Mother Theresa on Stamps

At least ten countries have produced stamps with an image of Mother Theresa. The Vatican, India and Albania seem to lead the list of those who have Mother Theresa Stamps. The United States Postal Service decided to produce a stamp, with an image of Mother Theresa, to be released on August 26,2010. This date was Mother Theresa's one hundredth birthday. Mother Theresa had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. In 1985 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Reagan.

In 1996 President Clinton made her an honorary United States Citizen. In 1997 she received the Congressional Gold Medal for her humanitarian and charitable work. None of this seemed to matter to several groups who protested the announcement of this stamp. The Freedom from Religion Foundation urged its supporters to boycott the stamp. They also encouraged a letter-writing campaign to spread the word about what it called the "darker side" of Mother Teresa. The spokeswoman for Freedom from Religion Foundation, Annie Laurie Gaylor, claimed that the stamp runs against Postal Service regulations. She claimed that Mother Theresa is a religious figure who ran a religious institution.

The Postal Service spokesman, Roy Betts, seemed to be taken aback by this protest. He cited the long list of previous honorees with strong religious backgrounds. On this list he cited Malcom X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Mr. Betts also recalled that in 1986 the Postal Service honored Father Flanagan, the founder of Boystown, for his humanitarian work. Mother Theresa made it on to a stamp produced by the United States Postal Service. Evidently other countries did not have the same reservations that some in the United States had.