The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice | 
| Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Verso
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  135 reviews
Sales Rank: 31079
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 98
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3
ISBN: 185984054X
Dewey Decimal Number: 271.97
EAN: 9781859840542
ASIN: 185984054X
Publication Date: April 1997
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Amazon.com
What's next--The Girl Scouts: The Untold Story? How could anybody write a debunking book about Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity order? Well, in this little cruise missile of a book, Hitchens quickly establishes that the idea is not without point. After all, what is Mother Teresa doing hanging out with a dictator's wife in Haiti and accepting over a million dollars from Charles Keating? The most riveting material in the book is contained in two letters: one from Mother Teresa to Judge Lance Ito--then weighing what sentence to dole out to the convicted Keating--which cited all the work Keating has done "to help the poor," and another from a Los Angeles deputy D.A., Paul Turley, back to Mother Teresa that eloquently stated that rather than working to reduce Keating's sentence, she should return the money he gave her to its rightful owners, the defrauded bond-holders. (Significantly, Mother Teresa never replied.) And why do former missionary workers and visiting doctors consistently observe that the order's medical practices seem so inadequate, especially given all the money that comes in? (Hitchens acidly observes that on the other hand, Mother Teresa herself always manages to receive world-class medical care.) Hitchens's answer is that Mother Teresa is first and foremost interested not in providing medical treatment, but in furthering Catholic doctrine and--quite literally--becoming a saint.
Book Description
Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, feted by politicians, the Church and the world's media, Mother Teresa of Calcutta appears to be on the fast track to sainthood. But what, asks Christopher Hitchens, makes Mother Teresa so divine? In a frank expose of the Teresa cult, Hitchens details the nature and limits of one woman's mission to the world's poor. He probes the source of the heroic status bestowed upon an Albanian nun whose only declared wish is to serve God. He asks whether Mother Teresa's good works answer any higher purpose than the need of the world's privileged to see someone, somewhere, doing something for the Third World. He unmasks pseudo-miracles, questions Mother Teresa's fitness to adjudicate on matters of sex and reproduction, and reports on a version of saintly ubiquity which affords genial relations with dictators, corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 130 more reviews...
 A superb expose of a deeply hypocritical woman July 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was as close to canonization as it was possible to get without actually being dead. The front cover of Time magazine called her a "Living Saint". A cult of holiness surrounded her and in the eyes of the media and many politicians she could do no wrong. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded numerous honors in the countries she visited.
The facts however didn't match the illusion and public perception and Christopher Hitchens had the courage to say so. He exposes her revolting attitude towards the dying, namely that they were there to die and to suffer; in that way they became closer to Christ. Care, compassion and alievement of pain were practically non-existent in her `clinics'. Standard clinical procedures and medical diagnosis was also spurned because they were materialistic. Provenance was to be preferred at all times. Hitchens also shows deceit was practiced as a matter of course towards those of other religions who were secretly baptized without their knowledge by sisters who were supposed to be caring for them.
Then there is her fawning over politicians, including some of the worst despots of the latter twentieth century. The Duvalier's of Haiti and Hoxha of her native Albania were amongst the most notoriously repressive regimes, yet as Hitchens documents, this living saint was there giving them her blessing. If she could preach her message against abortion and her present advocacy of unlimited population growth at the same time, so much the better. Not so much reducing the suffering in the world as adding to it would appear to be Mother Teresa's legacy.
There is also the little matter of money and as Hitchens points out, there is rather a lot of it, that was handed over in the name of charity or humanitarian support. Very little of this ever went to benefit the poor for whom it was intended. Rather it disappeared into unaudited bank accounts. One account in the Bronx had over $50 million dollars, yet Mother Teresa was on record as saying she wouldn't accept altruism. She was quite happy to accept money from fraudsters such as Charles Keating, but ignored a letter from the man investigating Keating's massive thefts requesting its return. It might also be asked where the money came from which allowed Teresa to fly around the world often at short notice. As far as I know, the world's commercial airlines have never operated a policy of free seats to the religious.
Hitchens' book does not set out to be a hatchet job but he has not surprisingly received a fair amount of criticism for writing it. However there has never been any convincing explanations put forward by Teresa's apologists to any of Hitchen's criticisms, yet there has been much silence since he former living saint was hoisted to a higher plane following beatification in 2003. For those who are determined to see Mother Teresa as the embodiment of religious holiness nothing will convince them of anything untoward. However, if you do have doubts about the abuse of religious power and the ways in which all manner of lies are justified on the back of adherence to religious dogma, this book will provide a most illuminating window into a highly corrupt world.
 Bitter-Sweet June 23, 2008
I have been reading Hitchens' books quite avidly in the last half of the year, and this book landed in my hands after finishing the superb God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
I should confess I felt a little dirty as the pages started to turn. Despite my enjoyment of Hitchen's prose, this book left a bit of an aftertaste in my mouth, a disappointment similar to finding out that Santa does not exist.
But as terse and poignant it may read this book is not a bitter ad hominem attack on the person of Mother Theresa. It is rather a criticism on the ways that she, other people and even institutions have benefited from the artificial creation of her over-inflated saintly myth and the political/monetary advantages it procured.
The book sometimes reads a bit dry, but the information, quotations, official letters included made it worth my while. And at 98 pages, it is not too long a while.
Not a fish in a barrel, but definitely a hypocrite in a habit June 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
When I met Christopher Hitchens at a conference in '99 I had just read this book. He said that he was surprised that no one had written it before because the hypocrisy and sanctimonious false modesty of Mother Teresa was so obvious to demonstrate. She was so sanctimonious she didn't try very hard to cover her disingenuousness, but like anyone doing bad or hypocritical things in the name of the catholic church, the church's followers were glad to ignore the inconsistencies with ethical behavior she displayed, and the church itself loved the mountains of cash she brought in, often donated by the world's worst tyrants. I told Hitch he was the only one with the huevos to write the book, and he thanked me. What's too bad is that there isn't anyone else who wanted to write this book, Mother Teresa continues to get a pass even after she is long dead, despite the obvious evidence that she prayed out of both sides of her mouth. Sainthood of course means nothing to me, but for those to whom it is important, if you'll grant it to this gal, you might as well grant it to the grilled cheese sandwich that looks like jesus. It has the same meaning.
An eye opener to the true Mother Teresa April 14, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was a little skeptical coming into this one because, like most other readers - well, maybe all - I came in with this naive notion of who Mother Teresa was simply because of the media surrounding her. Did it surprise me to find out that Mother Teresa's image is propaganda, and that a lot of what she does or has done is for her own and her church's benefit? Nope not a one bit. We've seen this time and again, where someone's image is their own image they are pushing. Howard Stern is a good example, who began proclaiming himself the King of All Media, and saying it enough, over and over again eventually made it so that the media actually started calling him that and people started believing it. Did this proclamation come from someone qualified to state this? Nope, from the horse's mouth itself. The same is with Mother Teresa as she pushed her own image of what she wanted the world to see her to be.
Hitchens did wonderfully in deconstructing that image and showing her and her "charitable" organization for what they were and are. Millions upon millions of money coming in and yet what is there to show for? Her organizations are bare bones minimum, not even giving a hint that there are millions of dollars of charity money stored away somewhere.
The poor would benefit, you would think, since this was her life's message, that the poor should suffer happily in the squalor of the slums, only to have the pious and righteous believers take care of them so that they can show the world that they themselves are god's worshipers. Hypocritical. Anyway, Mother Teresa didn't believe in spending any money on the poor, such as antibiotics or other basic necessities, because, according to her, spend on one and you must spend on all. Doctor's would visit and examine patients who are dying and have weeks to live, only to find that one cycle of antibiotics could cure them and they could live on and healthy! Unbelievable because their response was the one above, give to one then give to all, and they couldn't possibly do that. So the poor sap dies when a $100 cycle of antibiotics was too expensive to the multi million dollar charitable organization, whose sole purpose was to use the money for their benefit. Same thing with other patients who are really dying and are clearly in pain. Except they aren't given the pain medication that the poor would need to assist them in their transition to the "afterlife".
What makes this such an eye opener is how supported everything Hitchens wrote about was. If you don't agree with Hitchens' views and opinions, that is one thing, but to read her own words, to see the proof with your very own eyes and to see the dots connected, is something completely different. This well documented and supported short book about Mother Teresa is amazing, and my view of her is completely different. Her church and the public view of a pious woman supporting the poor in order to show her faith is all that mattered to her. The poor themselves? Nope, but for her to serve them and for other believers to do the same, in order to further the piety needed to keep her "church" and "organization" alive. A definite recommend.
5 stars.
 It is just OK... March 18, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I learned some things when reading this book and there are some interesting and shocking stories about "Mother Teresa", but the book is really just OK. None of the author's points are really driven home as well as they could be. It is worth a read because it is really short, but it is not an outstanding work.
P.S. I have no religious affiliation. I did not base my review on what a religion has told me.
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