{"id":543473,"date":"2021-05-27T17:51:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T21:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=543473"},"modified":"2021-05-27T17:51:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T21:51:06","slug":"was-mother-teresa-a-cult-leader-debunking-the-new-york-times-latest-hit-piece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/was-mother-teresa-a-cult-leader-debunking-the-new-york-times-latest-hit-piece\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Was Mother Teresa a Cult Leader?\u2019: Debunking The New York Times\u2019 Latest Hit Piece"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwas-mother-teresa-a-cult-leader-debunking-the-new-york-times-latest-hit-piece%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=543473&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-83910379.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Amidst a surge of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/tiktok-intifada-videos-of-violent-mobs-attacking-jews-sweep-the-internet\">anti-Semitic violence<\/a> in the streets and legislation restricting freedom of conscience in Congress, a new piece published by the New York Times claims to have identified a little-recognized purveyor of violence: Mother Teresa.<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper featured a column about the deceased, sainted servant of dying lepers titled \u201cWas Mother Teresa a Cult Leader?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mother Teresa, who is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, founded the Missionaries of Charity to serve lepers abandoned in the gutters of Calcutta, India. Malcolm Muggeridge launched the self-effacing nun into international prominence through a 1968 interview, attracting donations and women from around the world exploring their vocations. Some found they were not meant to be nuns, or considered the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience too restrictive.<\/p>\n<p>The article by NYT opinion writer and frequent MSNBC contributor Michelle Goldberg described the order as \u201ca hive of psychological abuse and coercion\u201d and highlighted the testimony of former nuns who say they consider the sacrifices required by the monastic order Mother Teresa founded to be overly demanding.<\/p>\n<p>The column objects to the three central pillars of all monastic life: poverty, chastity, and obedience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always went out two by two. We were never allowed just to walk out and do something,\u201d said former nun Mary Johnson (no relation) in a new, 10-part podcast series titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/1119-the-turning-the-sisters-w-82262169\/\">The Turning: The Sisters Who Left<\/a>,\u201d which Goldberg\u2019s column <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/05\/21\/opinion\/mother-teresa.html\">summarized<\/a>. Traveling by twos is a standard practice for virtually every religious order \u2014 all the moreso in areas of concentrated crime and poverty, like the areas Mother Teresa\u2019s order serves. The practice is so well-known that it formed the basis of an archaic <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jokes4us.com\/religiousjokes\/nunjokes.html\">anti-Catholic joke<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The nuns had \u201can obsession with chastity,\u201d Goldberg wrote, in part because monastic leaders encouraged the sisters not to touch anyone longer than necessary. That is more lenient than broadly accepted definitions of sexual harassment trainings, which forbid \u201ctouching an employee\u2019s clothing, hair, or body,\u201d according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/womenwatch\/osagi\/pdf\/whatissh.pdf\">guidelines<\/a> published by the United Nations\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unwomen.org\/en\/about-us\/about-un-women\">agency<\/a> \u201cdedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women,\u201d UN Women.<\/p>\n<p>The podcast\u2019s narrator, Erika Lantz, similarly <a href=\"https:\/\/86cf772b-636c-4c63-9823-d21058477845\/Cobra%20Kai\">complained<\/a> that the monastic vow of obedience \u2014 where a monk or nun vows to carry out the instructions of a more experienced monastic known as an abbott or abbess \u2014 creates \u201ca power dynamic.\u201d No one should be surprised that the rejection of meritocracy and excellence has carried over to the spiritual realm.<\/p>\n<p>The column\u2019s most graphic claim is that, as part of their ascetic practices to tame the flesh, the nuns practice self-flagellation (whipping themselves). Although the practice has mostly disappeared from Catholicism, Pope John Paul II <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/uk_news\/magazine\/8375174.stm\">reportedly<\/a> practiced it; he, too, has been canonized as a saint.<\/p>\n<p>Yet self-flagellation, which was once common to the world\u2019s three great religions, is still widely employed in some parts of the world. On the Islamic holiday of Ashura, Muslims in many nations still practice a form of self-flagellation known as <em>tatbir<\/em>, where they sometimes \u201cuse whips and chains \u2026 to punish their bodies,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/why-some-muslims-self-flagellate-on-this-religious-holiday_n_57fd4ae7e4b044be3015c5eb\">reported<\/a> HuffPost. Others cut their foreheads with knives, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/11\/05\/world\/middleeast\/bloody-and-belittled-shiite-ritual-draws-historic-parallels-in-iraq.html\">according<\/a> to the New York Times.<\/p>\n<p>Judaism once adopted a form of this discipline, as well. \u201c[T]he practice of self-flagellation became commonplace on the day before Yom Kippur both in Europe and in the Arab world. Jewish men would \u2026 whip their own backs, usually 39 times,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/jewish\/10-things-you-didn-t-know-about-kippur-1.5332142\">reported<\/a> <em>Haaretz <\/em>in 2013. Today, Haredim (\u201dultra-Orthodox\u201d) Jews <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C8dnVZpDPgw\">lightly<\/a> \u201cwhip\u201d one another in the Malkot ceremony <a href=\"https:\/\/www.efe.com\/efe\/english\/patrocinada\/israeli-orthodox-jews-gear-up-for-yom-kippur-holiday-with-atonement-rituals\/50000268-3753448\">before<\/a> Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n<p>Goldberg does not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=ashura+OR+self-flagellation+Muslims+OR+Sunni+OR+Shiite+%22Michelle+Goldberg%22&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;ei=WCOtYOSLB4-8tAaSoZq4Bw&amp;oq=ashura+OR+self-flagellation+Muslims+OR+Sunni+OR+Shiite+%22Michelle+Goldberg%22&amp;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BAgAEB46BggAEBYQHjoICAAQsQMQiwM6BQgAEIsDOgIIADoFCAAQhgM6CAgAEBYQChAeUKYeWKupAWDDqgFoAXACeAGAAfcCiAHgPJIBCTUwLjE4LjIuMpgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXq4AQLAAQE&amp;sclient=gws-wiz&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjkl72EnuXwAhUPHs0KHZKQBncQ4dUDCA0&amp;uact=5\">appear<\/a> to have addressed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=self-flagellation+OR+Malkot+jewish+OR+judaism++%22michelle+goldberg%22&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;ei=NCStYLqLE9K1tAbRrZXgBQ&amp;oq=self-flagellation+OR+Malkot+jewish+OR+judaism++%22michelle+goldberg%22&amp;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EANQxBpY7C9g4DBoA3AAeACAAWSIAbsJkgEEMTMuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrAAQE&amp;sclient=gws-wiz&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi69bztnuXwAhXSGs0KHdFWBVwQ4dUDCA0&amp;uact=5\">either<\/a> subject.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the New York Times columnist blew the lid off the 1,700-year-old institution of monasticism, which she rhetorically equated with Jonestown, the Branch Davidians, and Heaven\u2019s Gate:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"10\">\n<p><em>It raises the question of whether the difference between a strict monastic community and a cult lies simply in the social acceptability of the operative faith. \u2026 Viewed through a contemporary, secular lens, a community built around a charismatic founder and dedicated to the lionization of suffering and the annihilation of female selfhood doesn\u2019t seem blessed and ethereal. It seems sinister.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But while the podcast uses the term \u201ccult\u201d about the order, \u201c[i]t doesn\u2019t necessarily mean those women thought they were in a cult,\u201d Lantz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2021\/05\/19\/the-turning-the-dark-side-of-mother-teresas-order-according-to-nuns-who-left\/\">admitted<\/a>. The ex-nuns actually said their \u201creverence towards Mother Teresa was absolutely warranted.\u201d One sister told Lantz that Mother Teresa \u201cwas so close to God and you knew it when she was there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Goldberg has jumped the gun calling organizations cultic in the past. In July 2016, she <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2016\/07\/the-republican-party-is-out-of-ideas-it-is-now-purely-a-cult-of-personality.html\">wrote<\/a>, \u201cThe GOP is now purely a cult of personality.\u201d In August 2018, Goldberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/watch-panelist-msnbc-suggests-trump-wants-round-frank-camp\">told<\/a> MSNBC\u2019s Katy Tur that Donald Trump would \u201ccertainly like to\u201d start rounding people up and murdering them.<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, Goldberg could not resist tying Mother Teresa\u2019s alleged cult to the modern-day Republican Party. \u201cThere is the surge of interest in cults, likely driven by the fact that for four years America was run by a sociopathic con man with a dark magnetism who enveloped a huge part of the country in a dangerous alternative reality,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Goldberg\u2019s poison-pen column is far from the first assault on Mother Teresa\u2019s image, as she noted. Catholic leaders at the time critiqued Christopher Hitchens for lambasting the nun in a 1995 book titled The Missionary Position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour entire book on Mother Teresa reeks of phony scholarship: no index, no footnotes or endnotes, no checkable sources, no evidence,\u201d Catholic League President Bill Donohue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicleague.org\/christopher-hitchens-vs-bill-donohue\/\">told<\/a> Hitchens during a debate in 2000. \u201cIf I were your college teacher, I\u2019d have to give it an \u2018F.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That response is not new to followers of Jesus. He once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John%2016%3A33&amp;version=KJV\">said<\/a>, \u201cIn the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world\u201d (John 16:33).<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amidst a surge of anti-Semitic violence in the streets and legislation restricting freedom of conscience in Congress, a new piece published by the New York Times claims to have identified &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2313328,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-83910379.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Was Mother Teresa a Cult Leader?\u2019: Debunking The New York Times\u2019 Latest Hit Piece","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-83910379.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Was Mother Teresa a Cult Leader?\u2019: Debunking The New York Times\u2019 Latest Hit Piece","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2313328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}