Monica Goddard:

What some call fanatic- others call awe inspiring. She did what she did for love of God. She did what neither I nor Mr. Hitchens could do for a week.What compells him to use high school sarcasm and cheap sexual innuendos to attack an old woman who would have forgiven him in an instant? Perhaps when talent is absent, notoriety is a prize.

Just a note to endorse and applaud your response. Though I am not a Christian (alas) it seems to me that if MT is a fanatic, fundamentalist, hypocrite or WHATEVER , those categories are thereby redeemed, and become ipso facto enviable virtues. Self-appointed moralists like Mr Hitchens seem to ignore or repress the bleeding obvious fact that somebody like Gandhi is the very definition of a good person to an extent that far transcends paltry journalese. If a label like "saint" means anything worthwhile, the Mahatma and MT exemplify it, whether or not the Vatican (or Mr Hichens) concur(s).