File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_2003/heidegger.0309, message 108


From: GEVANS613-AT-aol.com
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 06:27:28 EDT
Subject: Godt, Wahrheit und Mother Teresa


In a message dated 12/09/2003 19:05:58 GMT Daylight Time, crifasi-AT-hotmail.com 
writes:

Subj: Re:
 Date: 12/09/2003 19:05:58 GMT Daylight Time From: crifasi-AT-hotmail.com 
(Anthony Crifasi) Sender: owner-heidegger-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU Reply-to: 
heidegger-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU To: heidegger-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU

Jud wrote:
Some years ago - ten - fifteen - maybe twenty - time is relative to a 
non-Dasein, there was a two-page spread in a British Sunday newspaper by a British 
Catholic Volunteer Nurse who had been on Mother Teresa's staff in India. This 
nurse exposed the woman in a dramatic article, and said that she obviously 'got 
off' on the dying of these poor souls, and that a funny expression came over 
her face and her lips became moist in a most weird [almost sexual] way in the 
presence of death. That apart, the reason she left was that MT in spite of the 
millions of pounds she received in donations, deliberately withheld the 
provision of pain-killing drugs from the dying in spite of the protestations of the 
assistants, saying that it was 'God's Will' , etc., and even on occasions 
withheld drugs from those whose lives could have been saved from their use.

Anthony Crifasi:
I read this a long time ago. The best response to this was articulated by 
Christopher Hitchens himself (Free Inquiry Magazine, vol. 16, No. 4), who is 
hardly a friend of Mother Theresa:

Hitchens: 
I hesitated to cover this in my book, but I decided I had to publish that she 
has said that the suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the 
world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and 
suffering.

FI: A horrible thing to say.

Jud: 
I am intrigued to discover the basis/origins of the belief of 'many 
Christians' that the suffering of the poor is something very beautiful, and the world 
is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and 
suffering. Is it something that Christianity inherited from Judaism or is it a 
peculiarly Christian phenomena? Is the suffering of Jesus on the cross seen by 
Christians as 'beautiful?' Is this beauteous view of pain and suffering confined 
only to the poor, or are the sufferings of the well-off [say a lawyer dying of 
aids] also included in the classification of agonised yet attractive spiritual 
transportation? If MT claimed she was poor, why did she sign herself in to one 
of the most expensive clinics in USA,  when she herself was in need of 
medical treatment, and why did she as a religious role model not refuse the 
painkilling drugs she allegedly refused others, and  in  doing so help the world?

Hitchens: 
Yes, evil in fact. To say it was unChristian unfortunately would not be true, 
although many people don't realize that is what Christians believe. It is a 
positively immoral remark in my opinion, and it should be more widely known 
than it is. It wasn't so much that it showed that her facilities weren't any 
good, but it showed that they weren't medical facilities at all. There wasn't any 
place she runs that she could go; as far as I know, their point isn't 
treatment. And in fairness to her, she has never really claimed that treatment is the 
point. Although she does accept donations from people who have fooled 
themselves into thinking so, I haven't found any occasion where she has given a false 
impression of her work. 

Jud:
If a rich man dying of cancer and selfishly eager to participate in 
'something very beautiful' and being keen to 'help the world' in a show of nobility by 
the example of his misery and suffering - gave away all his money, could he 
attain this state? Would his selfish motives debar him from this bliss and 
therefore negate the enjoyment of the spiritual experience of the rapturous 
observers around his bed? Is the suffering of the poor as something very beautiful, 
beautiful only to those that suffer it,  or only to the onlookers, or do both 
sufferer and onlooker enjoy the show equally?  If death is so beautiful and 
efficacious for the world, why hide the act away in hospices - why not wheel the 
dying out onto balconies or viewing platforms and parade them there for all to 
see? The arm-waving supplications of the dying, as screaming in pain they 
begged for painkillers might then be interpreted as friendly, nonchalant waves of 
goodbye, or triumphal gestures of self-satisfied  spiritual bliss?
Is the acceptance of pain relief an unrighteous act on the part of the poor?  
If it is not a sin or an unChristian act for a poor person to accept pain 
relief, then is the person who denies that relief a sinner? Maybe some Pope has 
pontificated upon this point, for any uncertainty must set up conflicts in the 
minds of Catholic nurses and doctors - whether to help the patient with 
analgesics,  or whether to help the greater world of human society by throwing wide 
the ward doors and inviting the public in to watch the painful exits of the 
patients? 

Hitchens: : 
Yes, evil in fact. To say it was unChristian unfortunately would not be true, 
although many people don't realize that is what Christians believe. It is a 
positively immoral remark in my opinion, and it should be more widely known 
than it is. It wasn't so much that it showed that her facilities weren't any 
good, but it showed that they weren't medical facilities at all. There wasn't any 
place she runs that she could go; as far as I know, their point isn't 
treatment. And in fairness to her, she has never really claimed that treatment is the 
point. Although she does accept donations from people who have fooled 
themselves into thinking so, I haven't found any occasion where she has given a false 
impression of her work. 


Jud:
If the suffering of the poor is something very beautiful to the faithful, 
[and I suspect something very nasty in the Heideggerian woodshed here too] and 
the world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of 
wretchedness and anguish, why does not the Catholic Church encourage the 
disestablishment of social welfare schemes that assist the poor and the suffering and those 
in pain? Surely if from a Christian point of view, the world is being very 
much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering, the more 
examples of human pain and suffering we are exposed to the better? Perhaps if the 
poor, sick and the dying were allowed to lie on the pavements of Times Square 
or Sunset Boulevard and pedestrians had to step over them as the entered the 
expensive shops, it would provide a constant reminder of the earthly 
exquisiteness of sordid death and excruciating pain, which the lucky sufferers will 
soon escape as the ascend upwards in a heavenward direction?

=================
Anthony Crifasi

__
Cheers,

Jud.

<A HREF="http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/ ">http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/</A> 
Jud Evans - ANALYTICAL INDICANT THEORY.
<A HREF="http://uncouplingthecopula.freewebspace.com">http://uncouplingthecopula.freewebspace.com</A>


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