Mother Teresa stamp causes controversy
Feb-03-2010

An atheist organization is up in arms over the U.S. Postal Service's plans to honor Mother Teresa with a commemorative stamp, claiming that her religious vocation excludes her from such an tribute under Postal Service regulations.

The organization, Freedom from Religion Foundation, is encouraging its supporters to boycott the stamp on the grounds that postal stamps cannot honor "individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings," according to FoxNews.com.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, a spokeswoman from the foundation, feels that Mother Teresa's charitable work is inextricably linked to her status as a religious figure. "You can't really separate her from being a nun and being a Roman Catholic from everything she did," Gaylor told FoxNews.com.

Gaylor further argues that Mother Teresa interjected her Catholic beliefs into the secular honors she was awarded, citing her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in 1979.

A press release announcing the stamp makes almost no mention of Mother Teresa's devotion to Catholicism, but instead focuses on her humanitarian efforts abroad.

The stamp is set to be released on Aug. 26, which would have been Mother Teresa's 100th birthday, and will commemorate her humanitarian work. Despite criticism from the atheist group, Postal Service spokesman Roy Betts insists that the commemorative stamp has nothing to do with Mother Teresa's religion, reports FoxNews.com.

In addition, Betts argued, the Postal Service has a long history of honoring individuals with strong religious views, including Malcolm X, former chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam; the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Father Flanagan, Catholic priest and founder of the Boys Town orphanage. These choices were met with little or no public outcry.

Other atheist organizations have spoken out against the foundation's protests.

In place of the Mother Teresa stamp, the Freedom from Religion Foundation is encouraging its supporters to purchase a new stamp featuring the late actress Katharine Hepburn, who was an atheist, or any of the other 2010 stamps.

Posted by jc at 12:12 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print