Empire State Building Rejects Request to Honor Mother Teresa; Catholic League Plans Protest

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Mother Teresa and her supporters plan to protest outside the Empire State Building tonight because the iconic building's management refuses to light the New York City skyscraper in her honor.

A Catholic group is rallying its troops after it says the building "stiffed" Mother Teresa, denying a request to light up the landmark in blue and white lights in commemoration of the Nobel Peace Prize winner's birth.

"To stiff Mother Teresa while giving this honor to every other Tom, Dick and Harry is not going to sit well with Catholics," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, which initiated the request for the commemorative lighting.

The upper floors of New York's tallest building are often lit in festive colors for special occasions.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/empire-state-building-rejects-request-honor-mother-teresa/story?id=11486871

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I don't think Mother Teresa would really care. Just another thing for that bigot Donohue to get his shorts in a twist about.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lightning Count]

6. This has to be sarcasm, right?

:)

[Iowa]

13. No. It probably isn't sarcasm.

The woman wasn't what she appeared to be; not even close. There has been some quality journalism done about Mother Teresa, including interviews with people who worked for her, people who received her "services", and people who were on the ground in the same city and performing the same work. Her public image does not square with reality, and it didn't even take all that much digging to uncover it.

When hearing something negative about the dignitaries in the Catholic Church (especially money generating machines like Mother Teresa), we have learned enough in the past decade or so to know that our first reaction probably shouldn't be disbelief. We have witnessed repeated vile acts, lying, scandals, and cover-ups, and we have seen it over and over again. So eventually it should sink in. And if Donohue is behind it, that should just add to the skepticism.

Question: How can you tell when they're lying?
Answer: When their lips move.

[Lightning Count]

14. Yes she only spent almost 50 years caring for the poor and sick.

A true demon.

[Iowa]

16. Hey, don't let facts get in the way...

Believe whatever the hell you want to believe. I don't care. I'm just giving you a heads-up that you might not want to make a fool of yourself by plunging in and swallowing Bill Donohue's and the Catholic Church's PR line about Mother Teresa. That has been debunked by some pretty solid journalism. But I can see you aren't interested in learning anything that conflicts with your preconceived notions. Now if it were me... if I'm operating under a false impression and someone gives me a heads-up - I sincerely appreciate it. I follow up on the new information and form my own impressions based on what I can confirm. In other words, all I give a shit about is the truth - wherever it may lead. Not too many people are like that anymore.

[Lightning Count]

17. Yeah, and some say Gandhi was a fraud too.

I saw him eating a burger at PJ Clarke's on 3rd when I was a kid.

[Iowa]

18. I haven't read enough about Gandhi to comment one way or the other...

See... that's the difference between you and I.

[crim son]

25. Before you condemn, do some research.

I didn't believe it either until did my own; now I am not so sure.

[LostinVA]

40. Gandhi had feet of clay, too

His treatment of his wife was rather appalling.

[Rage for Order]

26. She wasn't perfect

But she did an immense amount of good work for the poor of Calcutta during her lifetime. Christopher Hitchens is hardly an unbiased "journalist", so I don't put too much stock in his criticisms of her.

[izquierdista]

34. I'd trust him on religion

That is his area of specialty, that and booze.

[LostinVA]

39. You'll be ripped for this

But, you're correct, and I am a huge booster of many Catholic Sisters. But Mother Teresa had a great PR machine.

You should post some info, though, so those not in the know are aware of what you're talking about.

[Renew Deal]

10. I got to check three boxes when I alerted your post.

:bounce:

[superconnected]

12. What did Mother Theresa do that was wrong?

I wasn't political at the time so I missed it.

[onehandle]

They dimmed the lights for the Pope's death, but they usually don't do things for individuals. nt

[jdlh8894]

2. Is he willing to pay the light bill? n/t

[Raster]

3. If the Catholic League wants to light St. Patrick's Cathedral, more power to them.

[ejpoeta]

4. waah!! i agree that i think mother teresa wouldn't friggin care either.

maybe instead of whining about colorful lights that blowhard donahue ought to go do something useful. go work at a soup kitchen or help the homeless or something. you know. god's work? he does claim to be a christian and should act like one.

[Brickbat]

5. Gah. I'm glad the ESB won't do this.

I am not a big Mother Teresa fan.

[Angry Dragon]

7. Are they now claiming the Empire State Building is a holy site??

Perhaps they should threaten to move it if they don't light it.
Why is it that they believe that they can try to push their religion down everyones' throat??
If they want religion then keep their religion in their church.
If they leave their church they are in the secular world and have to respect everyone
and not just their own bigoted and ignorant thinking.
How arrogant of them to think that their saints and popes matter to everyone.

rant over for now

[eShirl]

8. "while giving this honor to every other Tom, Dick and Harry"

Like who, for instance?

[Renew Deal]

9. The Empire State Building doesn't celebrate everybody just because they're asked.

I know of them rejecting lots of other people. This paragraph says it all.

"Although ESB has a tradition of lightings for the religious holidays of Easter, Eid al-Fitr, Hanukkah, and Christmas, our lighting partnership guidelines -- with which all organizations must agree as a condition for submitting an application -- state clearly that we do not accommodate requests for religious figures or requests by religions and religious organizations."

I should walk by there and say hi to Bill Donahue. It could be amusing.

[Lightning Count]

11. I'm more concerned with the fact that they honored Mariah Carey and her new album.

May be mental illness involved.

[gratuitous]

15. Yep, more publicity for that bigot Donohue

Professional victim and blowhard. Why does ABC give this man the time of day?

[glinda]

19. It is political timing and intentional. I am sick of people who call themselves

Christian or whatever in Religions, shoving their believes in our faces through the Media.

[gratuitous]

24. It's not so much his repellent beliefs

Okay, that's part of it. But mostly it's how Donohue styles himself as the arbiter of all things properly Catholic. His yammerings represent basically his own twisted view of things, as well as those of a small minority of Catholics. But ABC and other major media outlets give him a platform far out of proportion to the numbers he commands. He's a remarkably nauseating little man.

[glinda]

30. ABC & others should be covering how nuts he is instead of giving him a platform.

[AngryOldDem]

20. You know what?

I really don't give a flying fuck about how anything "sits" with Catholics or the Catholic League. If the Empire State Building had given in to this request, Donohue would be pissed that the building didn't fire off blue and white fireworks from its roof, or drape the building in blue and white cloth a la Christo.

There is no pleasing this man or his group; they need to learn how to take "no" for an answer without throwing a temper tantrum worthy of a child. And like a child, he needs to learn that the world doesn't revolve around him or his religion.

[Mz Pip]

21. I smell a rat

That rat is Bill Donohue. Do I need a tin foil hat to believe that the Catholic League knew what the Empire State Building's policies were but decided that this would be a good way to be divisive and to continue to fan the flames of anti-Islam sentiment in the country?

[CatholicEdHead]

23. Yep, Donahue is a attention whore of the worst kind

It is always trivial this or that. Nothing on any Catholic Social Justice teachings at all.

[Blue_Tires]

33. +1

[jberryhill]

22. Because Mother Theresa Was Really Looking For Fame and Recognition /nt

[struggle4progress]

27. It must be fundraising time in Billy Donohue Land: "What has your organization

accomplished in the last year?" We .. um .. uh .. we tried .. uh .. to get the Empire State Building all .. um .. lit up for .. uh .. for Mother Teresa's birthday

[provis99]

28. hmmfh. Bill Donohue, the Ian Paisley of Catholicism.

[Odin2005]

29. Good, she's not the saint she is popularly portayed as.

She was happy seeing sick Indians suffer so she could be "closer to God". I believe Chris Hitchins proved that she was NOT a good person.

[Vidar]

31. Hitchins is about as objective about religion as Cotton Mather was about witches.

[Odin2005]

32. The truth hurts, eh?

[proteus_lives]

37. Well, we've never known you to turn down a bias.

[No Elephants]

35. Thanks to Sarah Palin, we no longer have to reach back to Mather.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl4HIc-yfgM

[FMBM]

36. I understand a reluctance not to honor a strictly religious figure...

but it seems to me that Mother Theresa rose above that... anyone who has seen abject, desperate poverty would have to honor someone who chose to immerse herself in it to try to help those trapped in it... If she were an atheist her work would be honorable... as a Christian, why should it be less so...?

[gaiangreentree]

38. why not

As an Atheist, let me point out that a request for her being honored by an Atheist organization would have also been turned down. Atheism is religion, and the denial would have been consistent in either case.

Let me then put words in your mouth and assume that you meant secular. As horrid of a person that she may have been (she certainly should never have been allowed behind the bus wheel for starts), she was an individual and the work that she did whether honourable as you believe or despicable was not the reason that the request was denied. It was denied because the honouring was requested from a religious group seeking to honour her as a religious figure.

Her work with the poor, whether compassionate or abusive was done in the name or guise of her publicly claimed beliefs.

That the request was made, knowing that it would be turned down, seems to be an attempt to gin up hate and not a real attempt to relate any actual honour.