PULPIT PLAGIARISM
It's getting harder and harder to fool all the people all the time.
Jamie Buckingham
July 1, 1983
When I bought my Apple IIe Word Processor, I discovered the capabilities of split-screen programming. By pushing the right combination of buttons, I could look at two things simultaneously. The top, for instance, could show data typed in earlier, while the bottom remained blank. I asked my instructor how this could be useful. "It is used primarily for plagiarism," he said candidly. "By putting someone else's material on the top screen, you can then rewrite it. "It's done all the time," he winked. I thought of the mess Alex Haley got in when he was accused by an obscure writer of having stolen his material-word for word-to be used in Roots. Too bad Haley didn't have a split screen. I almost did the same thing with one of my earlier books. I copied material I thought was a taped interview but turned out to be material my secretary had copied from someone else's book. Horrors! Now my computer instructor tells me I'll never have to face that problem again. With my split screen I can change just enough words that I never have to worry about going to jail. But a question remains: Is it right? It is the same question preachers face. For if plagiarism is an occasional problem for writers, it is a weekly problem for preachers. For instance: Should pastors feel free to preach others' sermons? If they do, must they give credit for it? And what about telling stories they've heard other people tell-and taking credit for the stories themselves? To a certain degree, all of us preach other people's stuff. After all, as Solomon once said, there's not much new under the sun. Besides, so many in the pulpit today have to preach far beyond what they are creatively equipped to do. Using other pastors' sermons would be a great help. In fact, preaching sermons ...
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