[Mins] literary & scholarly etiquette

[jwestendorp at crca.org.au]

Good morning men.

 

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 J

 

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.

 

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!".

 

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
J

 

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.

 

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.

 

Thanks for hearing me out.

 

Please add your words of wisdom if you have something to offer.

 

John Westendorp (CRC Toowoomba)

 

 

Westy's Weekly Blog

Pearls

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.

 <http://www.crca.org.au/events/blogs/entry/blogs/pearls.html> Read more.!

 

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