Two decades ago, while serving as religion editor for The Oklahoman, I investigated allegations of plagiarism and faked endorsements by a prominent Baptist pastor who had written a book.
I still remember how angry the 2002 story made some church members — at me for reporting it.
“One thing great preachers enjoy about traveling is that they can hear other people preach,” Terry Mattingly wrote in a 2003 “On Religion” column on plagiarism and the pulpit. “But the American orator A.J. Gordon received a shock during an 1876 visit to England. Sitting anonymously in a church, he realized that the sermon sounded extremely familiar — because he wrote it.”
While plagiarism by pastors falls under the category of “nothing new under the sun” (see Ecclesiastes 1:9), the subject is making timely new headlines.
Prominent among them: a front-page “Sermongate” story this week by New York Times religion writer Ruth Graham.
Credit questions over past sermons by Ed Litton, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, for the fresh interest in the subject.
Last week’s Weekend Plug-in pointed to related coverage by Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana and the Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner. Check out, too, Mattingly’s recent GetReligion podcast on the topic.
Even before the Litton controversy, Smietana produced an excellent story earlier this year headlined “‘If you have eyes, plagiarize’: When borrowing a sermon goes too far” with a related piece on “Why some preachers rely on holy ghostwriters and other pulpit helps.”
Also this week, Joshua Eaton reports for Sojourners that a “poem that has been a clarion call to honest and open conversations about injustice for many in progressive Christian circles was almost entirely plagiarized.”
Want a different take on sermons? Christianity Today’s Kate Shellnutt highlights the most popular pulpit topics of 2020, based on a Pew Research Center analysis.
The big three: COVID-19, the election and racism.
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. A horn-wearing “shaman.” A cowboy evangelist. For some, the Capitol attack was a kind of Christian revolt: Washington Post religion writer Michelle Boorstein spent the past few months trying to answer a few crucial questions about the Capitol riot.
“The Jan. 6 insurrection obviously had a ton of Christian stuff going on, but what kind of Christian stuff?” Boorstein wanted to know. “And what kind of Christians?”
This story unpacks what she learned.
2. Promise Keepers tried to end racism 25 years ago. It almost worked: Christianity Today’s Daniel Silliman looks backward — and forward — in this compelling piece.
“The newest iteration of Promise Keepers is launching its first major event” this month, Silliman notes.
Expect to hear more about the Christian men’s movement gathering next weekend at AT&T Stadium, the Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
CONTINUE READING: “Pastors And Plagiarism: Why An Old Story Is Making Timely New Headlines” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.