The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice | 
 enlarge | Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Verso
Category: Book
List Price: $19.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 1051770
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 98
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 1859849296
Dewey Decimal Number: 271.97
EAN: 9781859849293
ASIN: 1859849296
Publication Date: December 1995
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Condition: Gently read. ID#
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Amazon.com Review
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.
Product Description
Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, feted by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and the House of Windsor, and eulogized throughout the world's media, Mother Teresa of Calcutta has entered that most select of sanctums: the house of living saints. But, as Christopher Hitchens argues, all is not as it seems in the canonization of Saint Teresa. In a searching examination of the Teresa cult, Hitchens recasts our relationship with Mother. He recounts her cosy relations with unsavoury oligarchies throughout the Third World, from the Duvalier dynasty in Haiti to Union Carbide in India. He reports on her consistent mission to the rich, including corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds. He spotlights her role as a propagandist for the most extreme views on abortion and contraception, details her dubious "special relationship" with claims of miraculous and supernatural apparitions, exposes her authoritarian rule over her acolytes, and outlines her megalomaniacal plans to found a new religious order, The Missionary Multinational. Hitchens's concludes that, far from being heaven's agent on Earth, Mother Teresa is one of hell's angels. Christopher Hitchens is the author of "Hostage to History: Cyprus from Ottoman to Kissinger", "Prepared for the Worst", "Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo American Ironies", "International Territory: Official Utopia and the United Nations" (with Adam Bartos) and "For The Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports".
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| Customer Reviews: Read 137 more reviews...
 Mother T. Revisited December 22, 2008
This little book provides an "alternate view" of the life and work of Mother Teresa. The balance it provides should be shared widely among her strongest fans as part of "setting the records (factual)" straight... that is, if one can remain objective in forming a new position with regards to her life long effort to support fundamentalist, Catholic views.
An easy read!
 "Missionary Position..." does not "straddle" the facts and is quarrelsome in tone. December 10, 2008
The portrait or montage presented to the reader appears to have been based on "reverse engineering" of the facts to support a preconceived conclusion. I agree with the saying, "Let the truth be told and the truth will make you free." Furthermore, sometimes it is better to make an observation with a wink and a nod rather than a snarl and a shout.
 Hitchens is a farce as always November 26, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
Every circus needs a clown. The American cable news have found their clown in Hitchens. Hitchens supports the war against civilians in Irak, destroys Elie Wiesel and now needs to go on a rampage against one of the fews saints of our century. A clown who does not deserve this whole circus. Shame on you Hitchens!!!
 Hitchens Earns Time in Purgatory with His 'Position' on Mother Teresa. November 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people"--Mother Teresa.
Whether you agree with Hitchens' argument or not, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice is the work of a brilliant mind. Christopher Hitchens is an Oxford-educated, free-thinking Renaissance Man: author, journalist, literary critic, columnist, polemicist, intellectual, former Trotskyist, and (as of 2007), an American citizen. Although he admires George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Joyce, Richard Dawkins, and Barack Obama, he is sharply critical of Mother Teresa, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Jerry Falwell, and Michael Moore. As demonstrated in his best-selling book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitchens is an ardent believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism, and reason. "Above all," he writes in God Is Not Great, "we are in need of a renewed Enlightenment, which will base itself on the proposition that the proper study of mankind is man, and woman . . . And all this and more is, for the first time in our history, within the reach if not the grasp of everyone" (p. 283).
Hitchens has been recognized as one of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" and "a Tom Paine for our troubled times" (The Independent, London). In his scathing critique of Mother Teresa (1910-1997), The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice (1995), Hitchens depicts Teresa as a political opportunist in the guise of a humanitarian and a saint, whose primary objective was to raise money in support of an extreme version of Catholicism. Asserting that Teresa was no "friend to the poor," Hitchens condemns Mother Teresa's organization, the Missionaries of Charity, as a cult primarily interested in its own financial agenda. Hitchens uses Teresa's financial associations with Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, his wife Michele Duvalier, John-Roger, Robert Maxwell, and Charles Keating (who donated $1.25 million to the Missionaries of Charity) to further support his thesis. For the record, Hitchens is not alone in his criticism of Mother Teresa, and is joined by others including Michael Parenti, Aroup Chatterjee, and Vishva Hindu Parishad in his criticism. The Sunday Times observed that Hitchen's book is "a dirty job but someone had to do it. By the end of this elegantly written, brilliantly argued piece of polemic, it is not looking good for Mother Teresa." Highly recommended for both Catholic readers and non-Catholic readers alike.
G. Merritt
Brilliant Hitchens October 27, 2008
Mr Hitchens gives, in his inimitable style, an accurate, concise and clear account of a misguided catholic nun whose only aim in life was self aggrandizement and eventual canonization, whilst offering no real help, treatment or comfort to the needy.
She takes her place next to Albert Schweitzer, another dismal failure, and many other Nobel Peace prize laureates, who obtained this meaningless prize not for any achievements, peaceful or humanitarian, but only for sly politics.
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