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.

Our Secular World (Part 2 of 2)
Dr. Robert L. Sumner

Texas governor Rick Perry got in trouble, mostly with the media, when he called Social Security a Ponzi scheme (readers will recall we’ve been calling it that for years). Back before I was born, in 1916, an Italian immigrant named Charles Ponzi came up with his scheme for folks to send him money to invest, promising huge returns. He never invested a penny, just used income from new suckers to pay off the earlier ones – until he ran out of suckers and was sent to prison.

While folks voluntarily gave Ponzi to invest, Social Security forces every worker to contribute to its scheme. It dragged me in kicking and screaming because I was a CEO (!) – head of Biblical Evangelism! It uses new workers to pay dividends for earlier ones, just as Ponzi did. Alas, it is running out of contributors and going broke.

It most certainly is a Ponzi scheme – with one single exception: it is not illegal because the government runs it. Admittedly, it didn’t start out as “Ponzi.” The idea was to invest what it took in and if so, it would be okay today. Instead, Congress, starting with LBJ, began using it as its private piggy bank and giving it now worthless I.O.U.s instead of investing it. Hence, the mess we are in!

Columnist Star Parker agrees with Perry, noting, “You can't hear too many times that, despite what many still think, Social Security isn't any kind of investment plan, and there is no account that you're paying into that is yours. Social Security is simply about current workers paying a tax that is used to make payouts to current retirees.” That, basically, is a Ponzi scheme.

She further noted that when started, the tax was 2 percent and today it is 12.4 percent, and back then “there were over 45 people working for every retiree compared to 3 to 1 today; and life expectancy then was 60 compared to 78 today.”

Few people doubt that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hopes to become president in 2016. Unfortunately for him, he may have ruined any chance of that when he signed into New Jersey law A3371, “a draconian piece of legislation that bars licensed therapists from helping children overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, behavior or identity.

“This law bans help for minors even when – as is so often the case – those same-sex attractions arise from childhood sexual abuse by the likes of a Jerry Sandusky … [It] will prohibit minors and their parents from receiving counseling they desire and will force counselors to violate ethical codes because they will not be able to help clients reach their own counseling goals. This law would enslave children – whether abused or not – to a subjectively determined sexual identity that they reject.”

The law is being called the “Jerry Sandusky Victimization Act.” Liberty Counsel has filed a suit to block the law. It previously blocked a similar law in California.

When he signed A3371 into law, Christie declared: “Government should tread carefully into this area and I do so here reluctantly. I have scrutinized this piece of legislation with that concern in mind. However, I also believe that on issues of medical treatment for children we must look to experts in the field to determine the relative risks and rewards.”

To which Liberty Counsel responded, “Beyond the fact that Christie and the New Jersey Legislature have just violated the First Amendment rights of New Jersey parents, children and counselors, there remains another problem with his assertion. It’s not true. As with any form of therapy, the ‘experts’ are all over the board on the issue of change therapy.”

Noted on the internet: “Look who's new in the White House!

“Arif Alikhan - Assistant Secretary for Policy Development for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Mohammed Elibiary - Homeland Security Adviser.

“Rashad Hussain - Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

“Salam al-Marayati - Obama Adviser and founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and is its current executive director.

“Imam Mohamed Magid - Obama's Sharia Czar from the Islamic Society of North America.

“Eboo Patel – Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships

The writer correctly observed, “The foxes are now officially living in the hen house ... Do you feel OK with this? If you're not concerned, delete this. Go to bed tonight ... sleep well! Otherwise, pass it on – get the word out!”

We opted to pass it on.

Things are different in Washington now than when Thomas Jefferson declared this: “The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.” Today’s Washington knows no such restriction.

Do you remember Dr. Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani medic who clued the CIA to Osama bin Laden’s compound and made possible the SEALS raid that eliminated that problem? (Obama could not contain himself giving himself credit for that victory!) The Pakistan government has been trying to ‘repay’ him for his trouble, coming up with farcical charges. Last year the government sentenced him to 33 years in prison for ‘conspiring against the state’ and the latest was to charge him with the ‘murder’ of a boy he operated on for an appendicitis emergency. However, he has won a retrial for the former and there is a chance he might win and be released. The state wants him in prison, no matter the charge. Hence, the murder charge on an operation that happened five or six years ago.

Why is the state so anxious to ‘put away’ Afridi? He is an embarrassment to them. After all, he pointed out the mass murderer’s position when Pakistan claimed it had ‘no idea’ where he was – and his compound was merely feet away from the government’s military complex in the same town. (You would be embarrassed, too, if you got caught like that!)

Oh, did we mention that the state refuses to allow Afridi to see his lawyer or even attend court proceedings relating to his case.

What is our state department, headed by the famous Navy gunboat fighter, John Kerry, doing to help our friend and ally? Don’t be silly. Afridi has lost his usefulness to us. After all, it was ex-Secretary of Defense and ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta who made public Afridi’s role in the Bin Laden matter and got him in all the trouble in the first place.

New York Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney dropped a bombshell on the ‘Washington Redskins’ name dispute when she revealed that the ‘Indian’ spearheading the attack (supported by Obama – hey, the Injuns raised big bucks for his 2012 reelection), Oneida Nation Representative Ray Halbritter (who also is CEO of Oneida Nation Enterprises, a big gambling conglomerate where he rakes in big bucks for himself and passes chicken feed on to the tribal members), is not even a legitimate member of the tribe he leads.

Tenney said, “He is not even technically an Oneida. There is not a drop of Oneida in him.” The best Halbritter can do is trace his lineage back to Lucy Carpenter, a squaw who got booted from the Six Nations, according to the 1885-1940 Census Rolls.

And he is the leader in the fight to get the football team’s name changed?

The national Labor Relations Board is nonpartisan, right? Yeah, sure, you betcha! Just like roses are black and rain is dry. It has issued a new regulation that requires businesses to prominently display posters explaining their “right to bargain collectively.” It is another attempt by this administration – which stacked the NLRB board (later proven illegally) – to make every American a card-carrying (and paying) union member.

 “Pardon me, I’m going to be sick” item: Your government is issuing a postage stamp to honor the Sodomite ex-supervisor of San Francisco, Harvey Milk (perhaps incidental to this, it is also planning another round of postage increases, no doubt to help pay the salaries of workers who sit around all day because there is no work for them, but the postal union won’t permit them to be laid off).

About old Harv, Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel explains: “Harvey Milk was known as a pederast … a man who in his mid-30s had a sexual appetite for teenage boys as young as 15 years old.” That is what some of his victims alleged who stepped forward to testify back then.

A ‘Harvey Milk Day’ is already part of the California public school calendar. Other politicians want the Navy to name a ship after him and one supervisor has proposed changing the name of the city’s airport to the Harvey Milk-San Francisco International Airport. Small wonder California is called the ‘land of fruits and nuts.’

Have you noticed all the top military leaders (who do not agree with Obama) that he has been firing? Nine generals and flag officers in 2013 alone – three of them linked to the terrorist attack on the CIA special mission in Benghazi, Libya. WND said ‘several sources put the total number of senior officers purged during the five years of the Obama administration as close to 200.’ If you were going to take over the country and declare yourself the supreme ruler – say, in 2016 – wouldn’t you want the military behind you, all the naysayers purged in advance?

Navy Captain Joseph John is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He experienced “three tours of duty in Vietnam, served as an al-Qaida expert for the FBI, and was a commanding officer with SEALs embedded on special operations. He was awarded the Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal, five Meritorious Service Medals and 22 medals and unit citations for combat operations in Vietnam, Philippines, Desert Storm and on anti-terrorist operations.”

John said the “Pentagon policy of repealing ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ resulted in the first openly ‘gay’ (sic) ‘major military force in the world.’ The development has brought about ‘massive’ sexual assaults on ‘thousands of straight military male personnel that have been covered up’ … He also cited military chaplains ‘being prohibited from reading letters in the pulpit from their cardinals during Sunday services’ as a restriction of freedom of religion  [and] ‘social experiments’ Obama has put in place have constituted ‘a massive assault to restructure the military mindset, destroyed unit cohesion, unit morale and is negatively affecting combat effectiveness.’ In addition, ‘major cuts in the military budget’ that resulted in, for one example, restricting as many as seven aircraft carriers to port, ‘leaving them open to another Pearl Harbor-type of attack.’ Physical fitness qualifications for ‘tip of the spear units such as the Rangers, SEALS, Green Berets and combat infantry are being downgraded so ‘women can be placed into those units.’ Likewise, he added, ‘women have been assigned to submarines and ships resulting in relationships at sea that have broken up military families.’ Some senior enlisted personnel and commanding officers in the midst of six-month deployments, he said, have been removed because they got involved with the opposite sex, which degrades the ships’ battle readiness.”

Captain John summed it up, “The net result of the occupant of the Oval Office’s new policies set for the U.S. armed forces changed and enforced by his civilian appointees at DOD continues to degrade the most effective military organization ever created.”

The top dog in the GOP, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told his fellow conservatives and RINOS to ‘get in the 21^st century’ when it comes to the sodomy issue. He said his fellow elephants didn’t have to ‘act like Old Testament heretics,’ by which we assume he didn’t want them quoting the Old Testament on the subject. Okay, no problem. Here’s what the New Testament says:

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:21-32, emphasis added). In the more modern versions the condemnation is much stronger.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, in January, released a very critical report regarding Obama and key figures in his administration, including Hillary Clinton, relating to Benghazi. It concluded the attack was preventable. Naturally, the main media has been ignoring the story.

This is what happens when the foxes guard the henhouse. Do you remember all the scandal involving the IRS targeting conservative groups and preventing them from receiving tax exempt status before the 2012 elections? The FBI and Eric Holder’s Department of Justice investigated and, guess what? The FBI will not be issuing any charges against the guilty perpetrators. What a surprise (NOT).

According to the Wall Street Journal, “What emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy enforcing rules about tax-exemption applications it didn’t understand, according to the law-enforcement officials.” Those rascals didn’t know what they were doing? The exact opposite was true; they knew exactly what they were doing … and why!

When the Senate passed the whopping 1,528-page, $1.1 trillion budget (the House had already approved it, 359-67) in mid-January, the Democrat from Oregon, Earl Blumenauer, was asked if he had read the bill first.  He responded, “Nobody did!” If true, isn’t it sad?

The non-acting Roman Catholic who professes Roman Catholicism, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, declared recently, “[T]hese extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay … they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” I know, Andy, that’s why I sent back my New York birth certificate saying I was ashamed to be a native New Yorker!

You are part of my shame.