THE MISSIONARY POSITION
AfterHell’s Angel Hitchens published a small book that picked up
where the film left off. In The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory
and Practice,Hitchens hoped to elaborate on Mother Teresa and her work,
by “judging Mother Teresa’s reputation by her actions and words rather
than the actions and words by her reputation.”^5 According to Hitchens,
Mother Teresa’s shining reputation was put upon her by the millions of
people who needed to feel that someone, somewhere, is doing the things
that they are not to help the poor. Further, Hitchens charged, Mother
Teresa fed on this adoration, and, contrary to what she says, has not only
come to accept it, but expects and even demands it.
Hitchens’s book posed some troubling questions. Among other things,
Hitchens questioned how Mother Teresa spent the money she had raised.
Hitchens could find no satisfactory answer, and Mother Teresa consis-
tently refused to discuss her financial affairs. As Hitchens stated, “The de-
cision not to [fund a proper hospital], and 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.”^6
Mother Teresa’s apologists have often portrayed her as an innocent
who professes to know little of business and politics, and who is concerned
only with God and God’s will. In reality, as Hitchens points out, Mother
Teresa kept some questionable company over the years. She has received
hospitality, awards, publicity, and money from numerous persons with
overt political motives or dubious business histories such as Robert
Maxwell; the Duvaliers; President Ronald Reagan; Prime Minister Mar-
garet Thatcher; President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton; and
Charles Keating, one of the key figures in the savings and loan scandal of
the 1990s. The relationship with Keating was particularly galling. Keating
made a generous donation to Mother Teresa as well as making his private
jet available for her use. When Keating was imprisoned for fraud and em-
bezzlement, Mother Teresa petitioned the trial judge to look kindly on
him. When she received a reply from one of the prosecutors, explaining
that the $10,000 she had received from Keating was stolen from innocent
and not especially wealthy investors, Mother Teresa never answered the
letter.
Hitchens maintained that such blatant and deliberate disregard for the
truth on Mother Teresa’s part was not a sign of naiveté or even stupidity,
but rather arrogance. Claiming to be above politics, Mother Teresa also
128 MOTHER TERESA