For a woman who used Pedagogy of the Oppressed for her initial swearing-in as a New York City Council Member instead of a Bible (I was in attendance), Christine Quinn sure shows how much wanting higher office can make one drop all formerly-held beliefs and go all “Mother Teresa is awesome” on us. Remember Quinn is an out lesbian who was once head of the Anti-Violence Project.  Now she’s defending a so-called saint who:

• said AIDS is a just retribution for improper sexual conduct
• said abortion was the greatest destroyer of peace
• said the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people
• opposed birth control everywhere, including India
• took in millions while providing basically no real medical care in her “clinics” but used expensive medical care in the West when she was ill
• happily associated herself with Charles Keating and Baby-Doc Duvalier of Haiti and took donations from the money they stole from others

The city will mark what would have been Mother Teresa’s 100th birthday – without the Empire State Building.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says Teresa will be honored on August 26th with a citywide day of service. She is also calling on New Yorkers to light their own blue and white candles that night.

This comes after Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State Building, turned down a request to light the skyscraper to honor the Nobel Prize-winning nun.

“He has a building with a lot of light, but he’s just one man,” said Quinn. “If thousands and tens of thousands of New Yorkers put these lights in their windows on August 26th, we’ll send a message that Mother Teresa’s message is alive and well in homes of New York city residents.”

A spokesman for Malkin issued a statement saying while he is saddened by the hateful words and messages being generated both for and against the lighting, he is sticking to the building’s lighting guidelines, which do not allow requests for religious figures.