The recent, as it were, revelations about Mother Teresa’s doubts about God have been followed by a predictable wave of rationalization, exemplified by a self-described Muslim progressive on Newsweek / WaPo’s wretched On Faith forum: “Doubt Goes Hand in Hand with Faith.”
One minor quibble with this argument. Doubt is the fucking opposite of faith.
Merriam-Webster defines faith:
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
Update:
The Pope weighs in with a typically lame response:
“All believers know about the silence of God,” he said in unprepared remarks. “Even Mother Teresa, with all her charity and force of faith, suffered from the silence of God,” he said.
He said believers sometimes had to withstand the silence of God in order to understand the situation of people who do not believe.
Yep, that’s got to be the reason.
