30 January 2007

You Will Be in Heaven - Mother Teresa We're Not So Sure About

About a decade ago, Mother Teresa was voted the world's most respected woman and around that time, 22 March 1997, Reuters ran a story that began as follows:

"Americans are quite confident that they will get to heaven. Mother Teresa they are not as sure about.
"A poll released yesterday found that 67 percent of Americans are certain that heaven exists. An even larger number - 87 percent - thought they were likely to go there, perhaps a sign that math literacy is not necessarily a prerequisite for entering the pearly gates.
"Mother Teresa was heaven-bound according to 79 percent of the 1000 adults surveyed in the poll commission by U.S. News and World Report magazine."

The article went on to say that in spite of 87 percent of Americans believing that they would get into heaven, only 18 percent thought that all their friends would join them. Mind you, these are not their neighbors - these are their friends. 18 percent. Just think how low Mother Teresa might have scored if she were actually friends with the folks who were polled.

Everywhere we go, we're the center of our own universe, I guess. In this case it's a moral universe, but a universe nevertheless. Poor Mother Teresa. She had no idea that entrance to heaven was based on a vote. The catch? Apparently we all get just one vote and we've already cast it for ourselves.

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