It’s not my case to make. Point was stop fixating on what old white guys say. Look to the people affected by her actions and legacy. Probably some good, some bad. Up for them to decide if there was a net benefit. |
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One thing you have to keep in mind is that while the caste system is outlawed in India, the prejudices against the lowest level castes, particularly the Dalits, continue. Many Hindus still believe in reincarnation and believe that people are born Dalit because they were thoroughly evil in a past life.
A lot of the people Mother Theresa helped were Dalits. Some Indians believe that helping them is wrong. I may not phrase this correctly but basically they believe that Mother Theresa was interfering with karma. Those people dying in the gutter deserve that. A disproportionate percentage of modern day converts to Catholicism in India are Dalits. Obviously, people who know that Hinduism teaches that they shouldn't dream of a job with more status than cleaning toilets because they were evil in a past life are more likely to reject that faith than are Brahmins who believe their exalted status was earned. Many high caste Indians in the US share those prejudices and they discriminate against Dalits. It is a major problem in the tech industry which has a lot of Indians. See https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/big-techs-big-problem-also-best-kept-secret-caste-discrimination-rcna33692 |
Yes. They are called “Untouchables,” because literally no one wants to touch their bodies. Mother Theresa touched them, and helped them. |
Because they are the most vulnerable to conversion? |
Because they get threaded like trash, left to die in the gutter, and are basically discarded by their culture and society. Does that make someone “vulnerable” to rape, starvation, poverty, child abandonment, etc? Yes. |
DP. Vulnerable seems like the wrong word. You're implying they were better off believing they deserved their low status. |
| *treated not threaded |
I didn’t imply that at all. You can help people without converting them while they are under duress. It’s the exploitation of their situation that is the issue. |
| Missionary "work" should be criminal. If you're providing *requested* humanitarian aid without ANY proselytizing, that's one thing. But "mission trips" are sickening and a form of violence, imho. |
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Being the only aid group that's willing to provide hospice care to dying Dalits is hardly "exploitation." |
The dying people who showed up at her place presumably requested help. Many of them were still mobile, they could have left. |
Again, the helping isn’t the issue. It’s the proselytizing of people in vulnerable situations. |
Wasn’t that the only place for some people? They didn’t have anywhere else to go according to a PP. So vulnerable. |
Religious freedom is not a given in many parts of the world. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of the world's governments interfered with their citizens' religious worship in some way in 2019. Furthermore, although Christianity is the world's largest religion, Christians are in no way immune to persecution. For example, Islamic countries often view other religions as heretical, an affront to Allah, which is considered an extremely serious crime. Communist countries, by comparison, often outlaw all religion—which Karl Marx famously deemed the "opiate of the masses"—preferring that the government be the only authority guiding people's concept of fairness and one's role in society. 13 Countries Where Bibles Can Only Be Delivered by Illegal Covert Operations: Afghanistan Mauritania Tajikistan Iran North Korea Turkmenistan Kazakhstan Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan Somalia Yemen Maldives https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-where-christianity-is-illegal pp, if you moved to one of those countries, you would be in good compan! What an illustrious group. |