Book Musings: Finding Calcutta

I'm reading Finding Calcutta: What Mother Teresa Taught Me About Meaningful Work and Service. It is very interesting, written by a professor in her mid forties, about the semester she spent in India. In this books, she frequently address criticisms and accusations against Mother Teresa. When I first read her quoting from Mother's Teresa's biggest critic, a man by the name of Christopher Hitchens, I was shocked. Seriously, you feel the need to criticize Mother Teresa? And then I was just saddened. It seems like the perfect example of the brokenness in our world, that someone would think they were somehow doing something noble in criticizing a woman who dedicated her life to serving the poor.

Another one of her critics, Germaine Greer, called her the "glamour girl of poverty" and said that the Missionaries did nothing to cure poverty in the world, rather just help individual people. Not to get all "starfish on the sand" on you but how can you attack someone for helping people? It makes me want to yell at them, "And what have you done to help anyone?" I suppose Mother Teresa's wouldn't really approve of that attitude...

I was telling Ian that I wanted to get the book by Hitchens, titled The Missionary Position (which I find very offensive), but he cautioned me that it would probably only make me angry. I'm sure that's true. But in church today, when one of the leaders in our church was praying for our congregation, he confessed on behalf of us all that some of us are too angry, and some of us are not angry enough. Perhaps I should be stirred more to the injustices of this world...