CUL:Mother Teresa and Dr. Gish  by Bill Jackson

   ACTS AND FACTS (May 88), from of The Institute for Creation
Research, contains the following from the report of Dr. Gish's trip to
India.

   "While in Calcutta, Dr. Gish, Mrs. Gish, and Jay Gupta, tour host,
had a private visit with Mother Teresa, the gracious lady who has
labored among the poor of Calcutta for 40 years."

   This was of great concern to me, so I wrote a letter to Dr. Gish on
June 22, 1988, explaining that, while I did not expect him to launch a
diatribe against Mother Teresa, since she has strong Roman Catholic and
New Age links, he would have been better not to mention her. Now, that
he did, I said, "however, (since) you have mentioned her, I would like
a statement concerning your regard for 'gracious' Roman Catholics in
God's plan of salvation. As others have printed statements about this
problem, it would be helpful for your ministry among fundamental
Christians if you defined your position in ACTS & FACTS."

   I received a reply, dated 8/18/88. In it, Dr. Gish said, "I am
pleased to respond to your letter of June 22. Your letter is among
about three or four which I received with similar comments, and I
certainly understand your concern. I want you to know, however, that I
did not refer to Mother Teresa as a "gracious Christian lady" but
merely as a gracious lady. . . Perhaps because of the misunderstanding
that the statement has generated in some minds, it would be have been
best to simply leave out any reference to my visit with her."

   While I was thankful for Dr. Gish's reply, the problem is that the
statement was made, and the fact that only a few people expressed
concern should be an indication that there is widespread confusion
about Mother Teresa's "Christian testimony". Therefore I have written
another letter to Dr. Gish, where I wrote, ". . . One difficulty we
always face in Roman Catholic evangelism is that many Christians are
not thorough in their discernment and there will m, ost probably be
evangelical Christians who will read the paragraph you wrote about
Mother Teresa and think, 'Dr. Gish approves of her.' This will only
compound the already confused state of the position of the Roman
Catholic Church today. . . One of the reasons for Roman Catholics not
to be evangelize) is that Christian leaders like yourself do not make
the issue plain to Christians who are looking to yolu for leadership. I
believe you would do the Christian public a service by publishing a
statement similar to the one you sent mwe. Since you caused confusion
publicly, I do not think you can make up for it in a private letter to
me. God bless you in that great and important work to which He has
called you."