stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

AFTER THE ORDEAL 463
Christopher Hitchens (1995) had earlier written his own lessdetailed
exposé of Teresa:
[S]he once told an interviewer that, if faced with a choice between
Galileo and the authority of the Inquisition, she would
have sided with the Church authorities....
“She also touched on AIDS, saying she did not want to
label it a scourge of God but that it did seem like a just retribution
for improper [e.g., homosexual or promiscuous] sexual
conduct.”
And how did Ken Wilber (2000a) jump the gun, in voicing his
positive attitude toward Mother “Superior” Teresa upon receiving
(media) news of her death, nearly half a decade after Hitchens’ exposé?
Mother Teresa was much closer to that divine ray [than was
Princess Diana, who died in the same week], and practiced it
more diligently, and without the glamour. She was less a
person than an opening of Kosmic compassion—unrelenting,
fiercely devoted, frighteningly dedicated.
I, anyway, appreciated them both very much, for quite
different reasons.
“Happiness is a warm nun.”
Such opinions, sadly, are again exactly par for the course with
Wilber, in his consistent vouching for other people’s high degrees of
enlightenment (“opening of Kosmic kompassion-with-a-‘k,’” etc.).
For here too he obviously, if utterly wrongly, considers himself to
be in a position to intuitively and intelligently separate the reality
from the PR, even without having minimally familiarized himself
with the long-extant, relevant research materials.
Likewise for his friend, Dr. Roger Walsh (1999):
The few hours I spent with Mother Teresa and the Dalai
Lama continue to inspire me years later, while films of them
have inspired people around the world. Such is the power of
those who devote their lives to awakening and service.
Or, rather, “such is the power” of those with good public relations
machines and the ability to bury their indiscretions and
prejudices. For, they shall be taken as saints and gods, even in the
midst of cruel homophobia, bizarre sexual hang-ups, association