Nun of that
An atheist group is unhappy that the US Postal Service is putting Mother Teresa on a stamp:
The Freedom from Religion Foundation is urging its supporters to boycott the stamp — and also to engage in a letter-writing campaign to spread the word about what it calls the “darker side” of Mother Teresa.
Says spokesperson Annie Laurie Gaylor:
“Mother Teresa is principally known as a religious figure who ran a religious institution. You can’t really separate her being a nun and being a Roman Catholic from everything she did.”
Not that they’d object to, say, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Malcolm X:
She said they were known for their civil rights activities, not for their religion. Martin Luther King “just happened to be a minister,” and “Malcolm X was not principally known for being a religious figure,” she said.
And how likely would they have been engaged in civil-rights activities had they not had religious affiliations? Black churches were at the very heart of that movement. And Malcolm X was, for all intents and purposes, the public face of the Nation of Islam. Sounds like a religious figure to me.
So the Foundation’s objections, I’m guessing, are twofold:
- Mother Teresa actually sought converts to Catholicism;
- Mother Teresa took a dim view of abortion.
In the meantime:
The Foundation is encouraging its supporters to purchase the new stamp honoring the late actress Katharine Hepburn, who was an atheist, instead — or any of the other 2010 stamps, which include cartoonist Bill Mauldin, singer Kate Smith, filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, painter Winslow Homer and poet Julia de Burgos.
I sure hope they don’t find out Micheaux once made a film called The Virgin of the Seminole.
(Via Steve B.)
John Salmon »
31 January 2010 · 12:53 pm
I guess we should take Lincoln off the penny and the five, as well. The great man hardly uttered a sentence in an important speech that didn’t reference the Bible.
But I suupose we can’t separate this from Lincoln’s status as a somewhat confused semi-believer. I guess some people just hate Catholics. It would be nice if they’d be honest about it, like Adolf Hitler with the Jews.
Jeffro »
31 January 2010 · 2:26 pm
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has had since 2001 to protest the EID Muslim stamp that the Post Office issues every year since then. But, they have not. I’d be very interested in knowing why that isn’t blatant hypocrisy.
fillyjonk »
31 January 2010 · 4:11 pm
Among their objections, I wonder if there could be a tiny bit of subconscious, “She fed, bathed, and held people that we would find horribly disgusting and untouchable” and there’s some kind of, if not exactly guilt, discomfort that another human being could do that, when they cannot?
I don’t know. These kind of fights make my head hurt.
And Kate Smith is perhaps best known (at least of those in my generation who know her) for singing God Bless America….
Lisa Paul »
31 January 2010 · 9:41 pm
Not sure if I would call Malcolm X the “face of the Nation of Islam”. He was ousted/alienated from the group by Elijah Mohammed pretty early in the game and long before Malcolm’s real public fame started.
But I agree that this boycott seems very anti-Catholic in nature. Seems very akin to the new French ban on the burkah. They claim it’s against “all overt religious displays” but I haven’t heard that nuns and priests are now banned from wearing habits and cassocks. No matter what you call it, if it quacks like a duck…
CGHill »
31 January 2010 · 10:06 pm
Which was one reason Malcolm was more or less drummed out of the NOI: Elijah Muhammad figured Malcolm was hogging the spotlight. But that point I’ll concede, since Malcolm did become more of a household word once he was on his own.
Didn’t France already ban headscarves in school?
Atheist »
2 February 2010 · 2:13 pm
Instead of repeating Faux News’s false witness against FFRF.org (Does ‘thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor’ ring any bells?), you could have got the points of protest straight from the horse’s mouth: http://www.daylightatheism.org/2008/05/mother-teresa.html#comment-35845
Then again, most Christians would have had nothing to do with Jesus if he were walking the Earth now, much as the Pharisees wanting nothing to do with him then.
CGHill »
2 February 2010 · 4:22 pm
Nice to know all the nominees for postage stamps are being extensively vetted.