Jesus said

[Lonnie]

Jesus said a lot of things, but the one i'm interested in, is.,

'Nobody come to the Father, except through me'.

I read that to mean, you have to accept Jesus to be allowed into heaven, that may be wrong, but if its right, what happens to all the good people in the world, of a different or no religion, since humans were either created, or as I believe, evolved?.

[tompaine]

Actually with reference to the responses of Theland and Clanad, According to christopher hitchins mother theresa is (or was) an evil old woman precisely because she was a good christian. Hitchins claims she diverted funds donated to her mission to opening convents instead of opening a teaching hospital as donors expected. The charge is that it was more important for her to spread the word of christ than ease suffering. This is touched upon by Clanad highlighting evangelism. If it turned out that the way to heaven was through christianity I feel sure that MT would get fast tracked as a good christian but i'm not sure I would want to go with her:

MT Quote:
"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."

[tompaine]

Hi Mani

No, that's the impression you are given of MT but it's certainly not without challenge. Because Hitchins is a polemic Lets just concern ourselves with facts:

MT verdantly opposed contraception which could have reduced the plight of the poor in calcutta on its own.

Although she claimed to be apolitical she supported the state of emergency in india which abolished democracy for nearly 2 years and created a police state that abused human rights, tortured and imprisoned without trial.

She refused to return money she raised from charles keating after it was established that the money was stolen. That is just an example but she seemed to take money from a variety of questionable sources without question. Is that morally defensible?

She ran poor houses, not hospitals, and she funded convents with a proportion of donations. So among her primary goals were evangelism, not healing.

She met and advised rep. bob dole on his presidential candidacy (urging him to run on an antiabortion ticket). So much for the apolitical stance.

Obviously, analysing if the money raised was well spent is subjective and we can all take views. The point is that while MT was almost certainly a exemplary catholic and christian what is altogether more controversial is whether she did what's best or if sometimes her religious views led her astray..

see: http://website.lineone.net/~bajuu/index.htm