When You Should Know It’s Plagiarism
“When pastoral plagiarism and the stealing and lying inherent recently became a topic of conversation due to a New York Times article on the matter that created a bit of a stir within Christian circles, I thought it would clean things up pretty fast. People were being exposed and then disciplined, sometimes even fired. But no.” - Church & Culture
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In discussing plagiarism, I am reminded of a guy I worked with one summer who tried to plagiarize a Bible study, but who failed miserably because he'd failed to memorize the key points. I'd been through the same study elsewhere, and it was all I could do to suppress laughter. The message fell as flat as if it had just committed hara-kiri, and let's just say that the pretty girl he was trying to impress was not terribly impressed.
And that illustrates a lot of dangers of plagiarism. For starters, it's really hard to memorize, and so you're wracking your brain trying to conjure it up, and because of that, you make basic errors in diction, logic, and more. Your eye contact suffers, and having cheated, you're not tailoring your message to the audience. It is, more or less, a prescription for a message that doesn't connect.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
And ended up as president. So it’s not always held against you
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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