Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation.

The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here.

“DISGRACE, DISHONOR, INFAMY: THEY’RE NOT SO BAD ANYMORE.”
Dr. Robert L. Sumner

So screamed a recent USA TODAY headline discussing liars and lawbreakers who were profiting from their transgressions; in fact, they are being accepted into “good” society as equals. Sparked by the Jason Blair fiasco (there were 36 cases of “fraud, plagiarism and inaccuracies” in 73 of his articles), it highlighted other newspaper men (and women) caught in the same crimes and noted how it was paying off for them.

One of the writers featured was Mike Barnicle, a “disgraced” Boston Globe columnist who fabrication some stories and plagiarized others. He just moved from Boston to New York and is now a columnist for the Daily News in the Big Apple, also making money as a television pundit, even substituting on the MSNBC “Hardball” for the popular Chris Matthews.

Another was Stephen Glass, a “disgraced” writer with the New Republic. He wrote fiction which he printed as fact until he got caught. According to the story, he has a “six-figure book deal” which, in the form of fiction (how fitting!) tells his story of infamy. He also has a movie coming out later this year which will do the same.

Elizabeth Wurtzel was “disgraced” and dismissed by the Dallas Morning News for the same reasons and went on to the staff of several prominent magazines, then writing best sellers – one of which pictured her topless on the cover with her middle finger raised in a pose of typical defiance.

Of course, old Jayson was at the top of the list. A reporter on the liberal New York Times, he plagiarized some stories, fabricated others, turned in phony expense accounts and all the rest. Cocky, defiant, unrepentant, he is a disgrace to his profession. Not in his mind, however; in fact, he jokes about it and brags how he pulled the wool over the eyes of some of the top editors in journalism. As soon as he left the Times, supposedly fired in disgrace, he contacted an agent and the two are now trying to peddle his story for millions of dollars. Incredible, huh? “It’s going to work out fine for me,” is the way he expressed it to The New York Observer. In the mean time, the Times announced it would investigate itself (that ought to be something!) “to determine when, where, how and why our newsroom’s culture, organizational processes and actions led to a failure of our journalism.” Maybe they’ll find it was their liberalism that does not hold to the old values. That would be our educated guess.

Then there was the first one to be exposed – we remember writing it up back in 1981 – a Janet Cooke, a reporter on the supposedly prestigious Washington Post, who made up a hair-raising story about a child heroin addict that aroused national sentiment (until it was found to be fictitious). She was before her time, apparently, and instead of getting rich she faded into obscurity and no one knows where she is now. She did sell her infamous tale to Hollywood, but the movie was never made.

All of the felons had excuses where they blamed someone else. It reminded me of an editor I formerly was associated with who plagiarized a story about the Seventh-day Adventists. When he was exposed, he blamed me, saying I should have caught it before it was printed – yet I didn’t even know it had been written until after it appeared in his magazine.

The sad fact of this story is that no one especially thinks it is bad! Alas, as the newspaper quoted a professor of journalism ethics at the Pynter Institute as saying, “Being disgraced is not so bad these days.” Until the disgraced meet God, that is!