Cheating in the Pulpit

I'm a bit behind in some of my blogging comments, but I wanted to comment on Tom Long's piece in Christian Century on plagiarism in the pulpit. Entitled "Stolen Goods: Tempted to Plagiarize" Long takes on the problem of plagiarism. Now pastors are busy people, and some aren't the best preachers, and with so many options to choose from --- hey my sermons are on the web (hopefully everything belongs to me or is properly noted) -- it's easy to pilfer a sermon or two or maybe a few more.

Some of the well known preachers put their stuff out there and say, come and get it. As Long points out:

Rick Warren, of the Saddleback Church, who markets his sermons online, told the British journal Christianity, "If my bullet fits your gun, shoot it," and Craig Brian Larson, writing about pulpit plagiarism at PreachingToday.com, cites a preacher who says, "When Chuck Swindoll starts preaching better sermons, so will I." When it comes to preachers desperate to feed the incessant pulpit hunger, "the Internet," as one of my colleagues likes to say, "is like having a drug dealer on every corner."

ow there are cultural elements to sermon borrowing, both in the past and present. In some parts of the world, the idea of intellectual property is pretty much unknown, but that's not true in the US. We ought to know the difference, but many seem not to know.

Now there's nothing wrong with preaching someone else's sermon -- just as long as you make it clear what you're doing. I remember John Bray, pastor of Pasadena Covenant Church, back when I was in seminary, preaching a sermon by Luther -- as if he were Luther -- and of course we all knew that John was in character.

There are, to be sure, gray areas to be considered but:

Preachers who strive to tell the truth, who seek to honor the communion of saints, who desire to maintain the trust of the faithful community—that is to say, preachers with ethical integrity—will wrestle with these questions and make the best decisions they can. Pulpit plagiarists, however, in the name of expediency, will grab what they wish wherever they can find it and claim it as their own. Their stolen sermons may occasionally sparkle, but in the end they will have spread the banquet table of God with the empty calories of homiletical fast food.

Jason Byassee has added a poignant commentary at the Theolog blog on Long's piece that concludes with this reflection:

It’s the laziness that troubles me the most. When Rick Warren says, “If my bullets fit your gun, fine,” is he referring back to the ancient church’s attribution of all truth to God, or is he making allowance for pastors who long since quit reading, thinking, working out the content of salvation on behalf of their churches? In the instances I know about that is indeed the case. It’s not as though these pastors have such interesting, important and dynamic ministry that they couldn’t spare a day or even a few hours preparing something fresh. They’re just burnt out: they need love and care, but not a pulpit. As for the rest of us: if Dietrich Bonhoeffer could write fresh sermons at Finkenwalde, if Desmond Tutu could in Apartheid South Africa, if pastors in Zimbabwe can now, surely we can too.

Having just returned from the Academy of Parish Clergy meeting, I'm reminded that clergy live by a Code of Ethics -- or at least we should. Although the APC is currently a small group, the fact that these issues are prevalent remind us of the need for groups like this.