Re: Martin Luther King Jr
Re: Martin Luther King Jr
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Poster children and sacred cows like Martin Luther King Jr and Mother Teresa make good case studies in how not to follow Christ.
King is an example of an ordained minister gone off-reservation, and Teresa is an example of a missionary gone abroad under her own steam.
Of the two, I'd have to say that Teresa was the more pathetic; as she complained in private letters to her spiritual counselors:
"I am told God loves me; and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul."
"The place of God in my soul is blank-- There is no God in me"
"I feel He does not want me, He is not there, God does not want me"
"When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. How painful is this unknown pain-- I have no faith."
Teresa also complained of feeling abandoned by Christ-- referring to him as "the absent one"
It turns out Teresa was a remarkable actor. Her public image bore no resemblance whatsoever to the secret life of her inner being.
Q: How can you honestly say that Mother Teresa went abroad as a missionary under her own steam? She founded the Missionaries of Charity with the full permission and blessing of her church.
A: When a missionary complains of a disconnect with God as severe as Teresa's list of complaints in this post, they are abroad under their own steam regardless of a church's blessing.
Teresa's perpetual darkness, her spiritual dryness, her feelings of abandonment, the absence of even the faintest glimmer of The Lord's presence, her lack of faith, and her pretense, are especially inconsistent with the apostle Paul-- whom I believe to be a far more reliable role model for missionaries than Teresa was even on her best day.
Teresa was never really convinced there's a God out there. At one point she actually prayed thus:
"If there be God; please forgive me."
A prayer that begins with "If there be God" is the prayer of an agnostic; which Webster's defines as one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. According to Jas 1:5-8, agnostic prayers are pings.
To her credit, Teresa wanted a God to be out there, but her utter failure to feel even the slightest glimmer of the Lord's presence prevented her from being sure about it.
"The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God. In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God; and that He does not really exist."
That kind of spiritual decadence is fatal; not only to missionaries, but to anyone else in the same condition.
● Heb 11:6 . .Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists.
Webster's defines "impossible" as incapable of being, or of occurring.
Webster's defines "must" as an indispensable item; viz: essential.
Ironically, a demon's level of faith is actually superior to Teresa's. At least they believe in the existence of God.
● Jas 2:19-20 . . You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe
I simply cannot approve a missionary whose iffy belief in the existence of God doesn't even measure up to the quality of a demon's belief.
FYI: Teresa's quotes were taken from:
Mother Teresa / Come Be My Light
The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta"
Edited with commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C.
ISBN 978-0-385-52037-9
NOTE: In the final weeks of her life, Teresa was unsettled and disturbed. At the urging of Henry D'Souza, the Archbishop of Calcutta (a.k.a. Kolkata), she agreed to an exorcism-- performed by Father Rosario Stroscio --if perchance demons in the vicinity were clouding her mind.
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