Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Nun?

Mother Teresa, the tiny nun from Calcutta, seems to have the U.S. media running scared. It all began with the National Prayer Breakfast this year, where Mother Teresa was the featured speaker. In attendance were the president and his wife, the vice president and his wife, the judiciary, the diplomatic corps, and several Congressional leaders. Yet unless you tuned into Christian media outlets, it's unlikely you heard anything about the event. Most of the country's largest newspapers ignored it. The Washington Post buried it as a tiny news item on page 17. The New York Times blacked it out entirely, though a few years ago they printed the entire text of a Prayer Breakfast speech by then-Secretary of State James Baker. Television coverage was even thinner. Of the major networks, a few ran sound-bites of President Clinton attending the Breakfast, but none described Mother Teresa's address. Afterward, I watched for pieces in the opinion journals, which appear later. But I waited in vain. The only national columnists to mention Mother Teresa's speech were Mona Charen, a conservative Jewish writer, and Cal Thomas, an evangelical Christian. This is an astonishing black-out. Think about it: Mother Teresa is a Nobel Peace prize-winner. One of the most admired women in the world, according to polls. Regarded by many as a saint. When she addresses a roomful of political bigwigs, in my book that's newsworthy. So why did the secular media virtually censor it? The answer is that liberal reporters don't want the American people to know about Mother Teresa's speech. For she persuasively tied abortion to rising rates of violence in the streets. "If we accept that a mother can kill her own child," she said, "how can we tell other people not to kill each other?" She also tied abortion to violence between nations, arguing that "any country that accepts abortion is . . . teaching its people . . . to use any violence to get what they want." She labeled abortion "the greatest destroyer of peace in the world today." The message was delivered in a gentle voice, without rhetorical flourishes. But for the pro-choice politicians in the room, Mother Teresa's speech was a steady barrage of rhetorical bullets cutting to the heart of the abortion issue. She exposed the hypocrisy of people who wring their hands over the starving children of India--but then approve the abortion of tens of millions of unborn children around the world. She even addressed the practical question: "If abortion is outlawed, who will care for all those babies?" Her answer was simple: I will, she said. At her Calcutta headquarters, Mother Teresa has taken in thousands of babies, placing them for adoption in loving families. These are the real reasons the media blacked out Mother Teresa's speech. First, in a gentle, loving manner, she shot down every objection pro-choice forces can raise. Second, she told world leaders to their face in essence to stop killing babies. Since the media buried the story, it's imperative that you and I get the word out. Call us here at BreakPoint and we'll send you a copy you can use in your Bible studies and discipleship groups. It's time to get the word out about this dynamite speech--the speech the media did not want you to know about.

05/16/94