DPF blogs on Mother Theresa.
I was going to give my 2c on her a few weeks ago when I first saw this video, but decided it wasn’t worth my time. That’s changed now that it’s “mainstream”. So here’s my protestant perspective.
Mother Theresa took the poorest people from the streets of Calcutta. She gave them a better place to die. No more, no less.
That’s a problem for us as Christians. Our primary call is not to relieve suffering, or to extend it. Our call is clear, from the words of Christ himself:
End of Matthew:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
End of Mark:
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Luke (in Acts 1)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
It’s clear that we are to preach, to win souls. Mother Theresa did not do that. She left people to die in their sin. Yes, she served them in this life – not in a big way, and certainly not a way that Penn & Teller would like, but she did serve them. She served them with great love, and kept herself in extreme poverty. She showed the love of Christ. But she did not act on the explicit command of the great commission, and that is where her ministry fell down.
Let me address some of the criticisms in the video.
Mother Theresa was a nun. She served people. She, like many other nuns, took a different name as a nun. The pope does the same thing. Big deal.
Mother Theresa expanded her work throughout the world. So, she expanded the order, and much of the money donated towards her work apparently went towards buildings for the order. Surprising? No. Nuns have to sleep somewhere, even those dedicated to living amongst the “poorest of the poor”.
Penn & Teller find an ex nun who didn’t like being in Mother Theresa’s order. Apparently she wasn’t prepared to suffer and/or to serve the poorest of the poor. Clearly she didn’t bother to do the most basic research when she signed up. She also appears to now be a butch lesbian. She’s welcome to that lifestyle, but I would have thought she’d have moved to another order if her problem was just with Sisters of Mercy.
I don’t want people to get me wrong here. Mother Theresa’s work was amazing. She was an amazing person. Her dedication was incredible, and her ability for self sacrifice would put 99.999% of Christians to absolute, complete and utter shame. So, while there’s plenty of faults to pick, we should look at her for what she was trying to do – show Christ’s love in this fallen world.
Something should go here, maybe later. 
3 responses to “Mother Theresa”
Mother Theresa reminds me in a way of what Princess Diana was – an object to put certain organisations into a positive light.
The life of Diana ensured that many people would continue to have a fascination for the British Royal family. Regardless of whether people like or hate the Royal family, Diana gave it the glamour that made millions of people want the pathetic Monarchy to continue, for entertainment value.
Mother Theresa was like this also, except she was the poster gal for the Catholic Church. Millions of dollars have been donated to the Catholic Church because of the existance of Mother Theresa.
I think the most unfortunate thing about it is that, despite being worth billions of dollars and regardless of the fact that millions of people support those organisations, both the Royal family and the Catholic Church are not actually contractually obligated to do anything. It is not mandatory for William and Harry to do anything but they are urged by their elders to represent the family, the organisation. They could sit on the couch all day and still get their six-figure allowances and their inheritances and millions of dollars worth of gifts per year from fans.
I’m not buying into either of those organisations because when I pay for something, I expect to get a good or a service in return, guaranteed. There is no guarantee that the Royal family will still be involved in the Army in years to come, nor is it guaranteed that the Catholic Church will still be involved in helping people in years to come, yet it is pretty much a certainty that both of those organisations will still be worth billions of dollars no matter what they do.
Aside from the MT discussion…
I think your emphasis on winning souls is the mistake a lot of protestants make – following the american crusade model, where it’s about “winning souls” through emotional pleas and psychologically compelling speaches at rallys, and then moving town to do the same thing elsewhere.
Jesus was focused on training disciples, not winning converts and he called on his disciples to do the same. Making disciples requires a teacher-pupil relationship, and the focus should be on mentoring, and being mentored -ie relationship focused. If you focused on mentoring just one person a year, who then went on to mentor in the same way, you would be indirectly responsible for discipling many 1000’s over the course of your life. If you happened to “covert” 1000 people per year you wouldn’t reach and impact on as many (if you do the math), and how many of those would fall away?
Think about it.
Quite – the necessity for good discipleship is often overlooked.