Nuns Who Worked with Mother Teresa Recount Her "Cult" in Podcast Series
She was a sinner, not a saint.
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Atheists have long been aware of the disturbing truth of Mother Teresa and the cult she called the “Missionaries of Charity,” in large part thanks to Christopher Hitchens, who wrote a whole book on how she delighted over furthering the suffering of the sick and the poor. Had he lived to hear the latest revelations on the monstrous saint, Hitchens could have doubled his page count in a revised edition.
In a 2016 New York Times article critical of Mother Teresa, Dr. Aroup Chatterjee deeming her missionary work a “cult of suffering” that included tying kids to beds and giving dying patients only aspirin to deal with their pain.
In 2018, two women who worked for Mother Teresa’s organization were arrested for allegedly selling a baby— which turned out to not be an isolated crime at the Missionaries of Charity.
And now, a new podcast called “The Turning” puts a spotlight on Mother Teresa’s tormenting missionary work. It features two nuns who worked by her side. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times spoke with them:
“The Missionaries of Charity, very much, in so many ways, carried the characteristics of those groups that we easily recognize as cults,” [former nun Mary] Johnson told me. “But because it comes out of the Catholic Church and is so strongly identified with the Catholic Church, which on the whole is a religion and not a cult, people tend immediately to assume that ‘cult’ doesn’t apply here.”
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The former sisters describe an obsession with chastity so intense that any physical human contact or friendship was prohibited; according to Johnson, Mother Teresa even told them not to touch the babies they cared for more than necessary. They were expected to flog themselves regularly — a practice called “the discipline” — and were allowed to leave to visit their families only once every 10 years.
She detailed her first self-flagellation session to [host Erika] Lantz, remembering how the bundle of cords she was given left her upper thighs streaked with red and white lines. In the bathroom stall next to her, there was another, more experienced nun doing the same thing.
This shocked Lantz, who said that the effects of that kind of trauma, even if self-inflicted, are lasting for many of the former sisters.
Preacher Andrew Wommack doesn’t grasp how higher suicide rates among LGBTQ people are due NOT to their orientation/identity but to bigots like him.
Earlier this year, Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch and Boarding School founders Boyd Householder and his wife Stephanie Householder were arrested and charged with 100+ counts of abuse, including sexual abuse, against at least 16 girls in their care. Now their pastor, Rev. Jerry Pyle, is fundraising to pay the Householders’ legal fees to “clear their names of these false, demonic accusations.” Perhaps prosecutors should look into Pyle’s own ministry if he’s so willing to defend extensive abuse of this nature.
Pastor Greg Locke was doing damage control earlier this week before a CNN segment in which a family blamed him for the COVID death of a relative.
When the segment finally aired tonight, it was as devastating as expected.The pastor preaching lies about Covid-19 and vaccines and the family grieving the loss of the loved one that went to his church and believed the mistruths with deadly consequences. @elspethreeve reports from Tennessee.Locke wouldn’t speak with CNN, which means they used sermon clips like the one below in which he urges his congregation to avoid vaccines:
Right-wing pastor Greg Locke told his congregation not to get the COVID vaccine and offered to provide a "religious exemption" to anyone who wants to sue their employer for requiring vaccination.As if FDA approval would mean anything to him anyway…
Pastor Mack Charles Andrews of United Pentecostal Church in Thomasville, Alabama is now a free man after serving only five years of a 15-year sentence after being convicted on multiple counts of raping children, including a nine-year-old girl on her father's grave. Andrews was let out on good behavior, regardless of a death threat he made to a victim five months before his release.
There’s a new rainbow colored LEGO set called “Everyone is Awesome” released just in time for PRIDE month and it’s getting attacked by all the usual Christian suspects.
Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is as comically bent out of shape by the rainbow flag as he is about the use of the word “awesome.”
… What exactly does awesome mean? Even if you understand how the word has been devalued in our society, is everyone awesome? Is everyone awesome all the time? Are you going to speak of everyone is equally awesome? Does it have anything to do with sexual identity? And as everything is awesome, everything really is awesome. I don’t think so…
Monica Cole, the one mom at One Million Moms, thinks homosexuality is a cootie you get from playing with plastic toys.
It’s apparent that even toy manufacturers are attempting to indoctrinate children by exposing them to the LGBTQ lifestyle. Why can’t Lego let kids be kids instead of glamorizing a sinful lifestyle?
Are you a writer from a marginalized group? Here’s a way to get published and get paid!
And much like you can’t catch The Gay from LEGOs, you can’t catch leprosy for calling Hank Kunneman on his BS.
Christian blogger Lori Alexander (a.k.a. “The Transformed Wife”) submits to the control of her husband and says you should “get rid of your matriarchal spirit” and let your husband control you, too. For someone who strives to have a “meek and quiet spirit,” she’s awfully demanding of other people’s relationships.
Before we could even wrap up this newsletter for the week, Alexander came back on the record to explain why feminism is “Satanic”— and by “feminism” she means any woman who's not a prisoner to her husband.
Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” has people torn over who’s right and who’s wrong: the Catholic who introduced her atheist friend to two nuns from her church and believes he should refer to them as “Sister” out of respect, or the atheist who feels his friend shouldn’t expect him to call them by a term he’s uncomfortable using.
… I asked if he knew how to address them, because he wasn’t supposed to call them by their names. He said no, but that because he’s not Catholic, he didn’t think he should have to.
I told him I believed it was nothing to do with religion, but that it was just a sign of respect and it’s how they ask to be addressed. It got a little heated — no one shouted or got out of control or anything, but the debate got a bit intense — and we couldn’t come to an agreeable answer.
His stance is that it’s forcing my beliefs on him, and that he should address the nuns however he feels comfortable, not vice versa.
My stance is that they should be addressed by the title they choose to use, out of politeness and respect.
It seems like a fair argument on either side, but perhaps factoring in your feelings on gender-confirming pronouns will help you more easily decide who to side with.
I made a video about a Christian apologist’s weird sex tweet:
A few weeks ago we told you about Kansas State Rep. Mark Samsel, a conservative Christian Republican who was arrested for kicking a student in the balls while working as a substitute teacher. We now have documents from the sheriff’s deputy that explains why Samsel assaulted the kid.
Answer? God told him to do it. Twice.As televangelist Jim Bakker lies through his teeth blaming his past imprisonment on “cancel culture,” we’d like to remind everyone that Bakker actually cancelled himself by committing multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy—which included a payment of $265,000 to cover up an affair he had.
We thought we should clear that up before Lisa Dawn Stabeno goes and blames cancel culture on her arrest for the embezzlement of over $450,000 from Church on the Rock in Texas. The money was supposed to go toward “underserved individuals,” but Stabeno instead redirected the funds to pay for personal expenses, spa visits, and vacations.
I don’t understand church humor:
This seriously happened:
A Bible for Christian Nationalists won’t be released… yet. After the tentative Christian publishers balked, you can bet it’ll find a new home. The only major change will be the translation. NIV is out. KJV is in. Not that it matters since Christian Nationalists don’t read the Bible anyway.
God works in mysterious ways, indeed.
Creationists are very excited about the collapse of Darwin’s Arch.
Preacher William Page of West Virginia has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy after members of the National Church of God noticed a phone videotaping them in the men’s restroom.
… On Apr. 28, members of the [church] Morgantown reported to deputies with the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department that “a smart phone had been placed upon a ledge above a urinal,” according to a criminal complaint.
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On the phone, deputies found “videos of two males using the restroom,” as well as “several short videos of [Page] setting up the device,” according to the complaint.
It’s a little late to break it to Page, but there are websites that cater to his kink and they don’t involve violating anyone’s consent.
Even cable news can be broken down into religious demographics, and evangelical Christians love their FOX News. Atheists, not so much.
Former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann believes the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection was a theatrical event put on by the progressive left. This “opinion” of hers seems like a great reason to encourage fellow Republicans to vote for the January 6 commission, amiright?
Finally, if you’re wondering how Josh Duggar went from starring in a reality TV show about Christian breeders to being arrested for possession of child sex abuse materials, let atheist YouTuber KimblyTea guide you through a history of red flags in Josh Duggar’s life.