Thursday, June 10, 2010

Empire State Building Declines to Light Up for Mother Teresa


June 10, 2010 on CNN
August marks what would have been Mother Teresa's 100th birthday, with commemorative masses, exhibitions and other events around the world heralding the occasion. But count the Empire State Building out of the celebrations.

New York City's tallest skyscraper has declined to shine the colorful, festive lights that it reserves for special occasions in her honor, leaving some of the nun's followers feeling slighted.

"Selection as an Empire State Building Lighting Partner is at the sole discretion of the ownership and management of the Empire State Building Company LLC," the privately owned building's website says. The site says that selection is "a privilege, not an entitlement."
Read more
(Thanks James)

16 comments:

  1. Who does Bill Donohue think he is? He's not a priest. He's not actually an authority figure in the church. Why do people listen to him? Why does his opinion matter?

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  2. I and the Empire State Building Company have a right to honor/not honor anyone we choose. Others have a right to complain about it, and that's fine. In this case I'm sure as hell not complaining.

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  3. If Mr. Donohue really wants this, let him pay the electric bill for that night. I'm sure it's not an unreasonable request, and I know his foundation has the money.

    But for him to want a city to pay for a tribute to one of his god's "chosen"? Honestly, screw him.

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  4. Here is their reason "Fuck you its my building. I can do what I want with it."

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  5. I would like to hear is opinion on the gay NYC council speaker who agrees with him, though.
    That would be interesting.

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  6. Are they sticking to their principles, or just their budget?  Either way, I doubt anyone would argue against keeping nuns a little more "down to earth" when it comes to hero worship.

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  7. This is exactly the point I got from Russell Blackford's talk; why we should stand up against religion and not just for secularism: Because religion tends to claim anything not directly opposing it and sometimes even the directly opposed, by gradual and incremental assertion of control.

    The video mentions just July 4th and the winter holidays, but from that I gather the building lights up for federal holidays and not on request. But then comes Christianity (Catholocism in this case) and goes "hey! you light up for one of our religious holidys so you need to light up for this thing, too."
    This is when we need to stand up and say "no".

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  8. She wasn´t a saint in any sense of the word.

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  9. "Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, called the decision "mind-boggling" and "indefensible and obscene," speculating that anti-Catholic bigotry was at play." - AAaaaaahahahahahahah *gasp* hahahahahaHA!

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  10. She'll probably be a Catholic saint under the Catholic definition of the word.

    You're right, the media should choose it's words more carefully.

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  11. Oh man I hope the owner of the building doesn't cave in to the demands of these ppl. "no" means " no" and they shouldn't have to explain themselves.

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  12. The biggest hypocrite here is the lesbian Catholic woman. Oh, I oppose my religion's view of my sexuality, but I still think they have the right to force you to celebrate Catholic holidays because after all "we're all Catholic" (hint hint lady, no we're not.)

    People who want more freedom only for those freedoms that they themselves would use and want to impose their beliefs on others in every other circumstance are the vilest people. Fuck that bitch!

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  13. They can light up all the Catholic churches; have at it.

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  14. There's some entertaining and eye opening videos on Youtube from people like Richard Dawkins et al about this famous nun person. Mum Teresa was not a saint, her mission was to get as many people tied into her belief system as possible. Her charity work was her way of getting the 'bad news' out to as many as possible. Poverty and hopelessness creates many needs. Religious nonsense can fill some of those needs without actually doing anything. Anyway, Mum Teresa renounced her beliefs shortly before she shuffled off this mortal coil. There's no doubt about that. It's on Youtube too.

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  15. Something tells me Howard Roark is alive.

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