Reactions to the Canonization of Mother Teresa have fallen in two categories - She was a proselytizing demon Vs. she was a flawless saint who saved a god forsaken people.
There's a 3rd facet to this issue - "The White Man's burden"
Several years ago a Chinese friend had pointed out this phenomenon that transcends Western foreign policy and infuses itself in various aspects of Western narrative even influencing Hollywood's portrayal of non-Western peoples. Particularly those that are racially considered non-Christian, non-White.
Mohd. Ali on the Church - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtxfTEyJZg4
Consider how this narrative played a central role in older comic heros - Tarzan, Phantom...to name two who were white men who knew more about the African jungles than the natives and who did not inter racially mate with the locals but from generation to generation (The ghost who walks) took only white spouses.
This is not to suggest that native cultures did not have their own evils or flaws. Sati (however infrequent it may have been) was an undeniable fact. But so was witch-hunting. The argument is that non-Christians did not assume the smug onus to think they needed to save other cultures from these flaws.
Once a country was converted to Christianity, even if poverty, crime and social issues persist, this narrative was toned down. (Compare the portrayal, for instance, of India's 'Rape Culture' with the widespread and decades long problem of rape on American College campuses or problem with human trafficking across Latin and North America.)
Saint Teresa is an almost perfect epitome of this narrative. A white, christian woman sacrificing her all to live with and serve a wretched, god forsaken people who have no willingness or ability to serve their own.
Saint Teresa makes white folks feel good about themselves. Though Teresa is a global brand, the same dynamic is implemented at local levels through Churches and the many social services offered.
A little known fact is that even in America, the Church is the second largest (after the government) provider of Educational and Health services.
This has allowed the Church to serve as a force multiplier for western nations.
This perfect union, persisted till the early 2000s. But two events severely dented its influence within Western Societies (and has continued to have a spillover effect on a global scale). This has led to a crisis from which Western Christianity may not recover and may survive (in the West) as an ornamental cultural paradigm devoid of the influence it has exerted for the past 2000 years.
The first event was the dawn of the information age.
The second was the widespread, global child rape scandal across the Catholic church and the shameful cover up executed by the Pope (Ratzinger) himself.
The information age has brought younger generations of Christians face-to-face with the blood soaked history of the Church. As Islamofacism grows by each passing day, Christians are coming to terms with their own similar and equally genocidal history.
This realization has led to the phenomenon of 'White Guilt' which flies in the face of the aforementioned (and centuries long) phenomenon of "White Man's Burden".
Consider the following gut-wrenching story of how the Jesuit order at Georgetown University owned and traded slaves
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/us/georgetown-university-search-for-slave-descendants.html?_r=0
Stories such as these have seen the light of day, thanks to the information age. As younger White Christians are confronted by their sordid religious, cultural history their faith has been irreversibly shaken.
The centuries long global genocide of native people in the Americas, Australia and the Asia, led and sponsored by the Church has received renewed scrutiny in the aftermath of the child rape scandal.
As victims came forward to recount these life-decimating events and the sinister role played by the highest authorities in the Church, Western smugness at 'helping' non-whites by saving them from their own cultural deficiencies took a beating.
On race, gender roles, slavery, child abuse Western Christianity has had a abysmal record that is worst than that of any of the native cultures violently uprooted and replaced by the Church.
ISIS is a twin brother to the Church circa 1500 A.D.
This is not to suggest that the West has been all evil. But it can be convincingly argued that the rise of rational thought (as against religion) that jettisoned religion to a peripheral role has played a pivotal and central role in the meteoric rise of Western societies over the past 4 centuries.
Note: Even as late as the 1800s, India and China accounted for 40-45% of global trade. Western domination is relatively recent.
Also, if Christianity was the reason behind Western success, how do you explain the abject poverty across south America and countries such as Philippines which have been Christian for several centuries.
Though Canonization of Mother Teresa may serve as a much needed boost to the Church in countries like India, Western Christianity has been in a terminal decline. And will continue this trajectory.
The way to counter Saint Teresa is not to demean her but to highlight the likes of Baba Amte and Amma and to adopt Western (not Christian) values such as separation of Church and state.
We dont want to emulate the Church when its own approach has been tried, tested and rejected by its original followers.
The rapid spread of Eastern philosophies such as Yoga and Veganism, are evidence that economically prosperous Western societies have once again stolen a march on their Eastern counter parts - extract the good, ignore the irrelevant and suppress the bad.
Societies like India dont need to ape the Church, they need to honor and emulate movements that emerged from within - such as Sikhism.
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