Mother Theresa is about to be honored by the United States Postal Service by proposing to issue on her 100th birthday, this coming August 26, a commemorative stamp bearing the diminutive nun from Albany who had served the poor of Calcutta, India from 1950 to 1997 and the poor all over the world through her various charity missions.
The atheists and the Freedom from Religion Foundation were up in arms and vexed with the idea that federal funds would be spent to favor Mother Teresa’s Catholic faith and therefore infringes the first amendment and demolishes the wall between State and the Church. It has long been laid to rest that government money cannot be spent to favor one religion unless the activity has a secular purpose. Mother Teresa who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003, was not overly partisan over her faith as she found compassion and had lived with Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist in India. She has not called members of the other faith “infidels”.
She would be honored for her humanitarian efforts and for touching the lives of millions of underprivileged children and adults all over the world and not for her being a Catholic, though it was her faith or her misgivings about it that made her persevere through the darkness of apathy in our midst.
Her service to humanity dims whatever religious faith she may have. It is very easy to find secularism the way the postal money would be spent in this regards.
Postal officials though had expressed surprise at this protest considering that the USPS has a long list of previous honorees with strong political backgrounds, including Malcolm X, the former chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist Minister and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
It seems that there is only a constitutional breach of the “first amendment” if a Catholic believer is about to be honored by the State and not when other members of the faith would get the accolade.
While the issue of separation of State and Church was enshrined in the first amendment only as safeguard against the State’s dispensing undue favor to a particular faith over another, the atheists have read it to mean that the State can favor other religious groups other than the Catholic faith.
Love, compassion and justice which are the basic tenets of almost all religions on earth should have been the bedrock of every government. It is in our effort to detach these lofty principles from the government that makes our bureaucracy evil and corrupt.
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From JCC’s opening in this article:
“I applied as a regular writer at FV though I always wanted to remain a guest contributor for one selfish reason, “billing space”. The regular contributors are too crowded on the left hand corner of FV but as guest I monopolized the right hand corner of the page.
But the drawback is, my own “labor of love” as FV regulars would love to label their works, could be routed to Nick’s bulk mail folder and then into a trash. Not that my articles have no trashy components in them, because quite frankly, they do.”
Welcome aboard JCC, the views you have contributed, we have not always been in agreement, but you continue to remain above the fray, which is one thing that is most appreciated when you write.
Thanks, NICK..
What some secularist and atheists are peeved about is precisely that, conflating humanist values with that of Catholic values. While these naturally will overlap, it is dehumanizing to separate the humanist from the Catholic (or any other faith value for that instance)from a believer. What the atheists are doing is simply destroying what made Mother Teresa human. The Postal service of the United States is not celebrating Teresa’s Catholicism but rather her humanism.
Her impulse to do all those saintly acts of course stems from her Catholic faith and that cannot be denied. However the atheists are inconsistent in their acceptance of Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s civil rights activism which in no doubt led to his assassination. US Post has honoured Dr King as well as the Federal Government. The atheists in their blind anti-Catholicism conveniently forgets that Dr King’s activism cannot be separated from his Baptist faith. The fact that all of Dr King’s speeches are sprinkled with Biblical references and allegories is more than enough proof of this
The atheists don’t read the Bible in this case even if only for its literary merit!
Atheists have been given space in public discourse even in the Vatican itself! And not a few popes have received famous non-believers in the Apostolic Palace. However some of these atheists have moved from the secular humanistic atheism to a religious atheism. We can call this Evangelical Atheism since they have practically adopted the old religion style of fundamental Protestant Christianity. Under the cloak of secularism, they preach religion in the non-existence of God (which like the existence of God cannot be proven EMPIRICALLY anyway!) The Billy Grahams of this movement include Richard Dawkins (who could be held liable in England for “inciting hatred” but thanks to sensible Roman Catholics some of them clerics who dissuaded hotheads, this did not come to pass.)
We can give these atheists the freedom of religion they profess, but we cannot give them rights to breach the non-establishment of religion clause more than the Catholics, Protestants, Muslims etc have, which they don’t.
One is free to worship an imaginary friend, I suppose. However, at the end of the day, the question is: Does God exist?
It is your choice not to believe, or to believe. If you believe
in UFO like me. Welcome to the Club!
It does not matter whether you believe or not but – is there an UFO or none?
Again, they should read “Greater Than You Think” Rev.Thomas D. Williams
My own perspective is that religious people who do good or bad work go into history books, one way or the other, and a profoundly good historical figure is okay for stamps. Certainly it would be hard to argue Mo. Teresa should be left off the stamp pads whilst a man who batters brains, Muhammad Ali, should somehow be on.
Atheism ought not to deny history, for it is, except when edited in a conniving way, factual.
Joe
Eh, athiests are totalitarian just like the church. Therein lies my questionable linkage of the following perspectives to this blog.
My family passed through three government checkpoints on the way to Robinson’s Mall in Tacloban the other day. The soldiers were all young, well-clad in neat camouflage fatigues and berets, and armed with M-16 rifles that they waved about in careful fashion next to the car window as they peered about looking for whatever they look for. They were sharp-eyed and polite and I can imagine were all graduates of this college or that. A military force to be proud of, actually. I was. They represented the country in a professional, polite, yet firm way.
The only problem. Who were they securing citizens against? The answer, other citizens. Not wild-eyed Iranians or German Gestapo or Japanese invaders or American special forces. FILIPINOS. And I came to the startling realization that the worst enemy of the Philippines is,
right,
Filipinos.
The Philippines is not a totalitarian state, it is a state of totalitarians. People and groups of people – clans, rebels, coup-plotters, surge-the-gate protestors, election-day murderers, government sanctioned killers of journalists, political parties, illusive bombers, religious fanatics – all with an agenda they believe is the rightful agenda, and a gun and a willingness to kill to silence those who think otherwise.
In its more benign fashion, it is a state of inconsiderate souls, who toss trash in the neighbor’s yard, blast karaoke music all night long so school kids can’t sleep, except in class the next day, piss in the streets, and cheat in every way possible for personal gain. Civic generosity? Not in the language. Personal power? Ah, that is the correct dialect, the 115th, I suppose, ranking right up with English as the dominant dialect after Tagalog.
I don’t draw any conclusions other than these observations. I welcome being informed of my wrong assessment. I have no idea what to do about it. It would probably have something to do with convincing people to temper their passion a bit and walk in the other guy’s shoes once in a while.
“I see the enemy, and it is us”. Was that Pogo’s wisdom?
Pogo was Filipino, eh?
Joe
F. Landa Jocano has wondered why citizens of this state are so apathetic, indifferent, inconsiderate, selfish, etc., here at home yet so compliant of rules, cautious of social sanctions, etc., abroad? Can’t s/he be upright too at home the way s/he does abroad?
yes, joe, pinoys piss on the streets because they are too lazy to look for urinals inside malls and other business establishments… it was also a sort of an “in thing” because everyone else is doing it. you can piss against any wall or right on the tire of your car unmindful of people passing by. its no big deal though in other countries, you could be jailed for this unhygenic practice.
Stamp Subject Selection Criteria
The U.S. Postal Service and the members of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) have set certain basic criteria used in determining the eligibility of subjects for commemoration on all U.S. stamps and stationery. These criteria first were formulated about the time of Postal Reorganization in the early 1970s, and have been refined and expanded gradually since then.
Following are the 12 major criteria now guiding subject selection:
1
2
3
9. Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs.
10
12
She was helping people, which rises above the association with the church. Anyway, rules are meant to be broken and refined, if the situation merits. How can anyone complain about this stamp? Don’t they have good work to be doing instead?
Joe
Who is ‘they’?
If rules are meant to be broken, then criteria should say so. Joe, just being curious, are you a US citizen?
joma,
They is the people doing the criticizing of the stamp.
I am a US citizen, and I intensely dislike organized churches; I feel they too often do the wayward works of man, not the good works of God.
But I have no trouble with honoring a woman who got outside the bounds of our normal excuse-making and lazy, self-absorbed ways to make a difference.
Joe
Joe, Thanks for your reply.
“They” is Laurie Gaynor where she is co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), along with Dan Barker. They are dedicated to the cause of separation between the Church and State (for USA). You may contact them direct and I find them to be responsive. You can ask them directly what good is their cause all about.
They is also are community od non-religious, non-believer, agnostics, secularists and atheists. Some of their members are believer in gods, too.
In the Philippines, there is also a very miniscule group, but not worth your attention – in the meantime.
Joe,
Pogo is American. It lives in the North American wetlands.
As to who is the enemy of whom, I think that Pogo was referring to American as it’s enemy since it was living in American soil, not in the Philippines. The veracity of Pogo’s opinion was confirmed by The National Ledger, I believe an American online newspaper, in a column/blog? by one Roger Simon, titled below:
“DC Journal
President Obama: We Have Seen the Enemy, and It Is Us
By Roger Simon
Mar 2, 2009″
I agree with your comments. We Filipinos have us as our enemy as well. Like the Americans.
Bert,
Yes, indeed. Wise observation. Thanks for the background.
Joe
guys,
are we on the same page here? POGO, Project on Government Oversight?- i know a while back, certain sectors would like to put up private groups to monitor corruptions in government and provide solutions therefore. but the proposed memberships are retired government officials themselves and few civilians and components. the civilian groups are fine but retired government officials who are still receiving pensions from the same corrupt bureaucracy and who probably were themselves corrupt while in office wheeeewwww – give me a break…
Agree, Manoy Jose, I’m sure they were, while in office, most of them are. The ones that are wholesome are the itlog ng pogo, once my favorite but not now because of its cholesterol content.
I admire very much Mother Theresa of Calcuta, India. She was a true
Saint. A human being who really cares for everybody. Irrespective of
your religious faith. She always stated: ” I see the FACE OF CHIRST on
every person.”
When asked during the Vietnam War. “Will you March against the War
in Vietnam?”. Her answer was: “NO”. However she continued: “If there
is a March for PEACE in Vietnam. I will be there!”.
Mother Theresa lived by the Religious Gospel of her faith. She does not
have to pray loudly. To show that she is practicing her everyday religion. Or preach FIRE and BRIMSTONES to non believers or infidels. She lived her faith. That is just enough to be human.
That absence seems to have started at almost precisely the time she began tending the poor and dying in Calcutta, and — except for a five-week break in 1959 — never abated.
Although perpetually cheery in public, the Teresa of the letters lived in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain. In more than 40 communications, many of which have never before been published, she bemoans the “dryness,” “darkness,” “loneliness” and “torture” she is undergoing. She compares the experience to hell and at one point says it has driven her to doubt the existence of heaven and even of God.
She is acutely aware of the discrepancy between her inner state and her public demeanor. “The smile,” she writes, is “a mask” or “a cloak that covers everything.”
Similarly, she wonders whether she is engaged in verbal deception. “I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God — tender, personal love,” she remarks to an adviser. “If you were [there], you would have said, ‘What hypocrisy.’” Says the Rev. James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit magazine America and the author of My Life with the Saints, a book that dealt with far briefer reports in 2003 of Teresa’s doubts: “I’ve never read a saint’s life where the saint has such an intense spiritual darkness.
No one knew she was that tormented.” Recalls Kolodiejchuk, Come Be My Light’s editor: “I read one letter to the Sisters [of Teresa's Missionaries of Charity], and their mouths just dropped open. It will give a whole new dimension to the way people understand her.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415-1,00.html#ixzz0ebi6DPMG
I am surprised by the protests. I mean, if i were an atheist, I would still honor a woman like Mother Theresa — -not because of her religion but because of what she did.
Precisely.
History is as secular as it gets. It’s over.
Joe
Nick,
A certain Mr. Aurelo claims that he is the owner of the photo of Mother Teresa I have copied from Wikipedia. I have no verifiable data that it was his. However, just to addres his concern, please remove the photo of Mother Teresa from the post.
Sincerely,
JCC