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The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.
August 31st, 2007
This is one of my favorite maxims, because it’s so very, utterly, infallibly true.
And in heavy rotation these days, as well, what with moral-majority public servants Larry Craig and Bob Allen getting caught cruising public men’s restrooms for sex, and David Vitter exposed as a long-time patron of prostitutes.
The holier one proclaims their morality, the deeper their hole of denial.
Is it a coincidence that the recent best examples of such holey people are prominent members of a political party famous for its avowed mission to make us all good God-fearing constituents, come hell or high water?
I think not.
In fact, a careful analysis of the data indicates that the number of faith-based initiatives introduced by Congress increases in tandem with the number of closeted kinksters and homos elected to office.
Then just when it seems Republican WMO’s* have a corner on secret lives, the dark side of Mother Theresa puts them in a whole new, er, light.
The recent publication of Mother Theresa’s letters reveals a very different person than the one we all assumed we knew. The venerable nun who for so long epitomized the ideal of living in the light of God was in fact tormented by a “spiritual darkness,” a major crisis of faith, the entire time she worked in the Calcutta slum.
Yet another light-seeker living in shadow.
The difference is that Mother Theresa did not repress her pain and blame it on someone else. If, as some theorize, Mother Theresa figured out in her heart of hearts that there is no God, she did not preach fire and brimstone whilst secretly trysting with atheists in public bathrooms.
And so I say to Larry, Bob, David, and all people blindly flinging their emotional shit around in pathetic seizures of denial: Learn from the tiny woman from Macedonia. If you must feel that God has forsaken you, fine, but don’t make the rest of us unwilling actors in your passion play.
Pray to your God. Start a kick-me-I’m-gay support group. Go on a spiritual quest to the Island of Misfit Boys. Do whatever you need to do to learn to accept yourself, or at least to tolerate yourself quietly until you finally die and go to hell.
Just stop trying to find absolution by persecuting others who are just like you.
As the less-pious-than-we-thought-but-probably-more-practical Mother Theresa might have said: Deal Second stall from the wall.
*White Male Oppressors
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UPDATE: It’s been brought to my attention by some Readers, and supported by credible sources, that Mother Theresa may, in fact, have flung a little shit in her time. While I’ve never been under the delusion that MT was perfect, upon pondering this further, I’ve concluded she’s perhaps less of a role model for dealing than previously stated. Thus I have made a minor edit to my original post.
Technorati Tags: Mother Theresa, religion, Larry Craig, Bob Allen, David Vitter, hypocrisy
Filed under Religious Batshit, Rib Rants |4 Responses to “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.”
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Teresa, nee Agnes, was no stranger to hypocrisy herself. She was a buddy of the Duvallier family of Haiti, and Charles Keating and other thieves of the U.S. When she needed medical treatment, she went to California, and as far as I know, didn’t refuse pain meds. She withheld pain alleviation from her patients in her clinics in Calcutta, telling the dying to “offer it up” — an R.C. euphemism for “suck it up.”
Now it turns out that she didn’t even really believe all that hogwash she imposed on others. Maybe she just believed women, except for herself, were inferior beings. She saw breeding as women’s purpose. She firmly opposed birth control, abortion, and even simply saying “no.”
The original idea behind my post was that MT was not crusading against the things that she herself was doing. Pain meds notwithstanding, I still don’t think she imposed on others things that she didn’t believe.
MT did have a dark night of the soul, but she never stopped “believing in God,” at least consciously. Her letters show that she firmly believed he was out there somewhere, just ignoring her.
On the other hand, MT did oppose most forms of Rib Lib, whilst conveniently enjoying many freedoms that are impossible without it. A hypocrite is still a hypocrite, no matter how wizened and cute they are.
Very interesting. I’d heard about the letters exposing her lack of faith but chalked that up to the typical struggle of someone who sees so many ungodly things. But I didn’t realize she was living a life of luxury (ie coming to the states for medical treatment). I was under the impression she was living right along side the poor that she was tending to.
Having said that, I have to say that I admire a person even more knowing they had an internal struggle and still devoted themselves to a life of giving.
Part of the human condition: Collectively, we put R.C’s and WMO’s and pretty blond celebrities and fresh-faced politicians and TV Self Help gurus, etc. on pedestals. We praise them for all we see in them that we long for for ourselves. Then, after we get bored, we knock ‘em on their asses for being human like the rest of us schmucks. (Okay, help me here.. what’s the correct plural form of ‘ass’.. assi?)