Posted on 05/25/2005 4:57:31 PM PDT by wagglebee
When shareholders of media conglomerate Viacom show up for their annual meeting tomorrow, they'll face the wrath of Catholic League President Dr. William Donahue over a shocking Showtime episode that slandered the late Mother Teresa and her order of nuns in the vilest of terms.
According to Donahue, who plans a press conference in front of the hotel in New York City where the Viacom meeting is being held, an episode of Showtime's Penn and Teller show "Holier Than Thou” was a "Nazi-like assault on Catholicism, and on the person the show calls "Mother F***ing Teresa.” Showtime is owned by Viacom.
Stormed Donahue, "In the 12 years that I have been president of the Catholic League, I have never witnessed a more vicious attack on Catholicism than what appeared this week on the Showtime program, ‘Penn and Teller.’ The episode, ‘Holier Than Thou,’ was a frontal assault on Mother Teresa and her order of nuns, Missionaries of Charity (as well as Gandhi and the Dali Lama).
"Like most Americans, I like parodies and have no problem, per se, with irreverent humor. But when humor becomes insult, that is a different story. And that is what happens here: comedy quickly morphs to vitriol. Indeed, as the show progresses, the level of anger becomes palpable and the degree of distortion becomes mindboggling. This is no comedy—it is Nazi propaganda right out of the Leni Riefenstahl school of filmmaking.
"The Mother Teresa that the world has come to love and revere is made to look like a cruel, exploitative, self-serving nun who ripped off the poor. We are told that Mother Teresa intentionally let the poor suffer, providing neither beds nor bathroom facilities. ‘She had the f***ing coin and pissed it away on nunneries,’ says Penn. As for the nuns who worked with Mother Teresa, they are referred to as ‘f***ing c***s.’
"It does not bother me when they call me ‘Catholic Boy’ on the show (though the term ‘Jew Boy’ would never cross their lips), nor does it concern me when they talk about ‘f**ers like Bill Donohue [who] only see good in her.’ But when they mock the Catholic Church’s teaching on the meaning of suffering, and when they say of the poor that ‘They had to suffer so that Mother F***ing Teresa could be enlightened,’ then they are behaving like monsters.
"We will mail a tape of select portions of this broadcast to many interested parties, including the bishops. And we will hold a press conference tomorrow outside the hotel where Viacom is holding its annual stockholders meeting. They haven’t heard the end of this yet.”
Donohue, who will be joined by some Catholic League staff members, said he will answer any questions following a few remarks. He promised that copies the Catholic League news release on this subject, "Mother F***ing Teresa—Courtesy of Viacom,” will be distributed to Viacom shareholders as they enter the hotel.
He recognizes, at some level, the good in Mother Teresa that no amount of bad news coverage can hide and it scares and bothers him. He doesn't know how to deal with that and it stirs up feelings within him he doesn't want to deal with, it clearly hits a nerve. So he attacks. He should know better. I don't follow him that much. Did he launch such attacks on her while she was alive?
Adults should know the difference between humor and slander.
There is a difference between opinions based on facts and opinoins based on untruths. She is basing her 'opinion' on untruths.
Catholic haters don;t bother me. I consider the source.
When our Church is slammed, it's almost always done by the totally smug or the wholly ignorant. I don't pay either much mind.
I have already spent much too much on this thread.
And then there are those who so want to be accepted as "cool."that they refuse to protest bigotry,
The show is an opinion show, so the hosts give their opinons, if you don't like it, don't watch it.
But the show is damn funny, and its for adults, there is crude language and sometimes nudity, but they don't ever try to hide that. The show where they went to a fancy LA resturant, made up some fake names for bottled water and filled up the bottles all with water from the hose and sold them for outrageous prices was hilarious. They had people taste test all the water and give their opinions as to how brisk and how glacier like it all was. They did a great show on the scam called Feng Shui, they had 3 experts each do re-arrangements of the same house each charging several hundreds of dollars, every one of them did it differently. And they had a guy go to a $150 feng shui hairstylist and his twin go to a $7 barber, same haircut!
Its a funny show, they kill sacred cows, and when you do that, you piss people off.
LOL, I was out earlier, I missed it... Reading him is one thing, but believing him is, well, you get it...
How presumptous of you, I watched the show, laughed, and winced and was entertained, guess that makes me "Cool"
LOL
I didn't watch it. I have seen bits of their act before and didn't care for them but I did laugh at a couple parts of the spot in spite of myself. For many comedians, there are usually a few topics that are just off limits, too distasteful to turn into one of their shows. But for P&T, that is their shtick. Still, I think that there are some who will be influenced by it as somehow truth based. They'll be wrong, but they'll persist in their error and try to persuade others of it. I know, free speech and opinion and all, I just hate to see someone like her trashed in such a despicable way under the guise of entertainment, but that is what comedians do, and I do laugh at other comedians. But that's my opinion.
Well, as a Catholic, I learned early on that there are folks who don't care for the religion, in fact, I've seen some of the nuttier folk her go all crazy ripping on my religion.
So what? I have some problems with the religion, and I am not just gonna sit still and keep quiet, my grade school had 2 pedophile priests, and the principal of my high school was forced out of the priesthood for certain wrongdoing. I was, and am still vocal of some of the crap in my religion, and I can handle the crap slung at Catholics for our stand on evolution and other things. Critisism of my religion doesn't bother me, in fact, its a good thing, nothing in this world, NOTHING is above critisism.
And the show is damned funny, I enjoy it, guess I am going to hell?
So what? If a comic came out and did muslim jokes, you'd probably laugh! The show is damned funny, they attack all kinds of kooks and all kinds of beliefs and fads.
Its all about sacred cows, its funny until your sacred cow gets gored.
Of course you are, in a handbasket! :) FOTFL!
True enough, depending on the joke. I watch comedy central. And my sacred cow is bleeding, and she is one of the better sacred cows, of international reknown and good character. ;-)
Perhaps Lauralee has no idea what a real miracle is.
Yep. Hiding behind the skirt of entertainment. Stuart Smalley's also a pro at this. It's very cowardly.
Man.
Be nice to me, and I'll sneak you in to the buffet in hell. Of course after attending Catholic school from k-12, I'm more worried about that whole "limbo" thing, its not hell, not heaven, not really anything, but I hope there is bar service. (Irish Catholic, most church events have an element of beer in them)
Yeah, its really funny, I want to see the episode where they take on PETA, and the one where they rip on funeral directors that sell you a $4000 box that you are going to rot in, just like if you were buried in a $100 cardboard box.
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