Weekend Roundup: Mark Driscoll's Plagiarism Woes, Barton And The Homeless Pastor Legend, Neo-Confederate Leader In FL High School, Knockout Game A Myth, Pastor's Housing Disallowed

Mark Driscoll and plagiarism – Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll was accused of plagiarism by Janet Mefferd on her November 21 broadcast. Initially, she questioned Driscoll about using concepts and terms without proper citation. Jonathan Merritt at Religion News Service covered the story the next day. Given the nature of the evidence, I thought the matter might drop at that point. However, Mefferd dug deeper and found instances where it appears Driscoll took passages nearly verbatim from a commentary written by D. A. Carson. Merritt also has that story.
Driscoll has his defenders but he also has some pretty persuasive critics, particularly this professor writing at First Things. I plan to look at this issue in more detail next week, but my initial thought is that the newer charges are more convincing and require some kind of response from Driscoll and his publisher.
David Barton’s Facebook Page – I already posted on this but either due to Thanksgiving or the lack of novelty, David Barton’s reposting of a urban myth as though it was a true story has gone without much comment.  It still remains on his Facebook page, having been shared over 1,000 times, even though many commenters pointed out that the story is false. It is encouraging that some commenters expressed negative reactions. For instance, this one:

I’m surprised to see this known-to-be-false story posted here. It would be one thing to post it for the moral lesson aspect and say so in your comments, but it’s another to pass it along as if it were a true story without any such commentary. If you don’t realize that this story is just social media rumor, then how many other stories have you passed along that were also false? Consider this my goodbye notice.

The response to the allegations against Driscoll remind me a bit of the uproar over Thomas Nelson pulling Barton’s book in August of 2012. Barton’s defenders came out in force to attack those who raised concerns. Some of that has happened already with Meffferd being the focus of attacks from those who support Driscoll.
Michael Peroutka in Spanish River High School – I think this matter may get some attention next week. Michael Peroutka is a board member of the League of the South who spoke at a FL public high school on Tuesday. When his dba name Institute on the Constitution came to a school district in Springboro, OH, there was a major negative reaction among parents. I wonder if the same will occur in Boca Raton.
Is the knockout game a myth? – Alan Noble at Christ and Pop Culture makes a pretty compelling case that the hysteria over an upsurge in racially motivated attacks by black mobs is unwarranted.
In other news, ministers may not be able to take a housing allowance if a new court ruling holds up.
 

Fake Story Of Jeremiah Steepek Posted On David Barton's Wallbuilders Facebook Page

With this caption — Church Members Mistreat Homeless Man in Church Unaware It Is Their Pastor in Disguise — David Barton’s Wallbuilders Facebook page posted the pretend story of a pastor who dressed as a homeless man in order to make a point to his church. The fictional story has been debunked by Snopes and Glenn Beck’s The Blaze. I can’t find any indication in the post that Barton realizes that the story is false.
Once he realizes what he has done, he will probably say he knew it was a fiction story all along. However, of real interest to me is the discussion on the post. Multiple commenters have posted that the story is false and some are upset about it. In this discussion thread, one can see how people respond to finding out something that they thought was true is not really true. Some are disillusioned, some defend Barton, some say the accuracy doesn’t matter because it is a nice story and others indicate that truth and accuracy do matter when the story has been portrayed as true. Some seem to believe it anyway. Credibility is the issue.
He also tweeted the false story without comment:


We’ve been around this block many times with Mr. Barton. Let’s see how he handles this one.

Daily Caller on David Barton: Christian professors had the temerity to call out his awful, error-ridden book

That’s how the Daily Caller plugged my op-ed, What’s Behind David Barton’s War on Christian Colleges?
Research demonstrates that, on balance, Christian colleges support the faith commitments of students. Why would David Barton say otherwise?
Go read my Daily Caller piece on the subject.

League of the South Board Member Speaks to Florida Public High School Student Group

The Institute on the Constitution did not succeed in getting their course on the Constitution in the Springboro (OH) school district but they may have found a way into a public school in Florida. According to posts on the IOTC Facebook page, director of IOTC and League of the South board member Michael Peroutka spoke to the American Club at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, FL. Watch:

According to the young man in the video, the club wants to work more with IOTC. Here is a bit more about the IOTC plans at Spanish River. I suspect there will be some folks in the area who will not be excited about the prospects of IOTC in the high school.
For more on IOTC click here.
Spanish River Community High School was in the news back in February when the school principal stopped a presentation by Bradlee Dean, founder of You Can Run But You Can’t Hide. The same club — the American Club — was involved in that Dean was invited by the students in that club to speak at the school. According to World Net Daily, Dean was eventually allowed to give his speech after a letter from Liberty Counsel claiming discrimination was delivered to the school. Jake MacAulay used to work for You Can Run but now works for Michael Peroutka.