[WikiEN-l] Re: Mother Theresa

Mon Oct 27 17:41:53 UTC 2003

(I'm moving responses that seem to pertain more to the content of the
article to wikien-l, and responses that seem to pertain more to global
issues of NPOV and policy to wikipedia-l.)

Stevertigo wrote:
>Who is Mother Teresa?  Is she on her way to being a saint, or a
>contemporary person, for whom an encyclopedia article can write up all
>kinds of dirt on her.

I think this is a false dichotomy.  We can "write up all kinds of
dirt" on Catholic Saints.

But I don't really like that phrasing, since 'dirt' implies a certain
kind of evaluation that should be avoided when contentious.  We should
report on Mother Theresa and the reasons given by the Church leaders
that she is being beatified and may be canonized.  But we should also
report on secular (or Church!) critiques.

But we should do all of those things in a way that both a supporter
and critic of Mother Theresa would agree are fair.

A philosopher might imagine a supporter of Mother Theresa who claims
that any mention or discussion of critics or criticism is inherently
unfair.  But I don't think such a person actually edits Wikipedia.

--Jimbo