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Viacom's Showtime Slanders Mother Teresa
NewsMax ^ | 5/25/05 | Carl Limbacher

Posted on 05/25/2005 4:57:31 PM PDT by wagglebee

When shareholders of media conglomerate Viacom show up for their annual meeting tomorrow, they'll face the wrath of Catholic League President Dr. William Donahue over a shocking Showtime episode that slandered the late Mother Teresa and her order of nuns in the vilest of terms.

According to Donahue, who plans a press conference in front of the hotel in New York City where the Viacom meeting is being held, an episode of Showtime's Penn and Teller show "Holier Than Thou” was a "Nazi-like assault on Catholicism, and on the person the show calls "Mother F***ing Teresa.” Showtime is owned by Viacom.

Stormed Donahue, "In the 12 years that I have been president of the Catholic League, I have never witnessed a more vicious attack on Catholicism than what appeared this week on the Showtime program, ‘Penn and Teller.’ The episode, ‘Holier Than Thou,’ was a frontal assault on Mother Teresa and her order of nuns, Missionaries of Charity (as well as Gandhi and the Dali Lama).

"Like most Americans, I like parodies and have no problem, per se, with irreverent humor. But when humor becomes insult, that is a different story. And that is what happens here: comedy quickly morphs to vitriol. Indeed, as the show progresses, the level of anger becomes palpable and the degree of distortion becomes mindboggling. This is no comedy—it is Nazi propaganda right out of the Leni Riefenstahl school of filmmaking.

"The Mother Teresa that the world has come to love and revere is made to look like a cruel, exploitative, self-serving nun who ripped off the poor. We are told that Mother Teresa intentionally let the poor suffer, providing neither beds nor bathroom facilities. ‘She had the f***ing coin and pissed it away on nunneries,’ says Penn. As for the nuns who worked with Mother Teresa, they are referred to as ‘f***ing c***s.’

"It does not bother me when they call me ‘Catholic Boy’ on the show (though the term ‘Jew Boy’ would never cross their lips), nor does it concern me when they talk about ‘f**ers like Bill Donohue [who] only see good in her.’ But when they mock the Catholic Church’s teaching on the meaning of suffering, and when they say of the poor that ‘They had to suffer so that Mother F***ing Teresa could be enlightened,’ then they are behaving like monsters.

"We will mail a tape of select portions of this broadcast to many interested parties, including the bishops. And we will hold a press conference tomorrow outside the hotel where Viacom is holding its annual stockholders meeting. They haven’t heard the end of this yet.”

Donohue, who will be joined by some Catholic League staff members, said he will answer any questions following a few remarks. He promised that copies the Catholic League news release on this subject, "Mother F***ing Teresa—Courtesy of Viacom,” will be distributed to Viacom shareholders as they enter the hotel.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anticatholicbigotry; boycottfagtime; callyourcablecompany; cary; catholic; catholicism; catholicleague; censoringideologues; freedomofspeech; gladd; liberalmedia; mediabias; motherteresa; showtime; showtimeslander; slander; viacom
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To: Central Scrutiniser
LOL! I assure you, I'm not Southern or Baptist. You're the one hot and bothered, honey. I'm laughing my ass off watching you weasel out of the mental gymnastics you're doing (e.g. one minute praising free speech that you approve of, the next minute complaining about other people exercising theirs).
281 posted on 05/25/2005 11:16:05 PM PDT by GipperGal (Yes, Maureen, the Cafeteria is closed. Please step away from the salad bar and join the Unitarians.)
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To: onyx

Ahh cool! Of course, they're video slots. 3 Hail Mary's wins the jackpot. LOL!!


282 posted on 05/25/2005 11:17:09 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (Don't hate me because I'm a player)
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To: wagglebee
I am no Catholic, and I would have done some things differently than Mother Teresa, but that in no way detracts from the disgust I feel towards this duo . I don't have cable TV, so I can't have showtime disconnected, but I will do what I can to spread the word to my friends who do.

Can you imagine this pair of "Perfumed Princes" spending one day in the "institutions " of Calcutta. They would pee their pants and be crying for "momma" inside 15 minutes.

283 posted on 05/25/2005 11:18:11 PM PDT by snowtigger (It ain't what you shoot, it's what you hit...)
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To: Central Scrutiniser; GipperGal
ROTFLMSS! Doubled over laughing. Tears streaming down my face.


GG - not laughing at your expense, just at his comments and question. Too true.
284 posted on 05/25/2005 11:19:19 PM PDT by onyx (Pope John Paul II - May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 = SANTO SUBITO!)
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To: Central Scrutiniser
You obviously get all hot and bothered if someone out there is enjoying themselves, are you sure you aren't Southern Baptist? LOL>>>>>

Well Im sure pedophiles and serial killers enjoy themselves doing their dirty work, but who are we to judge ?

No we'll just be like you Mr. cool calm and collected Pilotman.

Heaven fortend anyone judges anybody's else enjoyment of reprehensible diversions.

285 posted on 05/25/2005 11:19:35 PM PDT by Selkie ("There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent)
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To: snowtigger
"Can you imagine this pair of "Perfumed Princes" spending one day in the "institutions " of Calcutta. They would pee their pants and be crying for "momma" inside 15 minutes."

OMG. Priceless.

286 posted on 05/25/2005 11:23:06 PM PDT by Miss Behave (Do androids dream of electric sheep?)
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To: Dane

Wow!!! That looks really neat!


287 posted on 05/25/2005 11:25:35 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (Don't hate me because I'm a player)
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To: onyx

Onyx, I like you, there is a shared humor that only Catholics can really laugh at. Nuns that sat in on dances to make sure the boys and girls never touched, priests that warned of hell if we had late library books, really pissed off 65 year old virgin nuns that would beat the crap out of 4th graders, and the terror of being in high school and worrying that at any time God would make "The Call" to you and want you to be a priest!

I had a friend, a wonderful man, all through high school he wanted to be a priest, but he mixed with all the cliques and was a great guy. He became a priest, then a pastor, and had a nervous breakdown, left the priesthood, got married and is a pretty happy guy now. I admire the courage it took for him to leave, it was a big scandal in his family, but he had to do it, and I'm thankful for the guys that have the true calling to do that difficult job.


288 posted on 05/25/2005 11:26:32 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Intelligent design is neither.)
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To: Dane

Very good beer.


289 posted on 05/25/2005 11:27:58 PM PDT by Petronski (A champion of dance, my moves will put you in a trance, and I never leave the disco alone.)
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To: Selkie
Well Im sure pedophiles and serial killers enjoy themselves doing their dirty work, but who are we to judge ? No we'll just be like you Mr. cool calm and collected Pilotman. Heaven fortend anyone judges anybody's else enjoyment of reprehensible diversions.

Thanks for the laughs, you continue to prove my point. Jumping from a TV show that you have to pay for to pedophiles and serial killers? Are we being a bit of a drama queen?

290 posted on 05/25/2005 11:28:20 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Intelligent design is neither.)
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To: Dane

As long as it isn't Iron City beer, its a miracle.

That stuff is nasty!


291 posted on 05/25/2005 11:29:15 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Intelligent design is neither.)
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To: Selkie

BTW, I'm not a Pilot, I went to college.


292 posted on 05/25/2005 11:30:37 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Intelligent design is neither.)
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To: Central Scrutiniser


You liking me is probably to my detriment on this thread...lol. Just kidding CS.

You know, I went to Catholic schools of and on too, but I never witnessed any nuns taking the ruler to students, nor any of other similar actions often attributed to nuns. I had one nun who came close to losing her temper with me when I locked her in the closet...LMAO!


293 posted on 05/25/2005 11:31:32 PM PDT by onyx (Pope John Paul II - May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 = SANTO SUBITO!)
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To: Central Scrutiniser
Sorry that you need everyone to attach a sarcasm tag when they say something in a vein of dark humor.
294 posted on 05/25/2005 11:35:16 PM PDT by Selkie ("There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent)
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To: onyx

Worst abuse by a nun: 4th grade, a fellow student from a pretty bad broken home, with a brother in jail for theft, etc. His father died that year of cancer, worsening his situation. We had a nun that abused him, would beat him, throw him into the closet and scream "Oh, you wanna cry because your father is dead?"

The nun was unbalanced to say the least, she beat the hell out of students for the most minor of offenses. As for the kid mentioned above, he dropped out of high school found work as a mechanic and laborer, last time I talked to him he had a few DWI's, his brother became a big drug dealer, and died a few years ago.

That nun was unstable, clearly, even at that age we all knew it. That being said, we had some great nuns and priests later on. In High School, we had a fantastic priest who became a priest, served as a green beret in Korea and in Vietnam and retired to our high school. A great guy, but after all the horrors of war, he couldn't handle the bizzare nature of teaching Catholic sex ed to freshmen (my friend noted during the Natural Planning part "Father, I am number 10 in my family, Natural Planning does not work!")

I'm #7, it didn't work with us (thank God!)


295 posted on 05/25/2005 11:39:26 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Intelligent design is neither.)
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To: Selkie

Some people can find humor in many things, sorry that you can't.


296 posted on 05/25/2005 11:40:04 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Intelligent design is neither.)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
Mother Theresa was a sham and no saint.

I'm not Catholic. I have serious doubts about some of their teachings. But I'll lay that aside.

I was born in 1945. I remember hearing, seeing and reading about this fine human being and her work from the late 50's. Maybe she had her faults though none that standout proven to me that I recall.

Like I said she probably had some faults,she was human. But cheap two-bit talk slandering other human beings was not one of them.

She never sought fame, fortune, nor praise. If she did then she was a failure, at least in the fortune part.

I never seen her driving around everyday in her black limo,or at her mansion in Spain, or at some resort on the Riviera or on the beach at Martha's Vineyard.

I never seen her seek a media event. Sometimes however they sought her.

I can tell you where they found her. In some of the most horrible,filthy,dangerous disease,rodent infested slums on the planet.

I would have said God forsaken but He had one of his better ambassadors there.

She was there trying to help as best she could some of the most pitiful sick and starving forgotten people in our world.

She wasn't there walking through on some 15 minute UN political tour. She spent most of a lifetime of seven day weeks, 24 hour days serving her fellow man. If she got rich I never seen what she spent it on for herself.

I know some people that need help didn't get it from her. When you are trying to feed and doctor the masses she was trying to help ,well there's just no way you can.

I have often wondered in my sixty years why people go out of their way to criticize, attack and destroy a person who dedicates their life to serving the needs of their fellow human beings.

She spent half a lifetime doing so before most of her modern know-it-all critics where even borne.

What possible good can be gained by saying things so bitterly spiteful of a person who is dead and gone and unable to defend herself?

Someone of who they know nothing about or the work they do except that spoken by a wagging tongue.There is only one reason I have been able to come up with.

The reason I believe they do so is, when they look at such a person as Mother Teresa they see just how selfish, self-centered and insignificant they and their own lives are.

No she is not a John Paul.

But if John Paul was the man people think he was and I'm not about to say he wasn't, he would have been quick to say he was no Mother Teresa either.

Unfortunately for the world neither are the two jerks and the company they represent.

BTW what have you done for humanity lately besides criticize someone who dedicated their entire life trying to help others?

297 posted on 05/25/2005 11:41:11 PM PDT by mississippi red-neck
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To: Central Scrutiniser


Definitely unbalanced. Damn shame too. Her abuse could not have helped your little friend at all. Sickening.


298 posted on 05/25/2005 11:50:49 PM PDT by onyx (Pope John Paul II - May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005 = SANTO SUBITO!)
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To: mississippi red-neck

I love your post.


299 posted on 05/25/2005 11:55:58 PM PDT by Miss Behave (Do androids dream of electric sheep?)
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To: Central Scrutiniser
Some people can find humor in many things, sorry that you can't. >>>>>> Get off your soapbox. I find humor in many things that are funny.

Mean spirited cheapshots are not my idea of a good time.

There's no sly wit that's go into Penn and Teller's Bullsh@t. I watched their first season and was underwhelmed.

They use a club not a deft sleight of hand.

Southpark is brilliant because it doesn't beat people over the head with its messages. Eddie Izzard is brilliant.

P&T not funny, not truthful, just embittered geeks.

Frothing jaded malice is not my idea of humor.

300 posted on 05/26/2005 12:00:53 AM PDT by Selkie ("There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent)
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