Posted on 01/26/2010 9:47:39 AM PST by NYer
A prominent atheist organization in America is attacking Mother Teresa as unworthy of being honored with a memorial stamp, as the U.S. Postal Service has announced.
In fact, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is advocating that its constituents "vote with your pocketbook, and boycott these stamps."
The group also suggests, "If this choice of a polarizing Roman Catholic figurehead or the Post Office's flagrant violation of its own policy distresses you, let the Post Office know (by mail or e-mail) … Or make this the subject of an educational letter to the editor, or simply use this opportunity to enlighten friends and colleagues about the darker side of Mother Teresa's religious activism."
The Pacific Justice Institute, which engages in battles regularly on behalf of civil rights and the nation's Christian heritage, immediately launched its own campaign urging support for the stamp.
"We didn't want theirs to be the only letters," Matthew McReynolds, the organization's associate counsel, told WND.
Pacific Justice said it will send the Postal Service a letter offering legal support for the Mother Teresa stamp if it is needed.
The organization said its constituents could dispatch supportive comments via the USPS website, or they could write to:
Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee
Stamp Department, USPS
1735 N. Lynn Street, Suite 5013
Arlington, VA 22209-6432
or
Consumer Advocate
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Room 10433
Washington, D.C. 20260-2200M
"Just when you think atheists and anti-religionists have run out of things to complain about, they attack Mother Teresa, one of the great role models of the last century," said PJI President Brad Dacus. "We are encouraging anyone who has been inspired by Mother Teresa to join us in writing letters of appreciation to the U.S.P.S to counter the ridiculous complaints they are receiving from the FFRF."
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Don't know of anyone who's ever made this claim. She didn't visit there until 10 years after he came to power.
You stated:
“her ties to the Duvalier family, and her endorsement of
them”
“For helping to prop up the Duvaliers.”
You suggest that Mother Teresa is, in part, responsible. I strongly disagree
The Duvaliers were kleptocrats.
However, I don't think this should prevent her from being on a stamp.
I am surpised that Barry Lynn’s group was not behind this. Barry is as low as they come. Do a search on his name and you shall see.
In a universe where there is supposedly, "at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference", as Dawkins put it, what grounds do they have for presupposing and asserting non-material values (ideals of "worth" and "honor") in a valueless, materialistic universe that is the result of nothing but time and chance, and blind to values?
Why should anybody take their arbitrary and inconsistent neurological reactions (which on their own account are nothing but the result of time plus chance) as if they amounted to anything at all, much less anything rational?
Cordially,
And there was that Gandhi fellow. Split India right down the middle, he did.
And, similarly, if she had denounced the regime, nothing would have changed, except that her order probably would have been expelled from Haiti and the poor people would have been even worse off.
I don't see anything wrong with making nice to the horrible people in charge so that you can get aid to the people who are starving in the street right now. By the time the popular uprising got underway (thanks to JPII, President Reagan, and numerous others), those people would have been dead without the Missionaries of Charity. And nothing moved in Haiti without the Duvaliers' approval.
It's not an ideal situation, but that was the reality on the ground. I can't fault her for it.
You know, I was thinking the same thing myself. Of course, I believe she is with the Lord (although none of us can speak with certainty of anyone’s standing with God) and it wouldn’t interest her in the slightest if every stamp sold bore her earthly portrait. Even while she was with us, I doubt whether she’d have paid the slightest attention to it. Yes, we should want others to know of the lives and the acts of the Godly among us, but the stamp thing is not anything more than “remembrance on the cheap”. Like a baseball card or a “Mother Teresa Pez Dispenser”.
Mother Teresa walked the walk, unlike your typical liberal, narcissistic celebrity. Her passion was to care for the poor, sick, and the destitute. A public acknowledgment for the sake of appearances by the Duvalier was irrelevant for Mother Teresa. In other words, she would have continued her mission regardless of any recognition.
Your asinine attempt to paint a darker picture of Mother Teresa and her motives deserves harsh criticism.
I am not a Catholic, but whether you’re a Catholic, Protestant, or Maoist, giving up the luxuries of life PURELY for the sake of serving those living in abject poverty deserves respect.
The Duvalier’s were far worse than kleptocrats.
Well, that would be where we disagree.
I heard similar arguments with respect to the Keating money.
I don't believe in the coddling of dictators by anybody, even those interested in helping the poor and not affecting political change.
Shh! Someday some bright light in the church will take that as a good idea to raise funds for "good works" and all.
Is there really such a thing?
Her ties, even according to your source Christopher Hitchens, is limited to accepting donations from them.
The Duvaliers were one of the reasons that Haiti now rots in poverty.
Haiti was in poverty long before the Duvaliers.
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