On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page, above-the-fold story Suzanne Sataline entitled That Sermon You Heard on Sunday May Be From the Web.
Ms. Sataline does a good job of summarizing what has been happening, and the perspective of each side. The fact that sermon plagiarism is so rampant--meriting a front-page story in one of the nation's leading newspapers--is an embarrassment to the cause of Christ. Ray Van Neste, who is quoted in the article, highlights an important issue: the matter of integrity. Dozens of sins accompany the sin of plagiarism, like laziness, deception, pride, and spiritual second-handing. The fact that such sin is not just practiced but defended and encouraged (cf. Rom. 1:32) is doubly shameful.
Matt Perman and I attempted to define plagiarism and provide some guidelines in this brief article.
