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.

ABC-TV Still “Searching For Jesus?"
Robert L. Sumner

Readers are familiar with the spectacular produced by news mogul Peter Jennings, in his ABC-TV special last year. We give him credit for introducing something religious into prime time where some 16 million viewers witnessed it. Alas, he went to all the wrong sources (rank religious liberals) in his search and, basically, asked all the wrong questions. The end result was a program that had little in common with biblical teaching or with the Jesus of the Word of God. We think he was honest in trying to do good, but as a “natural man” he didn’t really know how to go about it.

The fact that he spent 3 years battling the corporation brass to hire a full-time religious reporter at ABC (the only television network to have one) shows that he was on the right track (he just went in the wrong direction with his special); it is also to his credit. It was through his effort that, in 1994, ABC hired Peggy Wehmeyer as the first and only full-time religion reporter for any network. Prior to her hiring by ABC she had served in the same capacity for a local station in Dallas (WFAA).

Evidently the network has now given up its search for Jesus. On orders from the top (you know, the network executives in their ivory towers who seemingly have no contact with real people and don’t have a clue about what interests the man on the street), ABC news was told to chop $15 million in fat from its budget. The top dogs in the news department decided God could be the first to back His bags and leave. Miss Wehmeyer was terminated, “pink slipped,” fired. An ABC spokesperson said the network would “partner” with Beliefnet, a multifaith Website and media company specializing in religious matters. He said the network planned to focus on specials, documentaries and other religious matters through its entire news network. We are not sure what that means, although it is a typical statement of appeasement given in such situations.

On the other side of the coin, we don’t think God was too comfortable with the network anyway!