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</v:background></xml><![endif]--><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Hi everyone<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>This is an important issue indeed. The pastor of one of my family members had to resign within the last year due to substantiated systematic plagiarism of sermons. He was found out using the searches already alluded to which were undertaken by an elder who had heard something familiar. A subsequent preliminary investigation by the elders forced a confrontation which was to the effect ‘how much has this really been happening?’ to which he lied and was then beyond the point of any return when further investigation confirmed his guilt in over 70 sermons. It’s a trust issue. Totally unacceptable, but there was of course a pastoral side to the situation raising issues of pressure, expectations, depression, shame, guilt and so on. It has been – and still is – devastating to all involved. May God have mercy on that man, his family, the church and all those who have been looking on from a distance. Humility will find many lessons to learn in these sorts of situations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>But just a note of caution. In these situations it is hard, unless you are the investigating body (and even then), to know the whole story. I followed the link to the Driscoll allegations below and the page actually contains updated information to the effect that all content regarding the allegations has been removed from the accusers site. This of course doesn’t mean there isn’t a case to answer, but beware of circulating these sorts of things as they can seriously damage ministries that in the end may be found to be innocent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Cheers<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Graham Sayer<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> mins-bounces@crca.org.au [mailto:mins-bounces@crca.org.au] <b>On Behalf Of </b>WPGadsby<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, 2 December 2013 9:59 AM<br><b>To:</b> jwestendorp@crca.org.au; mins@crca.org.au<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Mins] literary & scholarly etiquette<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>Hi John and others,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>Reminds me of the story about the little church that couldn’t afford a minister, so every week students from a nearby seminary would take the service.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>One week a young bloke preached and began by acknowledging that he had ‘borrowed’ the sermon from C.H.Spurgeon (the famous 19<sup>th</sup> century London preacher). After the service, one of the elders spoke to him. “It’s interesting that you mentioned that you’d borrowed the sermon from Mr Spurgeon, because it was the same sermon we had last week. Must have been Mr Spurgeon his self!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>More seriously, this issue has come up recently with regard to Pastor Mark Driscoll, who has been caught our quoting extensively from the work of Dr Peter Jones, without proper acknowledgment. Details <a href="http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2013/11/27/mark-driscoll-silent-amid-mounting-allegations-of-plagiarism/">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>I reckon that there is a grey area between plagiarism and “research.” In the latter case, you studied and weighed the views of others, and come to your own convictions about the matter. In the former, you just lazily quote verbatim, or nearly so, the words of another. According to the above-cited web page, an IP fellow at Columbia has stated that “Copyright laws protect expression — the exact ordering of words – not the idea.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>Can we narrow the grey area?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>Blessings,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>Peter G<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'>Canberra<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a name="_MailEndCompose"></a><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Palatino Linotype","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 4.0pt'><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> <a href="mailto:mins-bounces@crca.org.au">mins-bounces@crca.org.au</a> [<a href="mailto:mins-bounces@crca.org.au">mailto:mins-bounces@crca.org.au</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b><a href="mailto:jwestendorp@crca.org.au">jwestendorp@crca.org.au</a><br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, 2 December 2013 9:40 AM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:mins@crca.org.au">mins@crca.org.au</a><br><b>Subject:</b> [Mins] literary & scholarly etiquette<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Good morning men.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I trust you had a wonderful Lord’s Day yesterday. We certainly did and were blessed by Andrew’s third sermon on Song of Songs. We hope to have it accessible from our church web page shortly. I said to someone yesterday, “I’ve only ever heard one sermon on Song of Songs and that was as allegorical as could be. Andrew’s approach was refreshing and it’s good to see that sending Andrew to the last Preaching Conference at the RTC has paid dividends for us in Toowoomba <span style='font-family:Wingdings'>J</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I write this though because I want to raise a matter for discussion on the MINS email list that has troubled me for some time. It’s the matter of acknowledging our sources. That’s a difficult matter and I know that there are a lot of grey areas. In our preaching we do heaps of research that includes not only grammars and lexicons but also commentaries and the even the sermons of others. At the end of the day we may end up with a sermon that has “borrowed” from half a dozen sources or more. Most of us, if we have a lengthy quote, will acknowledge the source. It’s even happened that at the start of a new series of sermons I begin by acknowledging my indebtedness to a certain book/author. However there is a grey area where we use ideas that we pick up and then develop further ourselves. It becomes a nightmare – and a hindrance to good communication – to repeatedly say, “I just want to acknowledge that I got that idea from Matthew Henry (or whoever)”. I sometimes take consolation in the thought that it has all been said before.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The same is true for the stuff we put in our bulletins. If we thought it up ourselves we put our own name under it. If we’ve taken it from a book or off the internet then it is good etiquette to acknowledge the source. In fact not to do so could lead us to be charged with plagiarism. Although I’m mindful of the quote, “If you borrow the words of one author it’s called plagiarism, if you borrow from twenty authors it’s called scholarship!”.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I mention all this because I do take the time these days to listen to some of the sermons being preached in our churches and I also get a fair number of church bulletins crossing my desk. There have been times when I have thought, “That sounds familiar!” The helpful thing is that these days you can do a google search on a whole phrase or sentence. When that same sentence (or even paragraph) then pops up on a website then it’s obvious that it has been cut and pasted. And please don’t think you can get away by arguing that the same Spirit who inspired the other author also inspired you <span style='font-family:Wingdings'>J</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We need to remember not only that doing this is not good etiquette... it is also embarrassing when you are caught out. In fact many years ago a man was actually dismissed from the ministry when it was found out that all his sermons had been plagiarised – in that case simply by being translated from another language but never acknowledged.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>This is not intended to be taken as me having a shot at anyone – I just want to raise a concern I have and I trust that those who find that the cap fits, will indeed wear it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks for hearing me out.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Please add your words of wisdom if you have something to offer.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>John Westendorp (CRC Toowoomba)<o:p></o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-bottom:double windowtext 2.25pt;padding:0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#943634'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p></div><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#943634'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#943634'>Westy’s Weekly Blog<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#C00000'>Pearls<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#E36C0A'>In the Holy Bible there are less than a dozen references to pearls. Some of those references simply refer to what is most valuable and precious. Thus Jesus tells us not to throw our pearls to pigs (Mat.7:6). I've often used that verse (and probably misused it too!) to justify not answering an antagonist who is having a go at me for my Christian beliefs. In other instances pearls are used to refer to jewellery items and are simply included along with gold and precious stones.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:center'><b><u><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#E36C0A'><a href="http://www.crca.org.au/events/blogs/entry/blogs/pearls.html"><span style='color:#E36C0A'>Read more…!</span></a></span></u></b><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#E36C0A'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext'><hr size=1 width="100%" noshade style='color:#A0A0A0' align=center></span></div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext'>No virus found in this message.<br>Checked by AVG - <a href="http://www.avg.com">www.avg.com</a><br>Version: 2013.0.3426 / Virus Database: 3658/6892 - Release Date: 12/04/13<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>