comes up with such frequency in
poignancy as Mother Teresa I mean come
on
most people think her first name is
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is an
international icon representing
simplicity humanitarianism and
benevolence yet Teresa
despite her long list of charitable
efforts is responsible for an equally
long list of acts that’s aren’t so
admirable these range from not providing
proper medical care at her clinics some
say for her belief that suffering
brought one closer to God to baptizing
Hindu patients into Catholicism against
their will now I was raised Catholic so
I grew up surrounded by almost constant
adulation for Teresa and countless
others like this is because one of the
things that separates Catholicism from
the other sects of Christianity and many
other religions is the practice of
deifying mortal individuals canonization
making somebody a saint
this happened to Teresa last September
but this practice isn’t unique to
Catholicism it happens all the time in
secular culture our culture is inundated
with veneration of individuals it’s
because celebrities especially
historical ones make good symbols to
represent ideas lifestyles and movements
at first this seems to work well as it
makes for effective imagery consider
Tesla representing innovation Gandhi
representing nonviolent protest and
Theresa representing charity however in
a world where ideas are concrete’s and
individuals are in a more fist summation
of their actions when we Revere people
in this way we run the risk of endorsing
the worst in them after all Teresa of
Calcutta let individuals die of curable
diseases and her clinics while funding
from donations went towards building
convents mohandas gandhi sexually abused
his grandchildren
Nikola Tesla believed in eugenics along
with Helen Geller Alexander Graham Bell
and Thomas Edison and of the 56 men that
signed the Declaration of Independence a
document which asserted that all men are
created equal
41 owned African slaves this is not to
say that we should dismiss these peoples
accomplishments just the opposite
we should Revere and recognize those
accomplishments not the character of the
people behind them when we hold a
critical lens to our culture in
history’s heroes we earn a greater and
more nuanced understanding of their
actions we come back into touch with our
sense of our own humanity and perhaps
most importantly when we remove our
icons from their pedestal and can see
them objectively it then becomes our
responsibility to fill that idea now
this is no easy task
it’s tough knowing and recognizing that
the people we learn to admire or guilty
of such transgressions but if we want to
live in a truly critical informed
culture we must always be willing to put our icons on trial