Comments

I don't think that ABC is out to get Wheaton or is trying to be biased, but their misportrayal (and perhaps misunderstanding) of the situation depicts Wheaton—and Christian discipline—in a remarkably negative light. That's a handicap that Christians don't need in trying to show love and truth coinciding.

The ABC article angered me. I tried to comment on their website, but my anger hindered my ability to communicate so I deleted my comment instead of posting it. I'm glad to see the issue addressed here.

This professor resigned. Regardless of speculation, he either had no evidence to document a divorce on Biblical grounds, or he chose to resign his employment rather than present evidence to the powers-that-be at the college. Those appear to be the facts. Beyond that would be mere speculation.

Thanks for addressing the ridiculousness of forcibly arranged marriages! Absurd!

Vicky
Sunrise FL

Great analysis. It's a shame that the media isn't able to cover a story like this accurately.

The media in general have been having a tough time with this story. It's not that inherently difficult to remember the difference between firing, resigning and being asked to resign, and Wheaton's administrators have been fairly available to reporters, so some of the reporting that confuses the terms or fails to get comment from the school administrators seems just sloppy.

This "news" is illustrative of a disintegrating profession. Journalism is a relatively young profession, with roots following the printing press, for the most part. Historically, there was a town crier who may have been the instrument of developments: "tidings". The journalist of the early 20th century to the 70s would have tried to be impartial, if possible, and to identify editorial content.
As it stands now, the unwary reader is served mostly filler. My response as a Christian is to be disappointed, but not angry. What can be expected from muckraking yellow-dog news groups???

This story has Liberal with a capital L written all over it. The ABC news agency is attempting to depict the college in a poor light... to be creative with its headline and salient facts in such a way that will try to show the college as narrow-mind with a constrictive view of divorce. It is blatantly pandering to those readers who would shake their heads at such an unloving, therefore unchristlike (by their standards) way to deal with Professor Gramm.

It is inevitable that newswriting, though esteemed for its objectivity, is almost always subjective. Journalists put checks and balances into their reporting to prevent subjectivity. It is a shame when widely respected news sources, such as ABC, provide obviously biased and, therefore, unethical reports. The response of anger and rebuttal to the slanted article ABC ran on Gramm's divorce is appropriate. As Christians, however, we should not return volley for volley. We can be upset, we can reclaim the truth, but dissing the entire network for one man's awful reporting pits Christian media against secular media, a totally inappropriate place to be. Christian media is very selective and has a very narrow field of vision. We definitely need networks like ABC to provide news, though we are all capable of bad reporting. This is an issue of one man's bad reporting and a network that did not check his reporting. It is not reason for snide remarks about the network's enitre fact-checking system. I am ashamed that Puliam would stupe so low as to pit herself against secular media in that way.

ABC, NBC, and CBS, and their cable affiliates an offshoots have long since ceased to be news organizations. They have evolved into political action committees with liberal agendas. Editorializing is not only displayed in the words you write, but also the words you don't write. If you think we need nothing but editorially filtered "news", then these networks are for you. But if you want truth, you need to search a bit firther and get all sides of any issue.

Interesting news., brother

Good report by Ms. Pulliam. One fact seldom mentioned in this case is that Mr. Gramm is the one who filed for divorce, not Mrs. Gramm. Mr. Gramm is the teacher employed by Wheaton College.