministry. It was naive of her to believe she could keep correspondence of such critical significance under wraps. If the privacy of those inner doubts she struggled with - that we ALL struggle with - were of such paramount importance to her, then she should have either discussed them in person with the letters’ recipients, or she should have waited until she saw them in person. Putting such thoughts on paper - even though they may have supposed to have been private - inherently created posterity, whether intended or not. Throughout history, the personal letters of historical figures have frequently become public domain. Unfortunately, I’m of the opinion that her wishes in this matter are irrelevant posthumously.
As far as the atheist response to these revelations - who cares, dude? The tone of your post suggests it’s getting to you a bit more than it should. Look, the atheists who seek out ANY sort of fodder for their agenda are going to make more out of things like this than they should. What does it matter? YOU know the genuine nature of faith. I know the genuine nature of faith. People who are legitimately hungry for spiritual and moral truth can and WILL ultimately LEARN the genuine nature of faith, so I’m confident the aforementioned atheist reactions are inconsequential in the long run. The concept of faith will ALWAYS come under siege by those who don’t understand it - or, more appropriately, don’t WANT to understand it. Bottom line is - let it go. Faith has been attacked for millenia - this reaction is merely one insignificant drop of countless more to come in the vast ocean that is time.
Peace.
Comment by
Hermann the Malevolent — 9/5/2007 @ 7:31 pm
“…then she should have either discussed them in person with the letters’ recipients, or she should have waited until she saw them in person.”
Uh, that’s an unintended repetition. I meant to say “see them in person or talk to them on the telephone”.
I’m an idiot.
Comment by
Hermann the Malevolent — 9/5/2007 @ 7:33 pm
Interesting and intriguing points as always Hermann. That is why your comments are always appreciated here. Good to see that you are the same even if I take almost a full month (well I did post a few one liners..hard to stop cold turkey and all… LOL) off.
Anyway, I personally default to everyone working out their own faith with fear and trembling. I know for me that process of fear and trembling has been more evident at some times then at other times. I was not surprised at all to hear of her questions and doubts. If she had none I would have been more surprised. Every well known Christian I know of (including Billy Graham) have had doubts and questions at some time and on some points.
I personally did not have a problem with Mother Teressa’s letters being published as she is dead now. I would have had a issue if they were published against her wishes while she was alive though. I have to say that it would have been nice if they had have respected her wishes, but honestly that is not something that I would expect to happen in today’s world and even less so when someone is potentially going to be sainted. Beatification is a process that involves DEEP and COMPLETE research as I (a protestant) understand it. For Mother Teressa, due to her fame and reputation, to think that her letters would not be found in that process is unrealistic I think. To that I would also add that I think most famous people assume that their personal letters (and effects) will be culled and dissected post death. That is the process of writing, completing and modifying history. Travis (the poster) had a different take though, which is fine with me and welcome here as well.
Comment by
Team Swap — 9/5/2007 @ 9:45 pm