Penn Vs. Mother Teresa
07:52 AM PT, Apr 12 2006
So, what does magician Penn Jillette have against Mother Teresa and why would anyone want him dead over it? An AP story reports a CBS radio affiliate near San Francisco fired its host, John London (as well as a sports reporter and producer) for offering a $5,000 bounty on the head of Penn Jillette --the talking half of Rio's headliners Penn & Teller. "If he suffers, I'll make it $7,000," London reportedly said on air. London was apparently infuriated by comments Jillette made about Mother Teresa on the magician's own syndicated talk show. London tells the AP: "I was sickened by it. What he said wasn't satire. He raped her morally, when she couldn't respond." Among other things, Jillette offered the opinion that Paris Hilton was too moral a person to play Mother Teresa apparently describing the iconic nun as a fraud. Of course, even as satire, offering a bounty on the life of another human being is a great reason to lose your job. But left unanswered in the story is why a Las Vegas headliner would be saying such things about, of all people, Mother Teresa?Let me start out by saying that I have never discussed this topic with Penn; still, I think I can answer that question. Readers of the Buffet will remember that Penn is a very active member of the skeptic community. In fact, every year Penn helps host a convention of like minded thinkers: The Amazing Meeting at the Stardust. Two years ago I reported on the Amazing Meeting. One of the speakers was gadfly thinker Christopher Hitchens (who slammed Mother Teresa in his comments). Wanting to interview them both I vividly recall just how much time Hitchens and Jillette spent speaking to each other (as opposed to with me---a reporter's lot). Hitchens article "The Ghoul of Calcutta" in the "Nation" as well as his book on Mother Teresa, "The Missionary Position," both lay out a case against Mother Teresa: from her fundraising with dictators to her views on contraception. Agree or disagree with Hitchens' conclusions, his arguments are rationale and backed up by research. And, I am not the only one who thinks so: the Vatican does, too. Hitchens told me during our interview that for Mother Teresa's beatification the Vatican called on him to make the case against it. In fact, for trivia buffs, Hitchens served the role for the Vatican traditionally known as the Devil's Advocate (though the position had already been abolished officially). I doubt the Vatican agreed with Hitchens' conclusions but they heard him out and certainly would not have done so if they thought his view was a "moral rape" of the late nun.
Anyway, I would be shocked if Jillette's criticisms of Mother Teresa were not rooted in Hitchens' arguments. The only headliner in Vegas who may be as well read as Penn is Teller. So, before anyone else complains or threatens the life of Penn Jillette for bashing Mother Teresa, realize you are probably fighting a proxy battle with a decade old book by Christopher Hitchens. Penn is merely agreeing with it. And, so rather than be outraged and call Penn names, you should explain to Penn why Hitchens is wrong. I've interviewed Penn a lot and I vouch that he is a very rationale guy and, if you have the better arguments, I bet you can even change Penn's mind. So, good luck with that. As for Hitchens, people seem to want to kill him for all sorts of reasons, so just take a number.
photo from Showtime
Bookmark it:   |
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83452364969e200d83428e8c253ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Penn Vs. Mother Teresa:
Penn and Hitchens are both outspoken atheists - which takes a lot of courage in Bush's America.
Alas, Penn is a Bush ally on public spending on health, education, and welfare (against).
And Hitchens is a Bush ally on invading and occupying Iraq (for).
I think Penn and Hitchens are both highly irrational in a lot of their views.
Posted by: Maui Dude | April 18, 2006 at 02:16 PM
Penn and the psychopath hitchens make a good couple...hatred for mother theresa? are you kidding..you cant find worse people to rank on? Who are these sick anti religious christophobe bigots? Pure scum is my answer. They hate Christianity about as much as stalin did who by the way was an atheist and murdered millions of christians.....and of course the 3 worlds biggest mass murderers were atheist..imagine that......lets face it here these two deranged maniacs have no good argument....they are scared that perhaps there is an authority figure like perhaps a supreme being after you die that might judge ones soul...this is all personal...cant you people tell? Their bigotry is so deep its sick....so they bash Mother Theresa and other good decent people on earth while they do nothing charitable for mankind.....So if Christpher scum Hitchens is so concerned with poverty ..how come unlike mother Theresa he does nothing about it......
Shame on you disgusting cowardly bigots....its the atheists who i have always found hateful and intolerant not most Christians and Im not even religious.......... Hitchens..your nothing but an athiest hate monger pigheaded disgusting terd..when i look at you i want to puke in your face......and Penn your another atheist fanatic who cant stand goodness....your all sick!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: commonsense2 | May 18, 2007 at 03:01 AM
Sadly, Penn (and Hitchens) are correct. Without evil intent, Mother Teresa contributed to misery in the world. Apparently in sympathy with the suffering of Jesus, she came to believe that suffering brings one closer to God. Consequently, the poor patients in her care facilities (I cannot call them hospitals) were denied the simplest pain relief. Not only were they denied major analgesics (Morphine, Demerol) but even aspirin.
Forcing cancer patients to endure horrible pain in their last days, even if she believed it was good for their souls, justifies the comments of Jillette and Hitchens.
Buzz
Posted by: Blair Barnett | May 20, 2007 at 12:54 PM
Actually Hutchin's point was that Mother Teresa didn't help people and he has sources aka proof that what he says is true! (I read the book The Missionary Position today) In regards to your 3 biggest mass murderers it is important to remember that although Mao and Stalin were atheists they also set up cults around themselves and Hitler was a Catholic. Oh, and as always you are forgeting Japan. Remember how they hit China? Torture, rape, bio warfare, how many millions was that?... all in the name of Buddism, Japan and their God-Emporer (they made Warhammer 40K look cheery).
By the way commonsense2, nice arguement. You apparently don't understand irony though. You realize that your entire speech doesn't contain one what do you call them?... oh right FACTs. If you don't do anything, but swear like a druken monkey, atheists are going to win by default. Of course I could just ask someone to define God, but it is more fun to show them how all their arguements are wrong at the same time.
Posted by: Samuel Skinner | September 26, 2007 at 07:27 PM
rational is the word the author is looking for. rationale is an argument for a case, rational is an adjective.
Posted by: Phant | March 18, 2009 at 11:21 PM