The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens

Mar 07, 2011 A.J. Howard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-in-2011, saturday-nights-and-sunday-mornings

The Missionary Position, by the sake of its cover alone, is arguably one of the most bold polemics in recent memory. The title itself forces you to picture the wrinkled, ancient, and now deceased, woman on the cover.... well, let's just say engaging in an activity that we have good reason to believe she abstained from for the entirety of her life. Let me pause while I shudder quickly. Despite the pure shock power of the title, Hitchens' originally preferred title may have been more appropriate,

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The Missionary Position, by the sake of its cover alone, is arguably one of the most bold polemics in recent memory. The title itself forces you to picture the wrinkled, ancient, and now deceased, woman on the cover.... well, let's just say engaging in an activity that we have good reason to believe she abstained from for the entirety of her life. Let me pause while I shudder quickly. Despite the pure shock power of the title, Hitchens' originally preferred title may have been more appropriate, The Sacred Cow. Because if you were unaware of Hitchens' argument, Mother Theresa of Calcutta seems to be one of the least appropriate target for such harsh criticism, even when the bile is produced by such a virulent contrarian and secularist as Hitchens.

However, Hitchens makes clear that his ire is not directed at Mother Theresa herself, or devout Catholics who consider her a saint. This book is for the secular or casually religious who consider the late nun as the exemplar of charity, compassion, humility, and devoutness. Hitchens argument is that all the modifiers but the latter are inappropriate.

Hitchens main point is that the good Mother Theresa did for the world were means to the end of promoting a specific and retrograde worldview, "to propagandize one highly subjective view of human nature and need, so that she may one day be counted as a beatific founder of a new order and discipline within the Church itself." Hitchens also points out that when the welfare of the poor conflicted with any of her religious beliefs it was the former that were sacrificed. This is not only relating to her frequent pronunciations on the evils of birth control. The Catholic Church, and Theresa as one of the most outspoken mouthpieces of the organization on this subject, is liable for the millions of deaths and and an untold amount of suffering worldwide by its unbelievably outdated position on the subject. But wait there's more. Hitchens cites testimonials that make it appear that people under the care of the Missionaries of Charity suffered needlessly not because of a lack of funds, but because Mother Theresa sought to maintain conditions of poverty. Better care for patients under their care was not provided, not because Mother Theresa was unable to provide, but because she was unwilling to provide it.

Hitchens also ridicules Mother Theresa's supposed refusal to engage in politics. Of course this was only the case where politics didn't involve moral issues, and she didn't hesitate to give her blessings to demagogues who shilled her line. Also, her supposed non-engagement freed her up to be used as a pawn by thugs, dictators, and crooks who were eager for a photo-op. One such engagement was when she wrote a letter to Judge Lance Ito, appealing for leniency in the sentencing of Charles Keating, the perpetrator of the Savings and Loan scandal. She had the gall to cite how Keating donated money to her charities as proof of his better nature, while never addressing the fact that this money was stolen by Keating through fraud. When faced with calls to return these stolen funds she answered with complete silence.

Hitchens has several more bones to pick that I won't get into. Hitch's screed is more of a pamphlet than a book, coming in at just under 100 pages scarcely filled pages that will take at most a couple of hours to read. Because it's so brief, I'm going with three stars instead of four. Hitchens is the kind of guy you would never want to get into an argument you want to win with. Here, he takes aim at the previously unassailable and manages to but a few dents in her secular halo.

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Jun 07, 2007 bryan marked it as to-read

Hitchens originally wanted to title this one "Sacred Cow". His publisher wouldn't let him.

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Apr 24, 2013 Mikey B. rated it 5 of 5 stars

A forceful and convincing (if somewhat strident) destruction of the myth of Mother Teresa. Christopher Hitchens takes on quite a few angles of the ‘sacredness of Mother Teresa’.

One of the most convincing is the squalor of the hospices in Calcutta and elsewhere. Very little of the donated money (and this is in the millions) goes into improving the facilities. Aspirins are the only anaesthetics provided to terminally ill patients. Needles are recycled on different patients. Unremitting suffering i...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Cwn_annwn_13 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-public-library

I really didn't need to read this book to figure out that Mother Teresa was just another globalist tool and a propaganda/fundraising cash cow for the Catholic church but Missionary Position does a good job of driving that point home and giving good solid evidence to that fact. To give a few examples, the millions she took from the mega swindler Keating and never returned, her response to the Dupont chemical spill in India instead of seeking justice and calling to make Dupont acountable was telli...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Liberdocet added it · review of another edition

Con i credenti in genere, ma soprattutto con i cattolici, mi trovo sempre a fare i conti con due pensieri ricorrenti che delimitano il campo del mio discorso:

Pensiero ricorrente numero 1:
Con i credenti non è possibile avere alcun dialogo in quanto partiamo da posizioni appartenenti a livelli paralleli e divergenti: l'uno dogmatico, l'altro empirico-materialista. Assodato ciò, posso solamente tollerare il loro discorso sulla vita e tutto il resto, di certo non posso rispettarlo.

Pensiero (meno) ri...more Con i credenti in genere, ma soprattutto con i cattolici, mi trovo sempre a fare i conti con due pensieri ricorrenti che delimitano il campo del mio discorso:

Pensiero ricorrente numero 1:
Con i credenti non è possibile avere alcun dialogo in quanto partiamo da posizioni appartenenti a livelli paralleli e divergenti: l'uno dogmatico, l'altro empirico-materialista. Assodato ciò, posso solamente tollerare il loro discorso sulla vita e tutto il resto, di certo non posso rispettarlo.

Pensiero (meno) ricorrente numero 2:
Come fai a definirti civile e votato al dialogo se sei il primo a chiuderlo, questo dialogo? E come la mettiamo con tutte quelle menate di Voltaire e del "darei la mia vita per farti proferire la tua stronzata anche se so che è una totale e irrevocabile stronzata"?

A pensarci bene, poi, nei discorsi quotidiani, questi pensieri rimangono insespressi, ed agisco in maniera molto più elastica. Questa elasticità, però, è venuta solo con l'esperienza. Che cosa significa esperienza, mi chiederà il socratico? L'esperienza secondo me è la stratificazione di tutte quelle volte che mi sono bruciato prima di capire che il fuoco e gli oggetti che ne vengono a contatto scottano. Ma non voglio dilungarmi; stavo parlando dell'esperienza in campo di dialoghi tra credenti ed atei (gli agnostici non contano perché tanto loro se ne lavano le mani). Da quando, adolescente, ho iniziato a sperimentare l'insensatezza dei dogmi e dei vari ragionamenti su entità che trascendono il nostro mondo, ho iniziato a discutere, quando mi è capitato, con i credenti (perché sono sempre stato un tipo dubbioso, e non so cosa avremmo prodotto di buono, come genere umano, senza il dubbio). Però, essendo ingenuo, non vagliavo il credente che avevo di fronte - intendo, se questo fosse uno spinoziano o un neocatecumenale o un teologo della liberazione -, e così la maggior parte delle volte mi sono trovato impegolato in discorsi senza una via di uscita sensata, e per di più nei posti e nelle situazioni meno adatte (funerali, feste religiose, processioni, locali con la musica dal vivo). Sono passati anni - anni in cui, per tornare alla metafora dell'esperienza, mi sono quasi completamente ustionato - prima che capissi qual era la soluzione a queste continue farneticazioni. La soluzione, che è ancora in rodaggio visto che ricado molte volte nell'errore, è che prima, parlando di fiori o farfalle o del tempo, cerco di capire l'assennatezza della persona che mi sta di fronte, e poi, con molta delicatezza introduco qualsiasi tipo di discorso inerente alle credenze più disparate (dagli ufo alle scie chimiche, dal problema della transustanziazione alla scomunica causa utilizzo metodi contraccettivi). Eppure, i miei rapporti con i credenti tutti continuano ad essere difficoltosi, come nel caso di questo libro. (continua su http://www.liberdocet.it/2013/03/la-p...)(less)

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Feb 11, 2013 Loy Machedo rated it 5 of 5 stars

I happen to read 'The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice by Christopher Hitchens. But instead of putting up a Book Review - I decided to put this up as an article. Also, this will be the first ever book review I will be using someone elses' Review - Carlos Laflauta’s Review actually – which I think is brilliant. And as a bonus, give you the links to watch the documentary of Hell’s Angels -

(Carlos Laflauta’s Profile on Amazon) http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/...

http://...more

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Jan 16, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Hitchens has turned his humbuggery on little old nuns. Well played, Hitchens. Well played.

As much as I'd like to just keep the review at that, I feel like I shouldn't. His complaints focus on several facets of her organization.

1. While she devoted her life to helping the poor, her goal was conversion rather than actually improving the lives of the poor.

2. Despite the millions of dollars donated to her organization, she actively stood in the way of high-quality healthcare for her clinics, and...more

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Nov 16, 2012 Marcus rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: commentary, biography

Hitchens' criticism of Mother Teresa was bound to be controversial, and bound to be largely ignored. That's a shame, as it does not indict every aspect of the iconic nun's life and character - it isn't really a character assassination. It is, rather, an act of iconoclasm, a tearing down of the idol that has been made of this woman over the past several decades. Mother Teresa was a flawed individual, a woman with imperfect ambitions and at times a perverse understanding of the stance we ought to...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Zelda of Arel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: atheists, sceptics, Christians

Recommended to Zelda by: The Atheist Experience

Shelves: non-fiction, ebook

Hitchens is always brilliant. Even when I don't agree with him, he's still brilliant. It saddens me to think that he's no longer alive, because I always thought that had we meet, I would have had the pleasure of talking to someone who was my intellectual superior. It's so rare for me to meet such a person.

Now on to the book. It's kind of short, but very precise, and to the point. It really doesn't need to be longer. I never knew much about Mother Teresa, though her policy on contraceptives and a...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Zachary rated it 3 of 5 stars

When someone mentions the name of Mother Teresa, it will often inspire vague characterizations of helping the poor, as being the epitome of selflessness. If anyone is pressed to elaborate on what it actually was that mother Teresa actually did, or why it was that she has been so well enshrined in the annals of history, most will be hard pressed to provide any details and prior to reading this book, I was much the same. Hitchens makes a compelling argument for just about everything one would intu...more When someone mentions the name of Mother Teresa, it will often inspire vague characterizations of helping the poor, as being the epitome of selflessness. If anyone is pressed to elaborate on what it actually was that mother Teresa actually did, or why it was that she has been so well enshrined in the annals of history, most will be hard pressed to provide any details and prior to reading this book, I was much the same. Hitchens makes a compelling argument for just about everything one would intuitively think of this saint of all saints, as being an illusion, a testament to the marketing ability of the Catholic Church. The catalyst for the launching of Mother Teresa onto the public (world) stage was a very mundane occurrence that was turned into miracle by a single man that was filming a documentary and the media handled it from there. What Mother Teresa actually did for the sick and poor, had absolutely nothing to do with helping them, as most people would think, and had everything to do with maximizing the suffering of those that were unfortunate enough to find themselves under her umbrella. The short story is that Mother Teresa had a crisis of faith, her superiors calmed her by telling her that suffering is god’s way of keeping his chosen close and from there, she essentially thought it her mission to make as many people as possible, as close to god as possible (via suffering). She provided people with a place to suffer and to die, often in needlessly horrible conditions (the more suffering, the closer to god). She intentionally denied anything that could have eased suffering and brought comfort to these people (medical diagnosis, medical treatment, comfortable beds, etc..) and instead chose to rely solely on the providence of god (we don’t intervene and what happens is God’s will). I have no doubt that she was well intentioned, but the myth that she helped those in need, is exactly that, a myth. For the purposes of not ruining the entire book, which is a very short and easy read, I will leave out further details of the suffering she promoted and the shady dealings with political figures in exchange for money. It is well worth a day or two to read this book, if you have any desire at all to explore that Mother Teresa was all about. You can also find an old documentary on youtube that summarizes much of the book, called “Hell’s Angel”.(less)

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May 10, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Mother Teresa in theory and practice." As Hitchens points out, his aim in this little jewel is to convince people to judge her by her actions and not her reputation. And in grand Hitchens style, he proceeds to show us, through facts and witnesses willing to be named and go on the record, a woman who uses her fame to hob-nob with the evil and infamous (Charles Keating, Duvalier, Mariam of Ethiopia, Hoxha of Albania and on and on and on.) A woman who believes that people must suffer, refusing to...more

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Mar 01, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Missionary Position does a great service in alleviating much of the hype surrounding Mother Teresa. Personally, I think she was probably a very good woman, but it's apparent that her methods in helping the poor were often misguided, to say the least. I would agree with Hitchens that, ultimately, she might have even ended up doing more harm than good. However, I think he goes too far in suggesting that Mother Teresa was motivated by power and greed. Hitchens seems to be just a little too comf...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Marissa Morrison rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

In this brief but powerful book, Hitchens lays out his case against Mother Teresa. With righteous--and seemingly rightful--indignation, he notes that she purposefully didn't take good care of the poor and sick. She valued their suffering and felt that it was in service to Jesus. In spite of an enormous cache of donations to her missionary facilities, very little was spent on tools of hygiene, medical remedies, and--most appallingly--analgesics. As if all this weren't bad enough, after letting pe...more In this brief but powerful book, Hitchens lays out his case against Mother Teresa. With righteous--and seemingly rightful--indignation, he notes that she purposefully didn't take good care of the poor and sick. She valued their suffering and felt that it was in service to Jesus. In spite of an enormous cache of donations to her missionary facilities, very little was spent on tools of hygiene, medical remedies, and--most appallingly--analgesics. As if all this weren't bad enough, after letting people suffer needlessly, Mother Teresa trained her volunteers to secretly baptize them without permission in their final moments.

Hitchens details Mother Teresa's partnerships with despots and scoundrels. She expressed support for leaders of various countries who were widely known as oppressive and corrupt, posing with them for smiley photos in exchange for financial contributions. She took money from anyone who would give it, without remorse. Included in the book is a photocopy of a letter she wrote to a judge on behalf of Charles Keating, who stole over $250 million from investors during the savings and loan scandal. Hitchens also quotes a response from one of the prosecutors in the case, in which he informed Mother Teresa that Keating had given her stolen funds and asked that she return the money to the rightful owners. She never replied.

Another mark against Mother Teresa is her tireless effort to insert Catholic doctrine into the laws of nations around the world. She urged world leaders and national assemblies to outlaw birth control. It's hard to wrap one's mind around her thought process--she was keenly aware of the effects of poverty, yet worked against a practical solution to it. Hitchens writes, "The call to go forth and multiply, and to take no thought for the morrow, sounds grotesque when uttered by an elderly virgin whose chief claim to reverence is that she ministers to the inevitable losers in this very lottery." Later revelations from Mother Teresa's own letters and journals--which were made public after Hitchens wrote this book--about the crisis of faith she experienced for the last 50 years of her life make it seem only weirder that Mother Teresa would have devoted herself so staunchly to promoting her Church's teachings at the expense of everyone's freedom.

The only drawback to this book is its disrespectful title. (less)

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Jul 03, 2010 Khaya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: readablenonfiction, spiritualityreligion, thought-provoking

Mother Teresa is probably the last person I'd expect to be the target of an angry expose.

In this short volume, Christopher Hitchens includes the following points:

1. Much of the publicity around Mother Teresa is revisionistic and dubious, and her displays of humility are an act. How humble is it to claim a personal relationship with Jesus?

2. Mother Teresa is about saving souls, not bodies. Her institutions are unsanitary and poorly operated despite a plethora of donations which should make better...more Mother Teresa is probably the last person I'd expect to be the target of an angry expose.

In this short volume, Christopher Hitchens includes the following points:

1. Much of the publicity around Mother Teresa is revisionistic and dubious, and her displays of humility are an act. How humble is it to claim a personal relationship with Jesus?

2. Mother Teresa is about saving souls, not bodies. Her institutions are unsanitary and poorly operated despite a plethora of donations which should make better conditions affordable. Mother Teresa's statements about the godliness of poverty and suffering appear to be her justification for this.

3. Mother Teresa uses her influence to promote anti-birth control and anti-abortion dogmas, despite the fact that overpopulation and unwanted children are likely factors in the need for her institutions.

4. Mother Teresa is associated with all kinds of dubious individuals, from Robert Maxwell to Michele Duvalier to Charles Keating. She actually tried to advocate for the latter as he was being prosecuted for fraud; when Keating's prosecutor informed Mother Teresa of Keating's activities and encouraged her to return the funds he donated to her cause so that these funds could then be returned to the defrauded individuals, Mother Teresa never responded.

5. Mother Teresa is a font of unhelpful platitudes which do not hold up to scrutiny but are viewed as profound simply because she said them.

6. Mother Teresa and the West feed off each other. The West feels a need to believe they are helping the poor savages of the East; Mother Teresa publicly fills that need for them independent of the degree of help she is actually contributing.

Hitchens' writing is sharp and on-target, and he certainly makes an interesting case. I also appreciated the book's short length. With that, my sense is that Hitchens' anti-religious agenda is the driving force behind this book rather than any actual wrongdoing on Mother Teresa's part.

Mother Teresa's alleged false modesty, while hardly admirable, is certainly no crime. Her embracing poverty and suffering at the expense of those she is officially helping is more problematic; at the same time, it's not as if she's using the donated funds for her own material pleasure. Mother Teresa is a religious figure and does not claim otherwise; it's only natural that she would promote anti-abortion views and consort indiscriminately with despised characters, feeling that God loves everybody. As for the inflated and uncritical view of her platitudes, as Hitchens himself remarks, this is "...an argument not with a deceiver but with the deceived. If Mother Teresa is the adored object of many credulous and uncritical observers, then the blame is not hers, or hers alone."

Whether or not one agrees with Hitchens' claims, they are certainly provocative and well-articulated, not to mention humorous. (less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Renato rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, religião-teologia, non-fiction

Uma análise polémica mas, para todos os efeitos, realista do fenómeno que foi a “anã albanesa”. Para mim, que tudo o que sabia sobre a senhora partia daquelas noções muito genéricas (que ela ajudou os pobrezinhos, que era uma santa, que não matava uma mosca, que é um exemplo disto e daquilo) foi bastante enriquecedor ler um relato que rema contra a corrente. O melhor nem é a prosa do autor, que é maravilhosa (é um jornalista a escrever como um escritor, com um domínio fantástico e charmoso da lí...more Uma análise polémica mas, para todos os efeitos, realista do fenómeno que foi a “anã albanesa”. Para mim, que tudo o que sabia sobre a senhora partia daquelas noções muito genéricas (que ela ajudou os pobrezinhos, que era uma santa, que não matava uma mosca, que é um exemplo disto e daquilo) foi bastante enriquecedor ler um relato que rema contra a corrente. O melhor nem é a prosa do autor, que é maravilhosa (é um jornalista a escrever como um escritor, com um domínio fantástico e charmoso da língua inglesa); o melhor é o facto de cada “afirmação polémica”, cada “acusação controversa” estar tão deliciosamente bem documentada e argumentada que o ataque gratuito e barato sugerido no título é na verdade um relato objectivo e equilibrado. Afinal parece que a enorme compaixão pelos pobres traduzia-se, na verdade, por impingir uma comparação entre o calvário de Jesus e o dos doentes, e por uma recusa de tratamentos médicos decentes; que a aura de simplicidade militante tinha por trás contas cheias de dinheiro, nunca decentemente aplicado ao tratamento dos enfermos; e que, mais que uma defensora dos direitos dos moribundos, Madre Teresa foi um fantástico megafone para algumas das mais perigosas ideias da Igreja Católica sobre planeamento familiar e contracepção; já para não falar na belíssima resposta dada pela senhora quando lhe perguntaram como é que os pobres e desprotegidos poderiam tornar o mundo um lugar melhor: “Deviam sorrir mais”. Um leitor de boa fé poderá até não sair convencido de que a figura que todo o mundo idolatrou era tão humana e corrupta como os seus colegas mamíferos, mas pelo menos fecha o livro com um pontapé nas suas convicções; e julgo que nada é mais útil do que isso. Se há coisa que transpira deste e de outros trabalhos do mesmo autor é que a desconfiança em relação às figuras de autoridade deve ser directamente proporcional à escala da sua megalomania; um princípio que, a ser aplicado honestamente, nos permite denunciar todo o tipo de trafulhices. Madre Teresa parece ser mais uma delas.(less)

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Jan 28, 2012 Kurt Pankau rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is an ambitious attempt at iconoclasm from a world-class iconoclast that is absolutely undone by the author's style of writing. From the overly catty title to the confused layout, the book is frustrating when it should be enlightening and only works for about fifteen pages in the middle when substance is finally allowed to triumph over style.

Hitchens has some fantastic observations about the misguided ways in which Mother Theresa "helps" the poor but in fact just makes them suffer. Those fi...more This is an ambitious attempt at iconoclasm from a world-class iconoclast that is absolutely undone by the author's style of writing. From the overly catty title to the confused layout, the book is frustrating when it should be enlightening and only works for about fifteen pages in the middle when substance is finally allowed to triumph over style.

Hitchens has some fantastic observations about the misguided ways in which Mother Theresa "helps" the poor but in fact just makes them suffer. Those fifteen pages are worth reading, without question. But he works them towards a flimsy thesis that Mother Theresa was some kind of diabolical genius. In doing so, he assumes that the reader knows quite a bit about Mother Theresa and the Catholic Church already, and disdains them both. He doesn't give any kind of history of the woman until 4/5's of the way through, at which point he assumes that the reader knows the major players in 1930's Albanian politics. His scattershot rambling approach to an argument really does him no justice. It's a boon to his work as an essayist, but it's the reason his books are all slight, pithy, and dense. This book needed to guide the reader, but Hitchens never constructs anything like a narrative.

I view this as a blown opportunity. The evidence of Mother Theresa's woes on humanity are not hard to find. You can see a nice overview in the "Criticism" section of her Wikipedia page. Her goal was not to heal but to convert. She would give deathbed baptisms to Hindus and Muslims without their explicit consent. She would deny antibiotics to the sick and painkillers to the dying--she seemed to think suffering was making her charges more Christ-like. She viewed the influx of donations as an endorsement of her methods from God, but the money went unspent and/or unaccounted for. People suffered needlessly under her care. There is no question that she did horrible things and was never held to account by the world at large.

But the stronger argument is not that Mother Theresa was a bad person, but that she was an exemplary Catholic and that Catholic doctrine writ large is as great an evil now as it was during the Inquisition. Hitchens dances around this, but never quite nails it. The Catholic prohibition on contraception--largely ignored in the first world--is one of the issues Mother Theresa championed alongside abortion. And to this day those prohibitions are a direct cause of the third world being flush with the starving children that Mother Theresa's nuns look after. The irony is flabbergasting, but Hitchens would have us believe that it's all part of some evil scheme towards beatification, and I don't think he argued it strongly enough.

It pains me to rate this as low as I did. I'm a fan of Christopher Hitchens and view his death as a serious loss to the intellectual world. But this is far from his best work. It's too long and too comprehensive to work as an essay, but it's too short and disorganized to work as a book. In the end, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.(less)

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Dec 30, 2011 Haritha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Despite how brief this book was, it was a difficult read for me. This is also the first time I'm reading any of Hitchens' works. That I give this book three stars is entirely my fault for reading this book in my usual high speed and thus having some of the words flow over my head, and not because I can find any flaws with the arguments that Hitchens puts across.

Even though this book is brief, it reveals many a shocking fact about what Mother Teresa's true agenda was. I confess that I didn't rea...more

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Dec 18, 2011 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hitchens died this week so I figured it was high time to read his critique of Mother Teresa. Now I'm fighting the urge to go kick some puppies as an encore. In all seriousness, however, Hitchens has written a much-needed critique. He demonstrates quite well that Mother Teresa was the consummate hypocrite when it came to pretty much everything other than abortion and contraception. She does seem to have been very consistent on those issues, although Hitchens' critique of her position suffers from...more Hitchens died this week so I figured it was high time to read his critique of Mother Teresa. Now I'm fighting the urge to go kick some puppies as an encore. In all seriousness, however, Hitchens has written a much-needed critique. He demonstrates quite well that Mother Teresa was the consummate hypocrite when it came to pretty much everything other than abortion and contraception. She does seem to have been very consistent on those issues, although Hitchens' critique of her position suffers from the false assumptions that almost always intrude on the arguments of those who countenance abortion. Hitchens demonstrates quite adequately that this woman who claimed to be apolitical repeatedly played the game of politics in the worst way in support of the worst leaders and regimes, from Hoxha to Duvalier. She taught salvation through suffering and as a rule denied medical care to those whom she cared for--not even follow the accepted rules of hospice care for the dying--while playing it up to rich people in the West that she was relieving the sorrow and poverty of the world's most miserable people. Nope. She sat on millions of dollars of donations that could have provided the best medical care in India and sat with those in need and told them that their sorrows were the loving kisses of Jesus and that to take away the pain and the poverty was to take away the source of their salvation. Of course, when it came her own health problems, she had no problem blowing off the kisses of Jesus and seeking care in the best medical facilities the West has to offer. When it came to money, on one hand the rule of her order took the firm position that the sisters were to trust in Providence from day to day (in one convent the sisters were berated by Teresa for canning an abundance of donated tomatoes), but on the other hand her order took in millions of dollars given by individuals, corporations, foundations, and governments for the relief of the poor, money that was never used for such purposes and that still remains unaccounted for. Hitchens notes particularly the $1.5 million donation made by Charles Keating--money stolen from his clients, many of whom were themselves of that same class of poor people she claimed to be helping. Hitchens includes a copy of her faux naïf letter to Judge Ito on behalf of Keating during his trial as well as the prosecutor's letter to Mother Teresa suggesting that if she really valued following the example of Christ, she would return the stolen funds Keating donated to the rightful owners--a letter to which she never responded.

This is book that needed to be written. Ever since Malcolm Muggeridge's introduction of Mother Teresa to the world more than forty years ago she has lived with a sort of teflon sainthood. To even think of criticising or questioning Mother Teresa leaves most people gasping in shock and outrage. And yet there's an awful lot to be criticised. Hitchens does a good job. In some places his atheism intrudes and his critique is more that of the Church in general than it is of Mother Teresa, but for the most part he sticks to his subject and is fair. The fact is, though, that those who need to read the book are probably the least likely to read it simply because of the fact that it was written by Hitchens and is immediately suspect.(less)

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Nov 29, 2008 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone willing to take a good, hard look at one of our modern day "saints."

I really want to like Christopher Hitchens, but he kind of gives me the creeps. I had more respect for him when I first glanced at this book on my father's bookshelf (a gift from my step-father) as a teenager, before I'd had to see his rather bloated, snide personage one too many times as a guest pundit on CNN. Now, I find myself not trusting him as much as I would like to, because he makes some good points.

Mother Theresa is not above criticism, and I see in this book much foreshadowing of the t...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Prooost Davis rated it 5 of 5 stars

A quote from the book:

Bear in mind that Mother Teresa's global income is more than enough to outfit several first-class clinics in Bengal. The decision not to do so, and indeed to run instead a haphazard and cranky institution which would expose itself to litigation and protest were it run by any branch of the medical profession, is a deliberate one. The point is not the honest relief of suffering but the promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjection. Mother Teresa (who hers

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Jun 28, 2012 Phil rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies

I really resent this kind of book - It measures 9 x 5.5 inches and has fewer than 100 pages. It could as easily have been published as an article in a journal like The New Yorker or The Atlantic Monthly.

Fewer than 100 pages criticizing Mother Teresa, whereas the Spink biography contains more than 330 pages.

Hitchens raises interesting points, but it is clear that he fails to understand that Mother Teresa, for all her saintliness, lived by a morality which was reckoned different from Hitchens'. Th...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Raghu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Christopher Hitchens' book is a blistering indictment of the cult of Mother Teresa. It investigates systematically the innards of Mother Teresa's charity in Calcutta and exposes it mostly as a sham with a great chasm lying between myth and reality. Hitchens is an anti-thiest (as he likes to call himself) and so has no sympathy for religion and belief in God. Still, this book is purely a rational exercise in simply evaluating Mother Teresa's reputation by her actions and words instead of the othe...more Christopher Hitchens' book is a blistering indictment of the cult of Mother Teresa. It investigates systematically the innards of Mother Teresa's charity in Calcutta and exposes it mostly as a sham with a great chasm lying between myth and reality. Hitchens is an anti-thiest (as he likes to call himself) and so has no sympathy for religion and belief in God. Still, this book is purely a rational exercise in simply evaluating Mother Teresa's reputation by her actions and words instead of the other way around. In doing so, he finds that the Mother is just one more 'holy' person of dubious distinction. For me as an Indian, it is a familiar tale, as India is so full of fraudulent Gurus and Swamis who amass money, selling the idea of Liberation and Heaven to gullible devotees and followers.

Contrary to the widely-publicised image of Mother Teresa as a compassionate nun saving countless number of poor Indians from dying, Hitchens demonstrates the following to be the truth:

1. That the Calcutta charity did not like to spend its vast wealth in providing care to save the sick and dying. It rather spent the money on establishing more convents across the world, all doing similar dubious work.
2. That it was a Catholic cult based on glorifying poverty, suffering, subjection and death. The cult was focused on prosyletization above saving lives. The dying poor were allowed to die, but die as Christians, because then only Jesus would save them. Towards this end, sick and dying Indians of other faiths would be brought to the charity and baptized, often without their knowledge, as they lay awaiting death.
3. That the conditions in the so-called 'hospital' of the Calcutta charity were often unhygienic and the staff poorly trained. They re-used needles over and over and washed them in cold, tap water instead of sterilizing them. Many inmates died not because they were incurable but because the charity wouldn't spend the money necessary to save them.
4. That Mother Teresa took multi-million dollar donations from shady and dubious characters like Charles Keating, Papa doc Duvalier and others and repaid the debt by interceding on their behalf. For example, she wrote to Judge Lance Ito in support of Charles Keating, who cheated ordinary hard-working Americans to the tune of $250 million.
5. That she was just a reactionary figure who advocated the rights of the unborn child even as she let adults and children under her care die for lack of desire to spend money to save them; that she glorified poverty and suffering and denounced materialism even as she sought and accepted millions of dollars as donations.

There is a thread that links people like Mother Teresa and the other high-profile Gurus and Swamis in India. It is not a surprise that they all tend to be reactionary, have outmoded views and are mostly out of touch with the pulse of society. Most of the Gurus tend to be people who grew up in rural parts of India in the 1930s and 1940s, when the social mores were highly repressive compared to today. Women were terribly discriminated against and constrained, caste oppression was pervasive and illiteracy was rampant. These gurus would have often only had a few years of religious education which mostly reinforced such prejudices. They were often un-exposed to secular science based education. Much later, when they get anointed as Swamis by some vested interests in urban India, they bring all their baggage into their 'liberating' Ashrams. Often, men and women are severely segregated in these ashrams because that is what the gurus know society to be. They are often against women's education and empowerment. They often patronize the rich and powerful and practise caste discrimination. In a similar way, Mother Teresa grew up in a rural Albanian/Macedonian region in the 1930s and had only church-influenced education. She also never had any exposure to the enlightened European education. So, it is not a surprise that she is against contraception in an India that sought to reduce population growth. It is not a surprise that she thought that abortion is the biggest crime. It is not a surprise that she patronized frauds like Duvalier and Keating because they gave her big donations and professed themselves to be good Christians.
Christopher Hitchens has done a great service by tearing the mask of such people who think that they have a hotline to God.

The book is written in Hitchens' trade-mark style of hard-hitiing prose. One can see it even in the choice of the title. As an example, I would cite the following:
Commenting upon the decision of advice columnist Ann Landers to share one of Mother Teresa's prescriptions for improving the world ("smile more"), Hitchens writes," ...it is doubtful whether a fortune-cookie maxim of such cretinous condescension would have been chosen by even Ann Landers unless it bore the imprimateur of Mother Teresa, one of the few untouchables in the mental universe of the mediocre and the credulous".
This is vintage Christorpher Hitchens!

The book is not a polemic but a well-argued, rational critique. In fact, the foreword to the twelfth edition by Thomas Mellon sums up the book so well that one can hardly do better in a review. I loved it.
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Feb 09, 2013 Steve Cann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very interesting & revealing book - being a former Catholic myself (unsuccessfully indoctrinated as a child) I remember Mother T being held in unquestionable reverence as a living saint, but, as with most other areas of the church, the truth reveals something quite different, & more sinister.

From this book, she sounds almost like the NHS in reverse, I'd say - whereas they're starved of money & do the very best they can (with the resources they have), she had millions in the bank, y...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Cristhian Carvajal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: atheism-religion

The Missionary Position es una obra breve, de aquellas que no debiesen tomar más de una tarde. Sin embargo, Christopher Hitchens no pierde estilo, acidez ni peso en sus argumentos debido a la poca extensión.
Desde el supuesto milagro que la madre Teresa habría protagonizado en vida, pasando por las cuestionables prácticas de sus establecimientos, su ideología y contactos políticos, The Missionary Position no decepciona, muestra a un Hitchens ingenioso y categórico, el único capaz de enlodar una...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Jake rated it 2 of 5 stars

Whenever people asked me what I was reading while I was plowing through this one, the same thing always came out: "Let's just say my mother and grandmother would slap me for picking this book up." And that was no exaggeration. This book is the revealing of the fraudulent nature of one of the biggest religious icons of the last century and of the catholic church in general. I was extremely surprised to find out how much money there is to be made in the televangelism game. I'm not saying that Moth...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hitchens is true to form in this belligerent, but eye-opening look into the REAL Mother Theresa of Calcutta. I had read an interview online in which Hitchens explains his abhorrence of Mother Theresa’s conduct and mission, and he alluded to this book more than once. I had never heard anything so negative said about Mother Theresa before. I have even posted a picture of her on my Facebook page on Mother’s Day—a photo of her holding a baby closer to her face and gazing lovingly into its eyes—with...more Hitchens is true to form in this belligerent, but eye-opening look into the REAL Mother Theresa of Calcutta. I had read an interview online in which Hitchens explains his abhorrence of Mother Theresa’s conduct and mission, and he alluded to this book more than once. I had never heard anything so negative said about Mother Theresa before. I have even posted a picture of her on my Facebook page on Mother’s Day—a photo of her holding a baby closer to her face and gazing lovingly into its eyes—with the caption, “Happy Mother’s Day to all the other mothers.” But the spell might be broken for me. Hitchens, in his brash, haughty way revealed some unpleasant things about Mother Theresa’s life, conduct, and possible motives.

I will list a few things that raised concern with me immediately.

According to multiple eye-witness accounts by reporters, volunteers, nurses, doctors, and other hospitals in the area, Mother Theresa’s “Home For the Dying” in Calcutta is still pretty medieval in its technology, practice, and philosophy, despite millions upon millions of dollars being donated to her cause. What happens to all that money? No one really knows. There has been no financial audit or accountability for any of it. None. Would we allow any TV evangelist to get away with that? What charity operates that way?

Mother Theresa’s order values asceticism and austere practices to encourage spiritual concentration and sacrifice, often at the expense of physical convalescence, as evidenced by her determination to keep her charity branches and Home For the Dying in outdated conditions and a with a depressingly rigorous spiritual ethos. There are insider reports of nurses reusing needles with different patients, over-rationing simple painkillers, and medicating improperly. Some patients were allegedly denied the means for their recuperation because they were initially accepted as dying, and spiritual security became the primary concern. According to one Sister, Mother Theresa trained the caretakers to whisper to someone who was dying, asking if they wanted a ‘ticket to heaven.’ If the patient answered in the affirmative, the Sister would pretend to wipe their heads with a wet cloth, but would be silently and secretly baptizing them.

Mother Theresa was an aggressive advocate for the Catholic Church and campaigned tirelessly to reduce abortion and, ironically enough, birth control. Upon arriving in countries where political unrest and government cruelty ought to have been addressed, she often sidestepped the issues outside of her propagandist agenda with a simple injunction for the victims to ‘forgive, forgive, forgive.’
She accepted monetary donations from corporate magnates and political campaigns, regardless of their materialistic values or exploitive/abusive treatment of others. When wealthy persons that had given to her cause were convicted of embezzlement, she refused to answer requests for a return of the money to investors who had been swindled. Not quite the Zaccheus admirer! Yet, little if any of this money was used to improve the conditions of her own Calcutta, which, as Hitchens suggests, might have been motivated by Theresa’s interest in preserving the deplorable condition of her city’s ‘poor’ to remain the poster children for her religious crusade.

Hitchens makes a compelling case that Mother Theresa was no saint with completely pure motives, but rather a Catholic fundamentalist who may have been more concerned about proselytization than helping the poor and healing the sick. She was obviously passionate about establishing monastic orders (convents) with her name stamped on it, and may have been swayed by this honor more than we are comfortable admitting.

I guess in a way I wanted to believe in her based on her reputation alone, and this is what Hitchens jumps all over. “I began the project of judging Mother Theresa’s reputation by her actions and words rather than her actions and words by her reputation.” Nice play. I don’t believe with Hitchens that she was a terrible person…but a saint? I’m not sure the book answers all the questions for me entirely, but then again, the questions were never there before. I think the author’s work goal of planting doubt via this 100-pager was accomplished. Even without swallowing whole every ‘fact’ I read in this book, I am left to infer that Mother Theresa may quite possibly have been either naïve, cunning, or careless as she campaigned to popularize her beliefs and her order rather than mostly focusing on the suffering and dying as we usually assume. I don’t doubt she has done some good in this world—in fact it would be difficult, if not impossible, to say she didn’t help at all—but these kinds of works do a great job of challenging the masses blind acceptance of a religious icon.

So, the question remains, was Mother Theresa trying to improve the condition of the poor and ill, or merely trying to serve her own egoistic mission, even if part unconsciously, of propagating Catholic doctrine, striving for sainthood, and establishing orders with her brand. Her own words might be most incriminating:

“I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot…I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor.”

Easy for her to say.
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Apr 09, 2008 Dmitri rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone but the staunchest Catholics.

Shelves: polemics

This book, written before Hitchens drank the Cool-Aid and re-discovered himself as a conservative---or perhaps discovered that conservatives pay larger speaking honorariums---is the only objective treatment I have seen of the subject. "Mother Teresa" has become a synonym in modern culture, however, after reading this book I would challenge any open-minded reader to justify that synonym's current meaning.

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Sep 20, 2011 Ben Benson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I kept making some excuses of Mother Teresa while reading this book, questioning whether she really deserved this attack or not. Then, Mr. Hitchen's wrote that he approached the topic by judging her based on her actions and words and letting that define how he viewed her rather than basing his view on the myth around her and adjusting her words and actions to the myth and I realize I was doing the later of the two. I was letting the societal notion/image of her hold more weight than her words an...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Dave Edwards rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A neat idea and the tenacity of Christopher Hitches throughout the text is something to behold.

Then writing itself is overly verbose whilst labouring what should be a relatively concise and simple argument that would be more suited to a short essay.

In sum: Mother Teresa's life was not a selfless act but the actions of a person focused on personal recognition, influence, advancing the interests of her faith and ensuring her path to heaven. She maintained hateful prejudice whilst being far more...more

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Sep 24, 2012 George rated it 4 of 5 stars

A quick read. I assume Christopher Hitchens assembled most of this material when he acted as Devil's Advocate against the canonization of Mother Teresa. The case is simple. Mother Teresa did a very poor job caring for the poor. Visitors to her Calcutta Home for the Dying could quickly see the operation didn't provide even the most basic needs (e.g. painkillers, antibiotics). This despite her willingness to appear in the press with wealthy donors even though they were crooks, frauds, and dictator...more

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