Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

Mother Teresa claims to spiritually transcend politics, but all such claims demand scrutiny, Hitchens writes. He thinks she has a kind of genius about the most effective ways to deliver her message, citing as an example her reaction to a toxic chemical spill from a Union Carbide plant in the Indian town of Bhopal. Union Carbide subsequently was found to be guilty of negligence. After the spill, Mother Teresa visited the town and when asked for advice, simply said, "Forgive." Hitchens asks who she thought should be forgiven, and he sees her appearance there as an attempt to contain public indignation. He describes a film clip shot in Madrid, where Mother Teresa arrives to support clerics who oppose legislation that would enable divorce, abortion, and birth control. Hitchens then mentions a visit the nun paid in 1988 to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...